Displaying items by tag: 4K Ultra HD

We’ve got just a few bits of announcement news for you today, but first we have some new reviews for you...

Tim Salmons has checked out Phantom Lady (1944) from Arrow Academy and Skinner (1993) from Severin Films, both on Blu-ray. And Dennis Seuling has offered his thoughts on Peter Glenville’s The Prisoner (1955) on Blu-ray, also from Arrow Academy.

New 4K UHD reviews are coming later this week, after a bit of system calibration following my Oppo repair, just FYI.

Also here at the site today, we’ve posted the weekly update of the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD cover art and pre-order links. As always, whenever you order literally anything from Amazon after clicking through any one of our links (it doesn’t matter which one and it doesn’t have to be for the thing you order), you’re helping to support our work here at The Bits and we really do appreciate it. [Read on here...]

Last night I had the chance to attend a screening of the new Apollo 11 documentary in IMAX format... and let me tell you, it’s the experience of a lifetime.

If you’re like me, and are either a spaceflight historian or enthusiast or both, you probably think you’ve seen or heard every piece of footage there is of the legendary Apollo 11 Moon landing mission.

I certainly thought I had. I’d seen all the previously released film, heard hundreds of hours of audio recordings and interviews, read all the books.

But you’ve seen nothing yet. And that is a kind of miracle that I never imagined possible.

Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11, produced by CNN Films and distributed by Neon, is a genuine revelation. [Read on here...]

All right, we’re starting off with this...

You can get Fox’s outstanding Alien Anthology Blu-ray box set today on Amazon.com (here at this link) for just $20. That’s a whopping 67% off the SRP, so act fast. This is one of the best box sets ever produced, with all four Alien films remastered in stunning HD quality (including the Alien 3: Restored Workprint Version) on 6 discs, with a massive bounty of extras (including two full discs of bonus content) all created by our old friend Charles de Lauzirika. Those documentaries alone are worth dropping $20 for this package, so if you haven’t picked up a copy yet... now’s the time!

I should add here that if you’re waiting for Fox to release a 4K upgraded Alien Anthology box set, you’re going to be waiting a while. Only the original Alien is being released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2019. There may be a new Alien box set that includes the Anthology contents on Blu-ray along with Alien, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant in 4K. We’ve seen artwork packaging artwork circulating (from Amazon.jp). But if you already have Prometheus and Alien: Covenant in 4K, your smartest best at this point is to buy the new Alien 4K release when it arrives and pick up the Anthology for $20 ASAP. [Read on here...]

And... it’s official! 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will release Ridley Scott’s original Alien on 4K Ultra HD on 4/23 in honor of the film’s 40th anniversary. A Steelbook version will also be available exclusively at Best Buy (pictured below).

Per the press release: “The film was restored in 4K in 2018 by 20th Century Fox at Company 3/Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, supervised by Ridley Scott and Pam Dery, with the 4K scans were done at EFilm.”

The release will include the 1979 Theatrical Version (with the 1999 audio commentary by Ridley Scott) and the 2003 Director’s Cut (with the 2003 commentary by Scott and members of the cast and crew), both the composer’s original isolated score and the final theatrical isolated score in Dolby Digital 4.1, and deleted scenes. (And we believe that all of that will be on the actual 4K disc, but we’re checking to confirm.) [Read on here...]

We’ve some interesting release news today, starting with a little heads-up: Sources say that the long-anticipated official announcement of Ridley Scott’s Alien on 4K Ultra HD is happening very soon. So be sure to watch for that. We’ll have all the details here as soon as they’re official.

In other 4K announcement news, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has made Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down official for release on the format on 5/7.

It will include both the Theatrical and Extended cuts of the film newly remastered in 4K from the original camera negative and featuring an HDR grade approved by Scott. Both will also feature a new Dolby Atmos sound mix. [Read on here...]

All right, Disney has just officially announced the Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release of Rob Marshall’s Mary Poppins Returns on 3/19, with their Digital 4K and Movies Anywhere release set for a week earlier on 3/12. There will apparently also be a “Digital Bundle” of the film with the original 1964 Mary Poppins (we don’t know what resolution that original film will be). Audio on the Blu-rays will be English 7.1 DTS-HD MA. Assume standard HDR10 at least on the physical 4K (the digital 4K may offer Dolby Vision).

