lives in New York City and was fortunate enough to attend yesterday's Godfather Collection DVD announcement party. He sent over some pictures from the event for you all to enjoy, so here they are. The first is a display of the DVDs themselves, the second is Paramount's Martin Blythe addressing the gathering and the third, of course, is the master himself... director Francis Ford Coppola. Enjoy!

One note - a lot of readers have asked why The Godfather, Part II is split over 2 discs. My understanding is that Paramount and American Zoetrope felt that, given the video, audio and audio commentary content on the discs, it would be better to spilt the 200-minute film over 2 discs in order to maintain the highest possible video bit rate (and thus quality). I'm guessing it's the right decision. Just FYI.

Not to be outdone, Columbia TriStar yesterday announced their DVD release of Gandhi. Set to be released on August 28th, the DVD special edition will include video of Ben Kingsley talking about the film, 4 vintage newsreel clips (Gandhi Goes to England, Gandhi's Farewell Talk in Europe, Mahatma Gandhi Begins Death Fast and Gandhi Talks: First Talking Picture ever Made by India's Famous Leader), a Making of Gandhi photo montage, The Words of Mahatma Gandhi, a weblink to an official Gandhi website, the film's theatrical trailer, talent files and more. Video will be in anamorphic widescreen, with Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 audio options in English, French and Spanish. SRP is $24.95.