In announcement news today, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially set Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own (1992) for 4K Ultra HD release on 9/3. This is a title that was previously included in the studio’s Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 1 back in 2020. At that time, it offered only HDR10 high dynamic range. This new SKU will now feature Dolby Vision HDR as well as a Dolby Atmos audio mix. You can see the cover artwork above left. It’s definitely nice to see the studio releasing some of these titles in 4K outside of the box sets—we hope this trend continues.
Also today, Kino Lorber Studio Classics and Kino Lorber proper have revealed some great new catalog Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD titles for release in August. On 4K UHD, you can look forward to Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob le Flambeur (1956) and Le Doulos (1962) on 8/13, Michael Ritchie’s Prime Cut (1972) on 8/20, and Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Alexander Mackendrick’s The Ladykillers (1955), and Peter Hyams’ Sudden Death (1995) on 8/27. Gotta love those French New Wave titles in 4K!
Meanwhile, on regular Blu-ray, KLSC has set Bert I. Gordon’s Empire of the Ants (1977) and The Food of the Gods (1976) for release on 8/20. Also coming that day are George McCowan’s Frogs (1972) and Jeff Lieberman’s Squirm (1976). All of four of these were American International Pictures titles and they’re being released under the Kino Cult label. I’ll tell you... this distributor is killing it. That’s the only way to say it.
We should also note that the company has revealed their forthcoming Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXII Blu-ray box set, which will include Bretaigne Windust’s The Enforcer (1951), Michael Curtiz’s The Scarlet Hour (1956), and Hubert Cornfield’s Plunder Road (1957). Street date on that one is TBA.
And finally, I wanted to let you know that Bits readers are now reporting to us that they’ve been receiving their replacement discs for Warner and MGM’s original 2023 Rocky: The Knockout Collection 4K Ultra HD set. As many of you know, most of the films in the set had either audio or aspect ratio issues, which Warner has since corrected in anticipating of their new Rocky: Ultimate Knockout Collection 4K box set (due on 7/16). And apparently, the studio has been shipping out the replacement discs in full packaging. You’ll find the details on how to request them here in this post from April on The Bits.
That’s all we have today. We hope to see a bunch of you tomorrow on our member-only Patreon live chat! Don’t forget, becoming a member of our Digital Bits Patreon is a terrific way to support our work here at the site and gain access to additional content. It only takes a moment, and it will grant you access to all of our live events—both the one tomorrow and those to come in the future. See you there!
Have a great weekend, everyone. Stay tuned...
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