In terms of extras, the Blu-rays will include the deleted song The Anthropomorphic Zoo, the 4-part The Practically Perfect Making of Mary Poppins Returns documentary (includes Introduction, (Underneath the) Lovely London Sky, Can You Imagine That?, and Nowhere to Go But Up), the 4-part Seeing Things From a Different Point of View: The Musical Numbers of Mary Poppins Returns documentary (includes Trip a Little Light Fantastic, The Royal Doulton Music Hall/A Cover Is Not the Book, Turning Turtle, and Can You Imagine That?), Back to Cherry Tree Lane: Dick Van Dyke Returns, Practically Perfect Bloopers, 3 deleted scenes (Leaving Topsy’s and Trip a Little Light Fantastic), and a Sing-Along Mode. The Digital version only will also feature exclusive audio commentary by director Rob Marshall and producer John DeLuca.

You can see the cover artwork at left and also below. [Read on here...]

All right, a quick update with some big breaking news...

It should surprise no one, as we’ve been talking about it (and we’ve had it in our 4K Ultra HD Release List) for a couple months now. But Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has just officially set Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 3/19, with the Digital release expected on 2/26.

It does not appear that at Blu-ray 3D release is planned. You can see the cover artwork at left and also below.

Both the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD release will include Dolby Atmos audio. HDR10 is likely for the 4K (the press release makes no mention of Dolby Vision). [Read on here...]

There’s some new release news to report today, and then we’re going to return to the topic of physical media in the wake of the news about Samsung on Friday.

But first, late on Friday afternoon, Criterion announced their May Blu-ray release slate, which is set to include William Wyler’s The Heiress (Cat #974 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 5/7, an updating of David Mamet’s House of Games (Cat #399 – Blu-ray and DVD) and Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (Cat #975 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 5/14, Claire Denis’ Let the Sunshine In (Cat #976 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 5/21, and Agnès Varda’s One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (Cat #978 – Blu-ray and DVD) and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (Cat #977 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 5/28. We’ve updated our Criterion Spines Project page here at The Bits to include these titles and you can read more about them here.

Speaking of Criterion, we also learned on Friday that the Russian film studio Mosfilm has completed a new 2K restoration of Sergei Bondarchuk’s epic 1966-67 film adaptation of War and Peace. The 7-hour/4-part series is legendary in cinema history as the biggest production ever mounted, besting even David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia by having an essentially unlimited budget, a bottomless supply of props and costumes from the country’s state museums, and a cast of thousands. The film was shot on Russian Sovscope 70mm film stock, but unfortunately it’s suffered from preservation issues over the years. That’s meant the only good options available for viewing in recent years have been DVD versions of modest quality. [Read on here...]

Heads-up: Disney and Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger appears to be coming to 4K Ultra HD on 2/26, per Best Buy pre-order listings. The retailer currently has listings for the title in SKUs with regular and Steelbook packaging.

The film has a 2K DI. It’s possible there could be a new Dolby Atmos audio mix, but as has recently been the case with Disney 4K releases, look for Dolby Vision HDR on the digital version only.

It should be noted that 2/26 is the same street date as their already announced The Little Mermaid and Ralph Breaks the Internet 4K releases, both of which will also have Steelbook SKUs at Best Buy.

Meanwhile, we have one other 4K-related item to report today: Some of you have noticed that there’s been an image circulating around the Internet over the past few days purporting to show an exclusive 4K release of the Indiana Jones films in China. Our studio sources tell us this is bogus. There are no plans at this time. We take that to mean not never, but not anytime soon. Adjust your plans accordingly.

Have a great weekend and we’ll see you with a full news update on Monday.

Stay tuned...!

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

All right, we’re going to have a larger post with a big release news update later this afternoon, but I wanted to chime in quickly with this...

For months now, we’ve been saying that 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment was planning to promote the 40th anniversary of director Ridley Scott’s original Alien (1979). This was based on our sources within the industry.

Well... now we have the first word from retailers.

UK disc retailer Zavvi has just listed a 2-disc Alien: 40th Anniversary Edition for release on 4K Ultra HD on 4/1/2019 (or 1, April as you guys would say across the pond).

There are no other details yet available. We expect that the US release date will be somewhat different, but certainly within a week or two. The official announcement is likely due very soon and we’ve already asked the studio about this.

In the meantime, you can see temp UK cover artwork above left. Keep in mind, it’s subject to change – this is just the temporary artwork the studio has given to retailers.

Thanks to an overseas friend and Bits reader for alerting me to this.

Back later with a much larger post and more news. Stay tuned...

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