Boy, we’ve got a nice little bit of news for you all today...

Just a few days ago, I raved about the experience of seeing Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace on the big screen. (You can read my thoughts on the experience here.) Well now, Criterion has just officially announced that it will highlight their June Blu-ray and DVD release slate!

The complete wave of titles includes a BD upgrade of A Film Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman (Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence – Cat #209-211 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 6/4, George Stevens’ Swing Time (Cat #979 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 6/11, Bruno Dumont’s L’humanité (Cat #981 – Blu-ray and DVD) and La vie de Jésus (Cat #980 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 6/18, John Cameron Mitchell punk musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Cat #982 – Blu-ray and DVD) and – yes – Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace (Cat #983 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 6/25! [Read on here...]

We’ve got a good release news update for you today here at The Bits. But first, a couple of items of note...

This is kind of important for us: It’s getting harder and harder to keep The Bits running, what with server, bandwidth, staff, and other operating costs that seem to be increasing all the time, even as advertising revenue is in decline. It’s a problem many websites are facing these days. But we’re lucky in that we’re an Amazon affiliate. So we’ve just posted the weekly update of our Release Dates & Artwork section here at The Bits, featuring all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. We’d like to humbly ask all our readers: Please use our links when ordering from Amazon. All you have to do is click through any one of our Amazon links here at the site, then we get affiliate credit for literally anything you order from Amazon in that same shopping session. It make a huge difference for us in allowing us to keep The Bits going. This support is critical; it’s the difference between continuing The Bits or not. So we thank you very much for supporting us in this way. [Read on here…]

All right... let’s have a release news update today, shall we?

First though, I have an update for you on the forthcoming 4K Ultra HD release of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (due on 8/22), directly from Disney. I attended a press event for the title yesterday at Disney Studios in Burbank, and was able to ask some technical questions. First of all, Disney seems fairly bullish on the 4K Ultra HD format. As we’ve already reported, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will be their second release on the format on 10/5. The studio is currently evaluating future releases in 4K and is likely to release most new release titles day and date on the format going forward, though there may be the occasional exception. Yes, of course I asked about the prospect of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story being released on the format in the months ahead, and no, they haven’t made a decision on this yet. Personally, I think there’s a decent chance we’ll see them in 4K in the next twelve months, but that’s just my own opinion... we’ll have to wait and see as Disney makes future announcements. We do expect Disney to announce more 4K titles in the next month or two. [Read on here…]

All right, no official update yet from Disney on the HDR on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 4K. There are reports that Dolby is claiming Dolby Vision will only be on the 4K streaming version, but we haven’t been able to confirm that yet. So stay tuned.

Disney has however, officially just announced (at D23) that they’re releasing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 10/3, with the Digital release due on 9/19. We know that it will have HDR (so HDR-10, no word specifically of Dolby Vision) and that it will include Dolby Atmos audio. “Bonus material includes a collection of behind-the-scenes, making-of stories, including a conversation with directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg; a sit-down with the two young newcomers who play Henry and Carina; the secrets behind the menacing new villain, Salazar, and his ferocious ghost sharks; an on-set visit with Jack’s first mate from all five films; a chat with Sir Paul McCartney who appears as Uncle Jack; and a discussion about the franchise’s legacy; along with hilarious bloopers, deleted scenes and memories from producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s photo diary.” No other details are yet available. You can see the cover art at left.

Meanwhile, we have two new Blu-ray reviews for you today: Tim has checked out Vinegar Syndrome’s Psycho Cop Returns and Psychic Killer, both worth your time if you’re a fan of the genre. Do check them out. [Read on here…]

All right, we’ve got a couple of things for you today, including a little bit of follow-up on this Disney/Guardians Vol 2 4K Dolby Vision thing. More on that in a moment...

First, Michael Coate has a great new History, Legacy & Showmanship column for you today that celebrates Sir Roger Moore and the 40th Anniversary of the classic Bond installment The Spy Who Loved Me. Michael is joined by another fine roundtable of Bond experts to discuss the film and I think you’ll really enjoy reading what they have to say. So you’ll find that here.

