The story of Venezuelan revolutionary, Ilich Ramirez Sánchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the OPEC headquarters in 1975 before being caught by the French police, became the subject of an acclaimed French TV mini-series in 1997 titled Carlos, which has been expanded for its UK release to include the name by which Sánchez was more widely known, The Jackal.

Running over three episodes for a total of 330 minutes, the series is an intelligent study in modern terrorism and a rare piece of TV work from respected filmmaker Olivier Assayas, he of Irma Vep (1996), Demonlover (2002), Clean (2004) and the recent Summer Hours (2008) and a three-times nominee for the Palme D'Or at Cannes. It stars Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez Arellano (The Bourne Ultimatum, Che: Part One) as Carlos in what Mayer Nissim at Digital Spy called "a truly stellar central performance," while the series itself was described by Nick Shager in Slant Magazine as "a powerhouse piece of docudrama-thriller filmmaking and a cannily politicized work."

Carlos the Jackal will be released on UK DVD and Blu-ray by Optimum Home Entertainment on 1st November 2010 at the RRP of £15.99 for the single disc DVD, £19.99 for the 2-disc DVD and £22.99 for the Blu-ray.

The Standard single disc DVD will contain a three-hour movie version edited down from the five-and-a-half hour TV original, plus the following extras:

• Making-of featurette;
• Interview with Edgar Ramirez.

The Extended 2-disc DVD will contain both the edited feature version and the full five-and-half-hour original, but no extra features.

The Blu-ray will contain the full five-and-half-hour TV version, the three-hour movie version, and the following extras:

• Making-of featurette;
• Interview with Edgar Ramirez
• Interview with Olivier Assayas.