Karate Kid comes to 4K, plus Flicker Alley 4K, new Shout!/Kino, Ken Burns’ Country Music & Monty Python remastered

Monday, 04 February 2019 14:44

Karate Kid comes to 4K, plus Flicker Alley 4K, new Shout!/Kino, Ken Burns’ Country Music & Monty Python remastered

by Bill Hunt

We’ve got a nice bit of official 4K news to start the new week: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing The Karate Kid on 4K in honor of the film’s 35th anniversary. Look for the disc to street on 4/16, following the film’s limited return to theaters across the US on 3/31 and 4/2.

The disc will feature the film remastered in native 4K from the original camera negative, along with a new Dolby Atmos audio mix (you will also get the original stereo and 5.1 mixes). In terms of extras, legacy content will include a “Blu-Pop” Pop-Up Track (with trivia, interviews, and more secrets from the film), audio commentary (with director John G. Avildsen, writer Robert Mark Kamen, and actors Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita), The Way of the Karate Kid multi-part featurette, 3 additional featurettes (Beyond the Form, East Meets West: A Composer’s Notebook, and Life of Bonsai) and the theatrical trailer (on the 4K disc). You’ll also get the all new Remembering The Karate Kid retrospective (featuring new interviews with Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, and Martin Kove – on the 4K disc).

Now then... a quick bit of regular site business: Tim has posted a trio of new Blu-ray reviews for you guys to enjoy today, including his thoughts on Hammer Films’ The Plague of the Zombies (1966) from Scream Factory and Horror Express (1972) from Arrow Video, as well as Dennis’ take on the Joseph H. Lewis/Columbia film My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) from Arrow Academy. Enjoy! [Read on here...]

Back to news... also on the 4K Ultra HD front, it looks like Flicker Alley is releasing their first title on the format on 3/28, with The Flying Clipper (aka Mediterranean Holiday) 4K. The package will include both Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD. The set will include all previous bonus content, plus you’ll get a new Dolby Atmos audio mix. The film has been newly-scanned in 4K from an original 70mm print.

And while it’s not yet officially announced, Zavvi is now taking pre-orders on a 4K Steelbook edition of Ridley Scott’s Alien in honor of its 40th anniversary. We’ve confirmed with our sources that the title IS coming to 4K early this year, and Zavvi’s date is 4/1 (but that’s likely the UK date or tentative, as it’s a Monday). We expect the title to be officially announced in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

In other news, Shout! Factory has announced that they’re releasing the anime A Silent Voice on Blu-ray on 4/2. The company has also begun announcing a great Blu-ray slate for May, including This Gun for Hire: Shout Select (1942), Quartermass and the Pit (1967), and Quartermass II (1957) on 5/14, followed by The Seduction (1982) and Earthquake: Shout Select (1974) on 5/21, and When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) on 5/28.

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has just set Virgil W. Vogel’s The Land Unknown (1957) for release on Blu-ray on 4/23.

Section 23 is releasing a Gatchaman: Collector’s Edition on Blu-ray on 4/30, set to include all 105 episodes of the anime series, plus the OVAs, movie, and a 64-page Alex Ross art book. SRP is $149, but Amazon has it up for pre-order for $103.

This is pretty cool: PBS has announced that the latest Ken Burns documentary, Country Music, will debut on PBS on 9/15. This is a 16-hour, 8-part documentary series. It will be release on Blu-ray and DVD in September (street date, TBA).

And finally today, the chaps of Monty Python are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Monty Python’s Flying Circus this year, and they’ve teased something they’re working on that could potentially be very cool. The image below appeared on the group’s official Twitter feed late last week.

Now, there are a lot of things this image could be, but it seems to us that one of the most likely is an HD remaster of the entire series from the best available source material. This makes sense, as the BBC has recently been remastering its older classic series for upsampled/remastered release on Blu-ray, including most recently The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and vintage seasons of Doctor Who. So while we’ll have to wait for an officially announcement, color us excited. Any chance to see this series looking better than ever would be welcome indeed.

All right, that’s all for now. Back tomorrow with more. Stay tuned...

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