Displaying items by tag: The Hobbit 4K

All right, it’s FINALLY official.

As we’ve been expecting for weeks now, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has just issued their press release announcing the Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet on December 15th (SRP $44.95, $35.99, and $28.98 respectively).

You can see the 4K Ultra HD cover artwork at left and also below, along with the Blu-ray and DVD cover art.

In terms of special features, the 4K and Blu-ray versions will include an hour-long documentary on the production called Looking at the World in a New Way: The Making of Tenet. [Read on here...]

All right Bits readers, we’ve got a pretty significant news update for you today...

We’ve been tracking many of these titles, but a few of the 4K catalog titles we’re going to talk about today are breaking news, thanks to our old friends over at Media Play News.

They’ve just issued the September 2020 Digital edition of their magazine, which features an extensive look at the recent surge of 4K Ultra HD catalog releases. The publication’s editor, Stephanie Prange (who, full disclosure, I’ve known for many years), wrote a great longform piece for the issue called 4K Ultra HD: Into the Vaults about the process of preparing classic catalog films for release on the format.

Not only is it informative (and I should note that I was among the people interviewed therein), it includes some great news about forthcoming titles. [Read on here...]

As you can imagine, things are a little busy here at The Bits this week, and for good reason. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m continuing to dig pretty deep with studio and industry sources on a number of significant home video rumors that have been circulating over the past few days.

I covered the status of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition remaster yesterday, so let’s move on to another title.

Today I have an update for you on another of the rumors you’ve probably read about online: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s plans for The Middle Earth 4K Collection, the long-awaited release of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films on physical 4K Ultra HD.

Here’s the latest from our sources... [Read on here...]

Heads-up, folks!

This is just a quick news update (and a rare Saturday post) to let you all know that we’ve added or updated a number of titles in our 4K Ultra HD Release List here at The Digital Bits based on new information from our industry and retail sources.

Specifically...

Universal is apparently working on an Alfred Hitchcock 4K Collection that’s set to include Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, and Rear Window. We’ve mentioned these titles before on The Bits, but European retail sources are now suggesting that they’ll arrive around September (and Psycho has just been listed on the Best Buy website). Also coming in September or October is the long awaited Back to the Future Trilogy: 35th Anniversary Edition Collection. [Read on here...]

All right, we’re starting the new week off with a new History, Legacy & Showmanship column from our own Michael Coate, who’s celebrating the 30th anniversary of John McTiernan’s The Hunt for Red October with a new film retrospective that features a look back at the original theatrical release, the 70mm engagements, and a new interview with author and film historian Eric Lichtenfeld. Enjoy!

Meanwhile, our friends at Kino Lorber have announced some fun new Studio Classics titles that are coming soon to Blu-ray, including Joe Dante, John Landis, Carl Gottlieb, Robert K. Weiss & Peter Horton’s Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) and Peter Hyams’ Narrow Margin (1990), along with a trio of titles newly announced for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 5/5—Fred Coe’s A Thousand Clowns (1965) and Me, Natalie (1969—featuring Al Pacino’s first screen role), and Guy Hamilton’s An Inspector Calls (1954). [Read on here...]

All right, many of you have asked about (or otherwise understandably bemoaned) the lack of big or significant announcements relating to catalog films on 4K Ultra HD lately. So today’s update here at The Digital Bits is about addressing that concern.

And while we still have little in the way of official announcements at the moment, I can confidently report that at least some of titles you’re waiting for are on the way in 2020.

The information in today’s post should be considered unofficial until the studios in question make their actual announcements. But we believe it to be a reliable gauge of titles currently in the production pipeline or planning stages.

First, we know for sure that Disney is going to be releasing Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga on 4K coinciding with the Blu-ray and 4K release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, likely in March. [Read on here...]

All right, thanks for your patience while I was away at the end of last week. My father-in-law passed away, so my wife and I flew across the country to attend his memorial and see family.

But there’s a good deal to catch up on today news-wise, so let’s get right to it. First things first...

Yes, we are aware of the rumors that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is planning to bring The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films to 4K Ultra HD. They originated on the excellent 4K Filme.de website, which (I’m told) found the titles briefly listed on a Warner B2B website for German retailers. All six films were indicated for release on UHD (with the Extended Editions included) and with a tentative street date given of June 25, 2020. All right, now let’s put this in context...

First of all, there’s no doubt that Warner Bros. is going to release these films on physical 4K Ultra HD. These are literally their most demanded catalog titles on the format. Also, 2021 is the 20th anniversary of Fellowship of the Ring. And Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings prequel series, which reportedly begins production next month and will apparently be in production for two years, is likely to debut on Amazon Prime in late 2022. So the studio is certainly going to want to get those films ready for 4K release by then. [Read on here...]