Displaying items by tag: Lucasfilm

We’ve got more great new disc reviews for you to enjoy today, as well as more release news too...

First up, Tim has posted his thoughts on Richard Alan Greenberg’s Little Monsters (1989), coming on 9/15 to Blu-ray from Lionsgate via their Vestron Video Collector’s Series.

Tim has also given William Witney’s Master of the World (1961) a look on Blu-ray, a hybrid adaptation of a pair of classic Jules Vern novels (Robur the Conqueror and Master of the World). That arrives on Blu-ray on 8/31 from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

And finally, Tim has taken Roger Corman’s The Raven (1963) out for a spin on Blu-ray, starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff. That’s also coming from Kino Lorber Studio Classics on 8/31.

In terms of announcement news today, the big one is that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially revealed a title we’ve had on our 4K List here at The Bits for a while now: J. Lee Thompson’s The Guns of Navarone. Look for it to arrive on 4K Ultra HD on 10/12 in honor of the film’s 60th anniversary. [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got a quick update for you today. Sorry for the lack of a post on Monday, but there’s a bunch of stuff going on that’s drawn me down multiple Blu-ray and/or 4K UHD-related rabbit-holes over the last couple of days.

First up today, more disc reviews...

Tim has posted his thoughts on Joe D’Amato and Raffaele Donatos’ 1989 sharksploitation film Deep Blood, now on Blu-ray from the good folks at Severin Films.

Also, Dennis has turned in a look at the new Criterion Collection edition of Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High on Blu-ray. You can find that here. Sounds like it’s pretty great.

And Stephen has given Robert Altman’s Fool for Love a spin on Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing. The film stars Kim Basinger, Sam Shepard, and Harry Dean Stanton and is well worth a look.

Now then... we’ve been informed by Paramount that our 4K review copy of the Indiana Jones 4-Movie Collection will ship out sometime around midweek. Which means the earliest we expect to have it in hand is Thursday, but it could be Friday or Saturday. Rest assured, I’ll drop everything when it arrives to get the review completed thoroughly and posted on The Bits for you all to check out. And that brings me to the main topic of today’s news post... [Read on here...]

All right, that was fast!

It’s now official: Paramount Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm have indeed set the Indiana Jones 4-Movie Collection for release on 4K Ultra HD on 6/8.

Here’s a nice surprise: The set will include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio after all. Per studio confirmation, the exact audio options on the US SKUs will include in English (Dolby Atmos), as well as 5.1 in French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. Subtitles will be available in English, Cantonese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Thai.

The 5-disc set will contain all four of the existing films—Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull—along with a Blu-ray Disc of legacy bonus features. It does NOT appear that the set will include any new features. You will, however, get Digital copies of each film.

The collectible packaging will be available in two varieties: Regular and Steelbook (exclusive to Best Buy in the US), each with a slipcase. You can see both pictured below (the regular version is also visible at left).

Read on for the full text of the official Paramount and Lucasfilm press release... [Read on here...]

Okay, we’ve got some serious ground to cover in today’s My Two Cents update, so let’s get right to it...

First, we’ve just posted Michael Coate’s brand new History, Legacy & Showmanship column here at The Bits, featuring a terrific new retrospective of George Lucas’ THX 1138 in honor of the film’s 50th anniversary (which was last week on 3/11 – the piece was delayed due to a technical issue). The column takes an in-depth look back at the original theatrical release and also features a great roundtable discussion with film historian Chris Barsanti, documentary filmmaker Gary Leva, and original Director of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm Craig Miller. I think you’ll really enjoy it. So you’ll find that here.

Next up, as some of you may have noticed over the weekend, we posted word on Saturday (see here) that video distributors had begun listing a 4-film Indiana Jones Collection for release on 4K Ultra HD on 6/8. This is still not to be considered official until Paramount and Lucasfilm make their actual announcement, however be aware that I’ve now confirmed it with multiple film industry sources in addition to retail and distribution sources. And it’s really not all that surprising given that 6/12 is marks the 40th anniversary of the original film’s theatrical release. We expect the set to include all four existing films in 4K with HDR10 high dynamic range and the previous DTS-HD Master Audio lossless sound mixes (but that’s still subject to change). [Editor’s Note: We’ve just confirmed that the set WILL include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. Details to follow shortly.] The 5-disc set will also include a disc of bonus features that are TBA. Of course, we’ll post more information on this as it comes in.

