My Two Cents
Tuesday, 05 April 2016 14:43

Universal sets Hail, Caesar! for 6/7, plus Lionsgate’s Gods of Egypt, Scream’s Return of the Living Dead: CE & more

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All right, we’ve got some great new release announcement news to report today and some BD and DVD catalog news as well...

First up, Universal has just set the Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar! for Blu-ray and DVD release on 6/7 (SRP $34.98 and $29.98). Both versions will include 4 behind-the-scenes featurettes (Directing Hollywood, The Stars Align, An Era of Glamour, and Magic of a Bygone Era). You can see the cover artwork to the left and below (with the Amazon.com pre-order link).  [Read on here…]

Also today, Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate have set Alex Proyas’ Gods of Egypt for Blu-ray 3D Combo, Blu-ray Combo, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release on 5/31, with the digital release due on 5/17 (SRP is $39.99 for BD3D, $35.99 for BD, $29.95 for DVD, and $42.99 for 4K). Note that both the Blu-ray and 4K versions will include English DTS:X audio. Extras on the Blu-ray versions (also included on the BD disc in the 4K version) will include deleted storyboards and 6 featurettes (A Divine Vision: Creating a Cinematic Action Fantasy, Of Gods and Mortals: The Cast, Transformation: Costume, Make-up & Hair, On Location: Shooting in Australia, The Battle for Eternity: Stunts, and A Window into Another World: Visual Effects). You can see the cover art for all SKUs but 4K below (we’ll add that one when it’s available).

Lionsgate has also set Shark Week: Jawsome Encounters for DVD release on 6/14.

In catalog news, Scream Factory has just announced The Return of the Living Dead: Collector’s Edition for 2-disc Blu-ray release on 7/19. It features a new 2K scan of the film and over 12 hours of extras. In addition to the film itself, Disc One will include 3 audio commentary tracks (one with Gary Smart (co-author of The Complete History of the Return of the Living Dead) and Chris Griffiths, one with director Dan O’Bannon and production designer William Stout, and one with the cast and crew featuring production designer William Stout and actors Don Calfa, Linnea Quigley, Brian Peck, Beverly Randolph, and Allan Trautman). It will also offer 2 still galleries, The Decade of Darkness featurette, In Their Own Words: The Zombies Speak, theatrical trailers, TV spots, and “Zombie subtitles for the film.” To this, Disc Two will add 9 more documentary featurettes, including 3 new ones (The FX of the Living Dead: Expanded Version, Party Time: The Music of The Return of the Living Dead – Expanded Version, and Horror’s Hallowed Grounds). Legacy extras will include the feature length More Brains: A Return to the Living Dead documentary, 4 additional featurettes (A Conversation with Dan O’Bannon (his final interview), The Origins of the Living Dead, The Return of the Living Dead: The Dead Have Risen, and Designing the Dead), and finally the Return of the Living Dead: Workprint Version (in SD, which includes 20 minutes of additional footage). Again, you can see the cover artwork below.

Meanwhile, Kino Lorber has just set Five Miles to Midnight (1963) for Blu-ray and DVD release on 7/26. Also revealed as coming soon to Blu-ray and DVD later in 2016 is They’re Playing with Fire (1984), with Grandview, U.S.A. (1984) also coming on Blu-ray only.

Olive Films has announced its June Blu-ray and DVD slate, with the following titles set for release on 6/21: Appointment with Crime, I’ll Take Sweden, If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, Cornbread, Earl and Me, The Return of a Man Called Horse, Stagecoach (1986), and A Home of Our Own.

Cinedigm and Scholastic have set Me... Jane... And More Stories About Girl Power on DVD on 4/12.

PBS Distribution has set Nova: Creatures of Light for DVD release on 4/26.

In digital only news, Twentieth Century Fox’s A Royal Night Out arrives on Digital HD on 4/19, two days before Queen Elizabeth’s 90th Birthday.

And in other news from around the Net, in honor of today’s release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Blu-ray, Lucasfilm has just kicked off a new Star Wars: Force for Change charitable campaign. You can learn all the details here at this link.

Finally, we feel this is a very appropriate day to acknowledge the passing of the voice actor and radio drama producer Erik Bauersfeld. If his name alone isn’t familiar to you, Star Wars fans will certainly know his iconic line from Return of the Jedi: “It’s a trap!“ In addition to providing the voice of Admiral Ackbar in Jedi and The Force Awakens, he also voiced Jedi’s Bib Fortuna. Bauersfeld was 93. You can read more about him here at The Hollywood Reporter and here at Slate.

We’ll leave you today with a bunch of new Blu-ray and DVD cover artwork for some of the titles mentioned above (click on each to pre-order on Amazon – we’ll add the links as they become available)...

Hail, Caesar! (Blu-ray Disc)    Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Blu-ray Disc)    The Return of the Living Dead: Collector's Edition (Blu-ray Disc)

Gods of Egypt (Blu-ray 3D)    Gods of Egypt (Blu-ray Disc)    Gods of Egypt (DVD)

Hope you all enjoy The Force Awakens on Blu-ray! Stay tuned...

- Bill Hunt (@BillHuntBits)

 

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