Also today, we’ve ported over more “retro” Blu-ray reviews from the old Bits website into the new database, including Clear and Present Danger, the Pitch Black: Unrated Director’s Cut, The Chronicles of Riddick: Unrated Director’s Cut, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – The Complete First Season, The Kite Runner, and U-571. If you’re new to the site, do give them a look as you won’t have seen them previously.
It’s another slow day today in terms of announcement news, but we do have a few things for you…
Universal has set an Imitation of Life: 2-Movie Collection for Blu-ray release on 4/7. It will include both the 1934 and 1959 classic films in HD, remastered from the original 35mm film elements.
You may also recall that we mentioned Universal will release Silent Running and Journey to the Far Side of the Sun on Blu-ray Disc on 4/7. Well, they’re also releasing The Andromeda Strain on Blu-ray on 2/17 (for the first time in the States), but as a Best Buy exclusive. You can see the details here.
Meanwhile, Icarus Films will release The Way Things Go on Blu-ray and DVD on 4/14.
The BBC will release The Musketeers: Season Two on 4/21.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne is coming to Blu-ray on 4/21 from Arrow Video, with Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace preceding it on Blu-ray on 4/14, as well as Massacre Gun on 4/7.
Arc Entertainment has set The Barber for Blu-ray release on 4/28, starring Scott Glenn.
And Cinedigm will release Song One, starring Anne Hathaway and Johnny Flynn, on Blu-ray and DVD on 3/24.
Finally today, I wanted to make a little pitch here in support of an old friend…
You’ve heard me mention Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz before here at The Bits. He’s the VFX artist who worked on the new Battlestar Galactica, not to mention Serenity, Babylon 5, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition. He’s also the guy who recently created that amazing CG pitch for the classic Battlestar Galactica Remastered Blu-ray project that never happened at Universal (but that Mojo spent years on in a valiant effort to get the project green-lit). You can see it here...
For the last couple of years, Mojo has been suffering from chronic, debilitating pain that’s made it hard for him to work regularly. This led him into an unfortunate pain-killer addiction after a doctor prescribed opiates as a treatment without really investigating the cause. Needless to say, Mojo’s been in a downward spiral. The good news is that he’s finally checked himself into the Glendale Adventist Medical Center for treatment. The bad news is that he’s been diagnosed with Peripheral Neuropathy – essentially it’s severe nerve damage that results in chronic phantom pain, numbness, tingling and burning sensations in his limbs, tremors and lack of coordination. It’s not curable, but it is treatable with the proper medical supervision. But while Mojo has been recommended to a secondary treatment center by the specialists, it turns out that his crappy health insurance isn’t going to cover it. And because he hasn’t been able to work much in the last year, he’s broke and he’s in danger of being kicked out of his apartment. So Mojo desperately needs financial help. His friends (myself included) are doing what they can, but I wanted to throw out the word to all of you in the online film geek community.
If you’ve enjoyed Mojo’s work over the years, if you appreciated his efforts to try and get Battlestar Galactica Remastered going, if you simply enjoyed the clip he produced above – if that’s worth something to you – please consider sending him $10, $20, whatever you can (and feel like) chipping in via PayPal (to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). It may literally be the difference between Mojo getting back on his feet or being homeless. By the way, you can visit him here on Facebook, where he often posts CG renderings and other interesting things.
Sorry to drop that kind of heaviness on you today, but Mojo’s good people and a friend, and I’d feel terrible if I didn’t try to do something to help him. Thanks for your patience.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned...
- Bill Hunt