Now then... some announcement news: Universal has officially set The Mummy (2017) for Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release on 9/12, with the Digital HD release expected on 8/22. [Read on here…]

All right, let’s get this out of the way right off the top: Yesterday, when Disney finally made the official announcement that James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will arrive on 4K Ultra HD (as well as Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD) on 8/22, we made a point to contact the studio to confirm that the 4K Ultra HD disc would include Dolby Vision HDR. And we were assured that it would. So we added that update to our report.

Some context here: Our sources within the studio and around the industry have long told us that one of the reasons Disney has taken their time embracing the 4K format was that they’re bullish about Dolby Vision, and wanted to wait until more hardware manufacturers and consumers had embraced it. They wanted more Dolby Vision-capable displays and players out there in the hands of consumers. [Read on here…]

All right, we knew it was coming but now Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has just made it official: James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is officially coming to Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 8/22, while the Digital HD release will happen on 8/8. Extras on the Blu-ray editions will include the 4-part The Making of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 documentary, audio commentary with director James Gunn, 4 deleted scenes, the Visionary Intro featurette, a Guardians Inferno music video with David Hasselhoff, and a Gag Reel. There will also be digital exclusive features, including 3 Scene Breakdowns and a Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! Disneyland ride preview. The 4K Ultra HD version will feature English Dolby Atmos. We are working to confirm that it will also feature Dolby Vision HDR. [Editor’s Note: Disney has confirmed to us that the 4K Ultra HD release will feature Dolby Vision HDR.] The Blu-ray versions will include English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. [Read on here…]

All right, it’s been an exciting few days for Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD release news, with the latest being director James Gunn’s confirmation that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is soon to be announced for Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD (see our post from early this morning). We expect Disney’s official announcement in the next two weeks.

Before we get started today, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be moderating the official Breaking News from Shout! Factory and Scream Factory panel at Comic-Con in San Diego later this month! Here’s the official write-up from Shout:

“Genre and horror film buffs, collectors and pop culture enthusiasts alike won’t want to miss Breaking News from Shout! Factory and Scream Factory. At 8 pm on Friday, July 21st in Room 4, join Jeremy Whitham (Development Director), Brian Ward (Sr. Director of Blu-ray and DVD Production) and Jeff Nelson (Sr. Marketing Director) as they make special announcements and unveil exclusive sneak peeks of upcoming Blu-ray collector’s editions and new movies coming to theaters this fall. A fan-driven insider’s event filled with lively discussion and a few surprises, this panel discussion and Q&A will be moderated by Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits.”

It should be a lot of fun, so if you’re going to be attending the Con, please be sure to drop in for it. I’ll be a panelist on another panel at the Con as well, which I’ll tell you more about next week. [Read on here…]

We just wanted to chime in here early this morning to report some great news for fans of Guardians of the Galaxy, Disney, and the 4K Ultra HD format. Director James Gunn just posted the following statement tonight on his Facebook page (which continues in full below the break):

“Yes, it’s true, & I am UNBELIEVABLY EXCITED to announce that, after a couple of years of me begging and pleading, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be coming to home video in 4K UltraHD. It will be the FIRST Disney release to be released this way.” [Read on here...]

Good morning, Bits readers. We trust that all those of you here in the States had a fine long holiday weekend with your family and friends. We’ve been busy here at the site over that time in a couple of ways...

First of all, we’ve posted four new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews, all by yours truly, including Universal’s The Great Wall, Warner’s Unforgiven, and Sony’s The Fifth Element: 20th Anniversary Edition and Léon: The Professional (which is a Best Buy exclusive title initially). All four discs are well your time for various reasons, so do give them a look. More 4K reviews are coming soon.

Now then, we’ll get back to 4K in a moment, but first we wanted to let you know that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially set Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon: 80th Anniversary Edition for release on Blu-ray on 10/3, mastered from a new 4K restoration and in Capra Collection Digibook packaging. Extras will include restoration audio commentary, an alternate ending, a photo documentary, the Restoration: Before and After Comparison featurette, and the film’s theatrical trailer. The book will include an essay by film historian Jeremy Arnold. Click past the jump to see the packaging... [Read on here…]