First, Criterion has announced their November release slate, which is as follows: Look for Monte Hellman’s The Shooting/Ride in the Whirlwind on 11/11 (Cat #734/735 – Blu-ray and DVD), Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night on 11/18 (Cat #736 – Blu-ray and DVD), and Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura (Cat #98 – Blu-ray and DVD), Les Blank: Always for Pleasure (Cat #737 – Blu-ray and DVD), and Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie (Cat #738 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 11/25. All but the Capra title are now available for pre-order on Amazon.com by clicking on the title links (we’ll add that one when it’s live).

Also, as we’ve expected for a few days now, Disney has just officially listed Hayao Miyazaki’s animated The Wind Rises for Blu-ray and DVD release on 11/18. That same day, they’re also releasing Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke and Kiki’s Delivery Service on Blu-ray (they’ve previously been available on DVD here in the States). Again, click on the title links to pre-order.

On the music front, look for Metallica: Some Kind of Monster on Blu-ray and DVD on 11/28.

And for the holidays, Anderson Merchandisers and Classic Media have set a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: 50th Anniversary Edition for Blu-ray release on 11/4.

Finally this morning, a new flurry of “exclusive” reports have been circulating around the Net over the weekend to the effect that Disney is planning to release the original theatrical versions of the classic Star Wars films on Blu-ray. I’ll have more to say on this in the next couple of days, but in the meanwhile, I’ll refer you all to our original comments on this subject here at The Bits from way back in May. What I said then still stands. Do give that column a read – it will no doubt be new to some of you and a refresher for the rest.

All right, it’s back to bed for me. I’ll be back tomorrow as usual. In the meantime, if there’s another disturbance in The Force we’ll let you know.

Thanks for your patience and stay tuned… 

- Bill Hunt