The other big news today is that our friends at The Criterion Collection have just unveiled their June slate of titles. [Read on here...]

All right, we’ve got a rare Saturday news update here at The Digital Bits with some potentially BIG breaking 4K news for you all today...

Keep in mind that this isn’t to be considered official until Paramount Home Entertainment makes their actual announcement with a press release, official cover artwork, and all the usual details.

However, it appears that retail and distribution sources are starting to list an Indiana Jones: 4-Film Collection for release on 4K Ultra HD from Paramount with an anticipated street date of 6/8.

And for those of you who may be wondering, that’s just in time for the 40th anniversary of the original Raiders of the Lost Ark on 6/12.

We’ve known that the films were being remastered in 4K since last year, so this isn’t too surprising.

In fact, we’ve had the title listed in our 4K Ultra HD Release List for many months now. But it looks like things are finally heating up for an actual release this summer. [Read on here...]

This is another quick update to let you know that Zavvi has just revealed an exclusive 4K Ultra HD Steelbook edition of JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

It’s now available for pre-order here.

Zavvi has a number of these 4K Steelbook exclusives (you can see some currently available titles here) and some of them tend to sell out relatively quickly.

So we recommend that you act quickly if you want this one... [Read on here...]

Today, we’ve got just a very quick My Two Cents update for you, however not with release news.

But as promised, we’ve got a bunch of new disc reviews...

First, our own Tim Salmons has checked out Via Vision Entertainment’s new region-free Blu-ray import version of Police Squad! The Complete Series. (Note that the CBS/Paramount Blu-ray version has also been reviewed here.)

Speaking of Paramount, Dennis has turned in his thoughts on their new Alfred Hitchcock/Paramount Presents title, To Catch a Thief (1955). [Read on here...]

Our old friend Drew Stewart—who is a longtime Digital Bits reader—is the webmaster for Star Wars Revisited and also curates the Star Wars Visual Comparisons blog.

He’s been working diligently to create a kind of visual guide to all the changes found in the recent Disney+ 4K version of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

Drew’s created a set of comparison images showing all of these updates and alterations—39 of them in all—and he’s kindly allowed us to compile them here in a 7-page gallery on The Digital Bits for all of you to see.

We definitely think that Star Wars fans will find this gallery both interesting and useful, not just to compare the new Disney+ 4K version to past Blu-ray and DVD releases, but also as a baseline in the event that further changes appear in the future. [Read on here...]

Our old friend Drew Stewart—who is a longtime Digital Bits reader—is the webmaster for Star Wars Revisited and also curates the Star Wars Visual Comparisons blog.

He’s been working diligently to create a kind of visual guide to all the changes found in the new Disney+ 4K version of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Drew’s created a set of comparison images showing all of these updates and alterations—nearly 40 of them in all—and he’s kindly allowed us to compile them here in a 6-page gallery on The Digital Bits for all of you to see.

We definitely think that Star Wars fans will find this gallery both interesting and useful, not just to compare the new Disney+ 4K version to past Blu-ray and DVD releases, but also as a baseline in the event that further changes appear in the future. [Read on here...]

All right, as most of you know by now, tonight marks the opening of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in theaters. My wife, brother, and I are joining our old friend Robert Meyer Burnett and his family for the first showing at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, where it all began back in 1977. And having just seen a press screening of the film on Tuesday, we’re very much looking forward to seeing it again in IMAX Laser projection. The upshot is that today’s post is going to be a brief one.

However… we DO have a little more detail for you about the recently revealed Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga 4K/Blu-ray box set that’s now known to be coming on 3/31/2020.

Not only will it include all 9 of the “Skywalker” films on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Disc, each film will include a bonus disc of extras (for a total of 27 discs). It’s reasonable to assume that virtually everything that’s ever been released previously for each of these films in terms of special features is fair game for inclusion on these bonus discs and it’s possible there may be new features too. But of course we won’t know for sure until this set is officially announced. [Read on here...]