Amazon.com is now taking pre-orders for CBS’ Star Trek: Enterprise – Season Two on Blu-ray Disc with a street date of 8/20 (SRP is $119.99, but Amazon has it for just $83.99). Extras will include the second part of the behind-the-scenes documentary on the Season One BD set, as well as video of a group interview/discussion/catch-up session featuring the entire reunited main cast of the series. You’ll find the revised final cover artwork below.
Lionsgate has set the action thriller Black Rock for Blu-ray and DVD release on 7/30.
Warner has set New Line’s Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls for Blu-ray release on 9/3.
Universal has announced that their Battlestar Galactica: 35th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray will go into wide release on 8/6. The title is now available as a Best Buy exclusive. Universal also has NBC’s Smash: Season Two coming on DVD only on 8/6, as well as a re-promote of its previously released Riddick Collection Blu-ray and DVD that same day.
Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment has set The Garfield Show: Pizza Dreams for DVD only release on 6/25.
XLrator Media will release the ScreamFest title American Mary on Blu-ray and DVD on 6/18.
Cartoon Network is releasing The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange: The Complete First Season on DVD only on 5/28, in anticipation of the second season’s Network debut.
Millennium Entertainment has set Brooklyn Castle for DVD only release on 6/4.
And our friends at Kino Lorber have announced their August Blu-ray and DVD release slate, set to include Fear Not (DVD – Horizon Movies label), The Cream Farewell Concert (DVD – Kino Classics) and Sushi: The Global Catch (DVD – Alive Mind) on 8/6, Detour (DVD – Horizon) and I Killed My Mother (DVD – Kino Lorber) on 8/13, Wither (DVD – Artsploitation Films) and Jess Franco’s A Virgin Among the Living Dead: Remastered Edition (BD and DVD – Redemption), Nightmares Come at Night: Remastered Edition (BD & DVD – Redemption) and The Awful Dr. Orlof: Remastered Edition (BD & DVD – Redemption) on 8/20, and Unit 7 (DVD – Kino Lorber) and Hanging for Django (BD & DVD – RaROVIDEO USA – available for the first time on any home video format) on 8/27.
Are any of you Speed Racer fans? Do you happen to speak Japanese? Well, Tatsunoko Productions in Japan has released the original Mach GoGoGo: The Complete Series on Blu-ray Disc. It’s coded for Region A and we hear it looks fantastic. The catch? It’s all in Japanese and there are no English subtitles. Yeah, and the box set also imports for a whopping $487! We’d sure love to imagine that Lionsgate will come around to releasing their Speed Racer: The Complete Classic Series Collection on Blu-ray Disc one day, but we suspect sales of the DVD version are nowhere near strong enough to justify the cost of remastering the American version for HD. That… and the small problem that Speed Racer Enterprises, which has been the American license holder of the series since the early 1990s, recently lost their rights and is in the middle of a tangled legal dispute with Tatsunoko. Ah well. Might just be time to finally take up Japanese…
In other news, my old friend Steve Weintraub of Collider was on Facebook the other day and asked if anyone had questions for director Richard Linklater, who he was about to interview for the theatrical release of Before Midnight (which hits theaters today). The film is the sequel to his outstanding Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, all three of which star Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. So I said, “Yeah, Steven – are all three films in his Before trilogy ever coming to Blu-ray?” So Steve asked. And Linklater answered. There are indeed hopes that a box set of all three films might eventually be released on Blu-ray, and apparently Criterion is already working on a Blu-ray edition of his earlier Slacker! You can watch Linklater’s comments here. Nice job, Frosty!
And in completely non-Blu-ray related news today, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of actor Steve Forrest, who appeared in such films as The Longest Day and is perhaps best known for his turn on TV’s S.W.A.T. back in the 1970s. He died on 5/18. Thanks to Bits reader Joe G. for the heads-up.
By the way, those of you looking for Jeff’s follow-up report on Microsoft’s Xbox One announcement can find it here.
And in the event you missed it yesterday, be sure to check out Bud Elder’s new View from the Cheap Seats column here on The Bits. Turns out Bud’s friends with this feller named Gary Busey… and he’s got some good Busey stories to share with you! Don’t miss it.
We’ll leave you with a look at the Blu-ray Disc cover art for CBS’ Star Trek: Enterprise – Season Two, Disney’s The Sword and the Stone: 50th Anniversary Edition (due 8/6) and Tatsunoko Production’s Mach GoGoGo: The Complete Series (don’t forget it’s Japanese only!), as well as Kino Lorber’s Nightmares Come at Night, The Awful Dr. Orloff and A Virgin Among the Living Dead…
Whew! Okay, so there’s going to be no post on Monday given the Memorial Day holiday, however we just might be back tomorrow (yes, Saturday) with a little something special for you Star Wars fans.
Until then... stay tuned!
- Bill Hunt