Also today, this is both hilarious and awesome: Kino Lorber is getting ready to release Paul Leder’s A*P*E (1976) on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, and DVD later in 2016. They’re also working on Roland Emmerich’s Making Contact (1985) and Rick Rosenthal’s American Dreamer (1984) for Blu-ray and DVD.
Shout! Factory has announced a distribution deal with Planeta Inform to release the animated Quackerz in theaters and on disc.
Cinelicious Pics & Cine-Tamaris have set Agnes Varda’s Jane B. par Agnès V. and Kung-Fu Master! for BD release on 3/8.
And Film Movement has set Finding Gaston, Nights with Theodore, and Sucker for DVD only release on 3/1.
In other news of relevance to Blu-ray and DVD fans, you many have heard yesterday that SlySoft, maker of the popular DVD ripping tool AnyDVD, has shut down. Not a day later, Fengtao Software, which makes DVDFab, has announced that they will not work to crack the AACS 2.0 copy protection on new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. Fascinating. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone picks up the torch and does attempt to circumvent AACS 2.0. In any case, you can read more on this here at Ars Technica today.
And finally today, here’s your Friday afternoon geek news equivalent of a Harvey Wallbanger (or a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, if you will): Wrath of Khan and Undiscovered Country writer/director Nicholas Meyer has just signed on to the writer’s room of Bryan Fuller’s new Star Trek TV series for CBS Digital. So that strange sound you may have heard about an hour ago was caused by a million geeks simultaneously losing their collective minds. I must say, I’m certainly curious about this show now. You can read more here at Variety.
That’s all for now. Just so you know, next week we’re going to begin reviewing Ultra HD Blu-ray titles here at The Bits and generally covering the day-to-day experience of the format in a little more detail. So be sure to check back with us on Monday. Until then... stay tuned!
- Bill Hunt (@BillHuntBits)