On May 26th, look for Clarence Brown’s Possessed (1931), Robert Z. Leonard’s It’s a Wise Child (1931), Monogram Matinee: Volume 3 with Under Arizona Skies (1946) and Range Justice (1949)—mastered from new 4K scans of the best available preservation elements—Richard Fleischer’s Follow Me Quietly (1949), George Pal’s 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)—at long last!—Don Taylor’s The 5-Man Army (1969), Robert Benton’s The Late Show (1977), and finally Looney Tunes Cartoons: The Complete Series (2020-24)—the HBO Max series!
That is a terrific slate of catalog Blu-ray titles. You can see the cover artwork for a couple of them here, and also above left…
Also today, 20th Century Studios has just updated David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999) to 4K on Apple TV and many other Digital and streaming services. And on Apple, it’s just $4.99 right now! So if you want to get a look at the new director-approved 4K remaster before the physical 4K Ultra HD release streets on 5/19, now’s your chance!
Universal has just set Roger Mitchell’s Notting Hill (1999) for 4K Ultra HD release on 6/9—that’s a great little film. Also coming to 4K on 5/26 (as we mentioned yesterday) is Ron Howard’s Parenthood (1989).
Universal has also just announced a new Amazon-exclusive 8-film Steven Spielberg: The Spotlight Collection on 6/9 that includes Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and War of the Worlds (2005) each in 4K + Blu-ray Steelbook packaging with a library case. It appears that the 20-disc set simply repackages the existing 4K + Blu-ray editions, but we’ll have to see if there’s any exclusive new content. This is now doubt tied into the forthcoming theatrical release of Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day (2026), which hits theaters on 6/12.
Just a personal note here: I really hope that proper 4K Ultra HD editions of Spielberg’s 1941 (1979), Empire of the Sun (1987), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012), and Bridge of Spies (2015) are forthcoming. I’m sure we’ll get most of these eventually, save possibly for the last two which are (sadly) currently controlled by Disney, which currently seems to have no interest in releasing more than 3-5 catalog 4K titles a year. But those films are all terrific and deserve 4K release. I’m just saying.
And finally today, I wanted to let you all know about something cool: Warner Bros. is bringing their new 4K remaster of the Wachowski’s Speed Racer (2008) back to IMAX theaters for one day on 4/20. That ought to be a helluva thing to experience, so you can find out more about that here—get your tickets fast!
That’s all for now. Stay tuned…
- Bill Hunt
(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter/X, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)