In announcement news today, The Criterion Collection has just revealed its January slate of Blu-ray and DVD titles, which is set to include Three Films by Luis Buñuel (No spine number for the set as all three titles were first released by Criterion years ago – Blu-ray and DVD – includes The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, and That Obscure Object of Desire) on 1/5/21, Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap (Spine #1061 Blu-ray and DVD) on 1/12/21, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (Spine #1062 Blu-ray and DVD) on 1/19/21, and Larisa Shepitko’s The Ascent (Spine #1063 Blu-ray and DVD) on 1/12/21.
You can see the cover artwork above left and also below. We’ve updated our Criterion Spines Project pages here at The Bits accordingly.
Meanwhile, FUNimation has just officially announced 10/27 the Blu-ray and DVD release of the anime My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising.
RLJE Films has set The Owners for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 10/20.
Kino Lorber Studio Classics has set René Cardona Jr.’s Tintoerea (1977) for Blu-ray release on 1/4/21 (for Scorpion Releasing). Joe Carnahan’s Stretch (2014), Frank Darabont’s Buried Alive (1990), and Skip Woods’ Thursday: Unrated Director’s Cut (1998) follow on Blu-ray and DVD on 1/12/21. Also coming in 2021 from KL Studio Classics are Peter Hunt’s Wild Geese II (1985) and John Huston’s Freud: The Secret Passion (1962).
Vvs Films has set Fatman for release on Blu-ray on 12/4, starring Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins.
MUBI has set Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda for Blu-ray and DVD on 11/3.
Dark Sky Films will release Hosts on DVD only on 11/10.
Imagicomm Entertainment and INSP Films have set the murder mystery Blue Ridge for DVD and Digital on 10/20.
Olive Films has just announced their next Olive Signature Blu-ray release: John Ford’s Rio Grande (1950) starring John Wayne. Look for it to street on Blu-ray on 11/17. Extras will include audio commentary by Nancy Schoenberger, 5 featurettes (Telling Real Histories with Raoul Trujillo, Songs of the Rio Grande with Marc Wanamaker, Strength and Courage with Patrick Wayne, Bigger Than Life with Claude Jarman, Jr., and The Making of Rio Grande with Leonard Maltin), a visual essay by Tag Gallagher, a text essay by Paul Andrew Hutton, and the film’s theatrical trailer.
Lionsgate has set Mortal for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 11/10, with the Digital release expected on 11/6.
Mill Creek Entertainment will release the thriller Ice House on DVD and VOD on 11/24.
And Shout! has set the Shout! Studios dramedy title Misbehaviour for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 11/3, staring Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
Speaking of Shout!, the studio’s 4K release of They Live is moving from its original 12/8 street date to 1/19/21 due to production delays. But the good news is, that will make it day and date with their just announced Prince of Darkness 4K, both John Carpenter titles. So adjust your plans accordingly.
On the 4K front, Paramount’s Love and Monsters is now available for pre-order on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on Amazon.com. Street date is TBA. You can see the cover artwork below.
We also have final cover artwork for Well Go USA’s Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula in 4K Ultra HD, which streets on 11/24. You’ll find that below. The title will have Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio.
Speaking of Blu-ray and 4K, Zavvi US has more of their Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 4K Steelbooks in stock. Click here for the Zavvi US link and here for Zavvi UK. The also have new Steelbooks either available now for Paramount's It's a Wonderful Life 4K (Zavvi US link and Zavvi UK link) and Universal's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Zavvi US link and Zavvi UK link). There's a Shaun of the Dead 4K Steelbook becoming available on 10/17 (note that it’s not live yet but will be soon—Zavvi US link and Zavvi UK link), not to mention new 4K Steelbooks for Wonder Woman (Zavvi US link and Zavvi UK link) and Aquaman (Zavvi US link and Zavvi UK link) coming available on 10/24. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them!
In other news today, Variety is reporting that Disney is reorganizing its media and entertainment business into a new dedicated Media and Entertainment Distribution group, which is meant to focus on strengthening its Disney+ streaming service. What this means for Disney/20th Century Studios physical media product going forward remains unclear, though it’s certainly not like physical media has been a focus for Disney in 2020. And (this isn’t in the linked article, but our sources continue to report it) it appears that Disney+ is indeed preparing to add that passcode-protected adult section we first mentioned a few months back here at The Bits (not adult as in X-rated, but rather R-rated movies and series content) sometime early next year.
Also today, Variety is reporting that Paramount has just sold their sequel to Coming to America, aka Coming 2 America, to Amazon so that it can premiere digitally on 12/18 since it can’t go into theaters due to COVID-19. Read more on that here.
And here’s something irritating: Flat Panels HD is reporting that Netflix is reencoding all of its 4K content with a lower data rate, while promising the same level of quality as before. I’ve never yet seen a case where less bandwidth didn’t mean less image quality. Meanwhile, Apple TV+ is going the other way, promising that its 4K streams hit 40 Mbps and above at all times. You can read that here.
One more item today... HBO just released a new longer trailer for Season Two of His Dark Materials, which officially begins airing on 11/16. And it looks fantastic. You can read my review of Season One on Blu-ray here, and here’s the trailer below...
And we’ll leave you with a look at the cover artwork for a number of the titles mentioned above (and more) with Amazon.com pre-order links if available...
Stay tuned...!
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