By the way, Michael will return with another new column on Sunday, so be sure to check back for that.
In announcement news today, Warner Home Video has just set a Mad Max: Anthology 4-film collection for Blu-ray release on 9/1 (SRP $89.98). Which essentially means that you can almost guarantee the Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD release of Mad Max: Fury Road will happen on that day (or very close to it) as well. You can see the temp art below.
Also, here’s something cool: Flicker Alley is releasing a title called Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film 1920-1970 on Blu-ray and DVD on 7/28 (SRP $59.95 for the Blu-ray). The set will include a “premiere collection of 30 films are the most acclaimed names of American avant-garde experimental filmmaking, including Charles Sheeler, Paul Strand, Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy, Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp), Robert Florey, Slavko Vorkapich, Ralph Steiner, Jay Leyda, James Sibley Watson, Jr., Melville Webber, Emlen Etting, Joseph Cornell, Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth, Rudy Burckhardt, Francis Lee, Maya Deren, Alexander Hackenschmied, Oskar Fischinger, Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee, Marie Menken, Francis Thompson, Bruce Conner, Jordan Belson, Bruce Baillie, Lawrence Jordan, Jonas Mekas, Tom Palazzolo, Lawrence Janiak, Amy Greenfield, Phil Solomon, and Stan Brakhage.” Sounds amazing.
Finally today, I wanted to let all of you know that The Digital Bits is indeed returning to Comic-Con in San Diego this July with our ever-popular Blu-ray discussion panel! The exact date, time and room location are still TBA, but I can confirm that I’ll be moderating an hour-long panel entitled The Digital Bits Blu-ray Sneak Peak: Star Trek: Axanar. Our guests will include a trio of veteran Blu-ray/DVD producers who’ve long been fixtures on our panel, including Charles de Lauzirika (Twin Peaks, The Martian), Cliff Stephenson (Hannibal, The Hunger Games), and Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise, Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-rays). We’ll talk about major upcoming Blu-ray titles, the latest developments with 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and more. But we’re also going to be joined by our friend and Star Trek: Axanar executive producer Alec Peters for a great behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the studio-quality Blu-ray special edition release of Prelude to Axanar, which is coming soon. With the major studios pulling back from their own Blu-ray special edition work, there are lots of opportunities for independent producers to step in to create great discs. So we’ll take a good look at what’s involved to do that. We’ll also have audience Q&A and we’ll give away some cool stuff too. If you’re headed down to Comic-Con, you’re not going to want to miss it. We’ll have more details as we get closer to the Con, but we hope to see you there!
Okay, last note for today: I’ve gotten a bunch of e-mails over the past week or two from readers, but I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had the chance to respond to them all yet. Rest assured that I will as soon as I can.
Here’s a look at the cover art for the Blu-ray titles mentioned above (temp art in the case of the Mad Max titles)…
With that… have a great Memorial Day Weekend, everyone!
- Bill Hunt