Updated! See update at the end of the post!
What a bummer… A couple days ago, I checked out the official Beatles web site and noticed the announcement of full length featured documentary DVD about the Cirque du Soleil show “The Beatles – Love”. Great! Okay, there is already one “Imagine: The Beatles in Love“, a BBC documentary from 2006, but the more the merrier. I don’t expect them to recycle the already published content for the new DVD.
It looks like they are going to re-use some material, but also include plenty of new one. You can watch the short and the long trailer for the DVD at my Cirque du Soleil related YouTube account.
Okay, so I went off and pre-ordered the DVD with a planned release date of October 20, 2008 at BestBuy.com, the exclusive retailer who is to offer the DVD for sale on the Internet.
Today I got an email from the BestBuy.com customer service that states that the delivery date will be postponed until April 21, 2009. What??? That is a freaking 6 months delay of the release.
They must be kidding, right? The documentary itself is supposed to be 84 minutes long, plus 3 additional mini documentaries with a running time of about 40 minutes total. It’s not god damn Lord of the Rings movie where they need a year for the post production. In 6 months they could re-do the whole documentary DVD entirely from scratch.??
I couldn’t believe the email and went on to the BestBuy.com web site to check my order status.
And there it is again… April 21, 2009. Damn it!
I don’t need to understand this BS, don’t I? I guess we have to continue to live with the existing documentary from 2006 for a while longer now. I couldn’t find an official press release or something like that, which explains the long time difference from the previous to the new release date ad why the original release date of October 20, 2008 cannot be met.
No news since the C&D letter by the Cirque and my blog post response. I wonder what there is cooking now too.
Well, until there is more to report, check out my Cirque du Soleil Primer article here at my blog and my Cirque du Soleil and Performing Arts related YouTube.com video channel.
Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC
Update October 14, 2008: I got contacted by Cirque du Soleil and told that Best Buy made an error. The documentary DVD is supposed to be shipped out on-time and will not be postponed until next year. I will know for sure in about one week. Let’s see how that goes.
Update October 16, 2008: I received an email from BestBuy.com with a shipping confirmation and number (shipped via XMEX?!) . The provided tracking link does not work yet, but I expect that to change on Monday and the actual delivery also within the next week.
I received the DVD the week after my second update. The DVD is great and it does not use that much of the same content from the BBC documentary as I feared. Most of the content is completely original. If you are a Cirque du Soleil fan or Beatles fan, I highly recommend buying this DVD. You won’t be disappointed. Promise!