In announcement news today, Broad Green Pictures has set The Lost City of Z for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 7/11.
Twilight Time has revealed their May Blu-ray slate, due on 5/16. They include Kiyoshi Saeki’s Brutal Tales of Chivalry aka Shôwa zankyô-den (1965), Roy Baker’s Inferno (1953) in both 2D and 3D, Robert Mulligan’s The Man in the Moon (1991), Michael Winner’s The Stone Killer (1973), and Karel Reisz’s Who’ll Stop the Rain (1978). All are limited to just 3,000 units each and carry an SRP of $29.95 except Brutal Tales of Chivalry which is $24.95 and is Region A locked. Pre-orders open on 5/3 at 1 PM Pacific on Twilight Time Movies and Screen Archives Entertainment.
Arrow Video has also announced their July Blu-ray/DVD slate which includes Jörg Buttgereit’s Nekromantik 2 (1991), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse (2001), Mike Figgis’ Stormy Monday (1988), Kinji Fukasaku’s New Battles Without Honour and Humanity: The Complete Trilogy (1974-76), Richard Franklin’s Psycho II (1983), and Paul Goodwin’s documentary Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD (2014).
FUNimation has just set the anime Record of Lodoss War: The Complete OVA Series + Chronicles of the Heroic Knight: The Complete Series for Blu-ray/DVD Combo release on 7/18 (SRP $84.98). Record of Lodoss War will be included on both formats, while Chronicles of the Heroic Knight will be DVD only.
And Kino Lorber Studio Classics has revealed that they’re working on new Blu-ray and DVD releases of Bernard L. Kowalski’s Krakatoa: East of Java (1968) and James Cruz’s Old Ironsides (1926). Both are coming soon.
Finally today, this was lost in the din of the recent Star Wars Celebration, but Lucasfilm producer Kathleen Kennedy did a podcast interview with the Steele Wars: Star Wars Chat podcast in which she was essentially asked if Disney might make any further changes to George Lucas’ classic Star Wars films over time. Her response: “I wouldn’t touch those, are you kidding me? Those will always remain his.” She did reveal that there’s no contractual agreement that requires Lucasfilm to leave the films as they are. But, as we first reported here at The Bits back in February, while the original elements are safe, no work has been done on a restoration of the original theatrical cuts and it appears that there are no immediate official plans to do so. So there you go. I’ll say this yet another time to those of you who were hoping for an original release: Harmy’s Despecialized Editions are your friend. Start your quest here. [Editor’s Note: This text has been updated to better reflect Kennedy's comments, which have been misreported online.]
We’ll leave you today with a little new Blu-ray cover artwork (click to pre-order the titles on Amazon if available)...
Stay tuned…
- Bill Hunt