My Two Cents
Tuesday, 26 January 2021 16:17

Babylon 5 Remastered (on Digital only for now), plus Do the Right Thing 4K official & more BD release news

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All right, we have a few interesting news items for you today. But first, another review...

Dennis has turned in his thoughts on Robert Siodmak’s 1944 film noir The Suspect, now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Now for the most surprising piece of news... Engadget has confirmed that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has now completed a six-year effort to upgrade the classic 1990s J. Michael Straczynski science fiction TV series Babylon 5 for the digital age. Babylon 5 Remastered is now available for viewing on HBO Max, and it’s also available for download on iTunes and Amazon. The new HD presentation includes all five seasons of the show with live action film elements scanned in 4K from the original camera negative, digitally cleaned and properly color graded, with VFX upsampled from the original SD. The entire series is available in its original 4x3 broadcast format. The 1998 version of the series’ original pilot film, The Gathering, has also been included, though it’s unremastered and so in 16x9 (as the original film elements were lost during the Northridge earthquake in 1994). [Read on here...]

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There’s no word yet as to whether the series will be released on Blu-ray at long last, but this would certainly make sense, as it’s long been requested by fans. So watch this space for details on a possible release later in 2021. Meanwhile, you can read more here at Engadget.

We should also take this moment to acknowledge the sad passing last week of actor Mira Furlan, best known to fans as Minbari Ambassador Delenn on Babylon 5, and also for her appearence on Lost. Furlan was 65. You can read more here at Deadline.

Meanwhile, while we’re talking Warner, the Warner Archive have set Helter Skelter: An American Myth for DVD release on 2/9, along with Six by Sondheim (2013) on Blu-ray on 2/9, and Harley Quinn: The Complete First and Second Seasons on Blu-ray on 2/16.

We’ve learned that Liberator Films is releasing the Harvey Fierstein musical Kinky Boots on Blu-ray on 5/25 (SRP $24.95).

Lionsgate has set Don’t Tell a Soul for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 3/16.

The company also has the 2020 Sundance Film Festival official selection Wander Darkly coming to Blu-ray and DVD on 2/9.

Also today, Mill Creek Entertainment is releasing Finding Forrester (2000) on Blu-ray on 4/13.

And the other big catalog news today is that Universal has finally officially announced the long-expected 4K release of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing on 2/2. Extras will include a new introduction by the director and over four hours of legacy features, among them a documentary, deleted and extended scenes, trailers, and audio commentary by Lee. This will be a BD100 disc, with audio will be DTS:X. There’s no mention of Dolby Vision, so expect HDR10 only.

Universal has also set the new release film Wild Mountain Thyme, starring Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan, Jon Hamm, and Christopher Walken, for release on DVD and Digital only on 2/2. That’s right, no Blu-ray is currently planned. Very strange.

And that’s all for now. Stay tuned…

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