My Two Cents
Friday, 19 July 2019 14:30

Criterion’s October slate, Batman Beyond: Complete Series & see you at the Shout! panel tomorrow at Comic-Con

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All right, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover today...

If you’re at Comic-Con in San Diego this evening, don’t forget to check out Shout! Factory’s panel for What We Left Behind: A Star Trek Deep Space Nine Documentary (7-8 PM, Room 32AB). It should be WELL worth your time, especially if you’re a Star Trek fan.

Also, my friend Kevin Grazier (science advisor to Hollywood films and TV shows including Battlestar Galactica, Gravity, and the new Another Life) is holding a Hollyweird Science panel this afternoon (3-4 PM at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park).

Tomorrow morning at the Con, Warner Archive is having a panel with animation historian Jerry Beck about The Jetsons (including the upcoming Blu-ray release (10-11 AM, Room 6A).

And of course, I’ll be moderating the Inside an Indie Studio: Shout! Factory panel with Jeff Nelson (Sr. Director Marketing, Scream Factory and Shout! Factory) and Brian Ward (Sr. Director of Production, Shout! Factory) tomorrow night (8-9 PM in Room 23ABC). We’ll take you through the process of how Shout! licenses and produces great catalog special editions on Blu-ray. And we’re going to announce a TON of great news titles coming from Shout! and Scream – this may be their best slate yet! So don’t miss it and we hope to see you there! You can follow the title announcements on Twitter (@ShoutFactory @BillHuntBits @TheDigitalBits) and I believe there may be a video version that gets shown on the Shout! Factory website blog in the weeks after the Con. [Read on here...]

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Now then... Criterion has just announced its October slate, which is set to include 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg (Spine #528 – Blu-ray – includes Underworld, The Last Command, and The Docks of New York) on 10/8, Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan (Spine #134 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 10/15, Leon Gast’s When We Were Kings (Spine #998 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 10/22, and John Sayles’ Matewan (Spine #999 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 10/29.

Also, as we hinted at briefly the other day, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has officially announced the Blu-ray release of Batman Beyond: The Complete Series on 10/29 (with a Digital release available on 10/15). The set will include all 52 episodes on 4 Blu-rays, with some 15 featurettes along as extras. You’ll also get a chrome-plated Funko Pop figure of Terry McGinnis as Batman and a set of 4 lenticular art cards. Some 41 of the series’ 52 episodes have been fully remastered from the original 35mm film elements, though unfortunately the film for 11 of the episodes (Eyewitness, Final Cut, The Last Resort, Armory, Sneak Peek, The Eggbaby, Zeta, Plague, April Moon, Sentries of the Lost Cosmos, and Speak No Evil) was apparently too damaged. So those episodes have been upscaled from the DigiBeta masters using a new process called “Smart Rez,” so while they’ll definitely look better than DVD, they won’t be quite as impressive as the new film-scanned episodes. The SRP for the set is $99.99, though – as always – you can expect that the usual sale prices will kick in soon at all your favorite online retailers. You can see the cover artwork here...

Batman Beyond: The Complete Series (Blu-ray Disc)

By the way, speaking of Warner (specifically, Warner Archive), we also have a street date for your on their upcoming release of V: The Original Series on Blu-ray. Look for it on 8/27.

And Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced Head Full of Honey on Digital only on 8/20.

Meanwhile, Universal has just made The Secret Life of Pets 2 official for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K on 8/27, with the Digital release due on 8/13. The Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD versions will feature Dolby Atmos audio. The 4K will also include Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10+ high dynamic range.

Recently announced Shout! and Scream Factory titles include Itsy Bitsy (BD), When Calls the Heart: 5-Movie Collection – Year Six and A Call from the Past (DVD), Framing John DeLorean (BD and DVD), and Sesame Street: 50 Years and Counting all on 10/1, a MST3K: Volume XII reprint (DVD) on 10/8, Horror of Frankenstein (BD) on 8/20, Fear in the Night (BD) on 8/27, and The Blob: Collector’s Edition (BD) and The Devil Rides Out (BD) on 10/29.

Our friends at Kino Lorber Studio Classics have announced or revealed a bunch of great upcoming titles, including Not Wanted (1949), Never Fear (1949), The Hitch-Hiker (1953), The Bigamist (1953), Un Coer En Hiver (1992), Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (1995), and Ida Lupino: Filmmaker Collection (1949-1953) all on region-free Blu-ray on 9/24. Also coming in September are The Good Mother (on 9/3), Stella (on 9/10), and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Last Dance, and The War at Home on 9/17. Coming in 2020 are The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961 – from a new 4K restoration) and They Came from Beyond Space (1967 – from a new 4K restoration). Also coming soon from KL Studio Classics are Taza, Son of Cochise (1954 – 3D Blu-ray), Clockwise (1986), Line of Demarcation (1966), Ladybug Ladybug (1963), Hannibal Brooks (1969), The System (1964), The Art of Love (1965), and Crossed Swords (1977). Street dates are TBA.

And Kino Lorber will release Dogtooth (2009) and Alps (BDs) on 9/3 and Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini (BD and DVD) on 9/17.

In other news, Well Go USA Entertainment will release The Brink on Blu-ray and DVD on 8/20.

Paramount is releasing a 2-pack of Addams Family and Addams Family Values on Blu-ray and DVD on 10/1.

Powerhouse Film and Indicator have announced their September BD slate, which includes Hussy, The System, They Made Me a Fugitive, and 90° in the Shade on 9/23.

Arrow Video has set a Macabre Visions: The Films of Mario Bava BD boxed set (Black Sunday, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Black Sabbath, Kill, Baby... Kill!, Five Dolls for an August Moon, A Bay of Blood, Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil, Rabid Dogs) for release on September 23 in the UK only and this set will be extremely limited as their rights expire at the end of the year. You can pre-order it here on Amazon.co.uk.

Macabre Visions: The Films of Mario Bava (UK Blu-ray Disc)

Also coming from Arrow to the US on 9/17 are Who Saw Her Die?, The Hills Have Eyes: Part 2, and The Prey (1983). A regular Blu-ray edition of Crimson Peak will follow on 10/22.

And finally today, we have a look for you at the Disney Movie Club’s new The Black Hole Blu-ray, which is coming later this year. Here’s that...

The Black Hole (Blu-ray Disc - Disney Movie Club exclusive)

Boy, I wish Disney would release that one in 4K Ultra HD with HDR!

All right... that’s it for this week. I’ll see some of you at the Shout! Factory panel at Comic-Con tomorrow night. And we’ll be back on Monday with more. Stay tuned...!

-Bill Hunt

(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)

 

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