Fantastic Beasts & Harry Potter 4K official, plus Planet Earth II, A Monster Calls & John Hurt RIP

Tuesday, 31 January 2017 16:41

Fantastic Beasts & Harry Potter 4K official, plus Planet Earth II, A Monster Calls & John Hurt RIP

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)

Afternoon, folks! Okay, we’re still working on website and server stuff off and on here, but I’m going to try and sneak updates in regularly.

Before we get started, our own Russell Hammond has just posted the Release Dates & Artwork section update, complete with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. A portion of any order you may through our links goes to help support our work here at the site and we do appreciate it.

First up today, Warner’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them finally has official cover artwork and is due to street on 3/28. There will be a Blu-ray ($24.99), a Blu-ray 3D ($29.99), a DVD ($17.99), and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray ($29.96) versions. According to the Blu-ray packaging, the set will include “Over an hour of expansive, multipart featurettes” listed as Before Harry Potter: A New Era Begins, plus deleted scenes. Not that it appears there will be an Amazon-exclusive version of the Blu-ray packed with a statuette of the character “Nifflers” from the film. You can see the 4K art to the left, and all of the BD art below, with Amazon.com pre-order links. [Read on here…]

On the same note, remember how we said (last week here on The Bits) that Warner might be about to release four Harry Potter films on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format? Well, it’s official: They are. Also on 3/28, look for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. SRP is set at $44.95 each, and we presume the other four films will street later this year, in time for the holidays. You can see the final cover artwork and pre-order those below as well.

Also due on 3/28 on Blu-ray and DVD is J.A. Bayona’s A Monster Calls from Universal. Extras will include Spanish feature commentary with director J.A. Bayona (we presume with English subtitles), English feature commentary with writer Patrick Ness, deleted scenes, and 2 featurettes (The Making of A Monster Calls and Making of the Tales). We’re waiting on official cover artwork. It does not appear that the studio plans to release the title in 4K.

BBC Home Entertainment has officially set Planet Earth II for Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release on 3/28. The Blu-ray and DVD versions are 2-disc sets (SRP $45.99 and $35.99), while the 4K is a 3-disc set (SRP $59.99). You can pre-order them on Amazon via the link below.

And Scream Factory has announced that they’re going to be releasing Virus (1999) and The Naked Cage (1986) on Blu-ray on 5/2. Also coming in May from Shout, via their Shout Select line, is a new Streets of Fire: Collector’s Edition on Blu-ray.

John Hurt RIP

Finally, we surely must take a moment to acknowledge the passing of actor John Hurt late on Friday. Hurt lent his prodigious talents to such films as Alien (1979), The Elephant Man (1980), Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), Midnight Express (1978), Rob Roy (1995), V for Vendetta (2006), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), the Harry Potter films, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and many others. I was fortunate enough to meet him briefly on a couple of occasions over the years, and I can tell you that he was also a gentleman. He will surely be missed... and fondly remembered.

All right, we’ll leave you with a look at a bunch of cover artwork for some of the titles mentioned above - click to pre-order each on Amazon if available...

Back tomorrow with new Blu-ray and 4K reviews. Stay tuned...!

- Bill Hunt (@BillHuntBits)