Warner has also set an Elvis: That’s The Way It Is – Two-Disc Special Edition and a Viva Las Vegas: 50th Anniversary Edition for release on Blu-ray on 8/12 in BD Book packaging. This marks That’s The Way It Is’ first time on Blu-ray, but the other title is an upgrade of a previous BD release. That’s The Way It Is is newly-remastered with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack and will include Patch It Up – The Restoration of Elvis: That’s The Way It Is, 12 song outtakes, and the original 1970 theatrical version, plus a DVD of the theatrical version. Viva Las Vegas will include audio commentary by Steve Pond, the Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas featurette, and a theatrical trailer.
Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox and MGM have set the recent remake of RoboCop for release on Blu-ray on 6/3. See the cover artwork below.
Flicker Alley has set The Mack Sennett Collection: Volume One for Blu-ray release on 8/5 (SRP $59.95). The 3-disc set will contain some 50 classic films “painstakingly reconstructed by CineMuseum and Keystone Films using original 35mm nitrate, archival negatives, preservation materials, and sometimes the lone known surviving film print, from the collections of the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Blackhawk Films, Lobster Films, the Richard M. Roberts Collection, Gierucki Studios, and dozens of privately held archives.” Pretty cool news for classic film fans! Note that a second volume will follow at a later date, as some 100 films in all were involved in this effort. Click here for details and a complete list of the films.
And here’s something Rumor Mill worthy... the Disney Wiki has listed street dates for upcoming Disney Diamond Edition Blu-ray animated titles, including Sleeping Beauty (10/2), 101 Dalmatians (2/3/15), Aladdin (10/6/15), and Pinocchio (2/2/16). The very same Wiki has also listed the following additional BD releases for this year: Muppets Most Wanted (June), Hercules (6/10), Tarzan (6/10), A Goofy Movie & An Extremely Goofy Movie (2-Movie Collection – 6/24), Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers (Summer), The Black Cauldron: Special Edition (8/19), Bears (8/26), Fun and Fancy Free (9/30), The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (9/30), Saludos Amigos & The Three Caballeros (2-Movie Collection – 12/2), Make Mine Music & Melody Time (2-Movie Collection – 12/2), and Planes: Fire & Rescue (12/9). Salt this information appropriately, but still... these dates make sense. Thanks to Bits reader Bill M. for the heads-up.
One last note: There is as yet no street yet for Disney’s anticipated Blu-ray release of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated The Wind Rises, but we expect that to happen before the end of 2014. Per Disney’s pattern, expect a pair of as yet unreleased (here in the States, at least) Miyazaki catalog titles to arrive on BD at the same time. Porco Rosso and Kiki’s Delivery Service seem like strong possibilities, but we’ll have to wait and see.
We’ll leave you with a look at the Blu-ray cover artwork for RoboCop, Flicker Alley’s The Mack Sennett Collection: Volume One, and Universal Music’s The Who: Quadrophenia – Live in London (due 6/10)...
Stay tuned!
- Bill Hunt