My Two Cents
Friday, 23 October 2020 17:52

Arrow’s January slate includes Oldboy 4K (in the UK), plus Mill Creek’s Jan, Abbott and Costello Kickstarter & more

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We have a little bit more interesting release news for you to check out today (by way of closing out the week)...

First of all, our friends at Arrow Video have just announced their January 2021 slate of home video titles, and it’s pretty terrific. It starts with UK only Blu-ray releases of Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s [Rec] and Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy. Oldboy will also be released on 4K Ultra HD (in the UK only), but remember that 4K discs are not region locked.

Next up, Arrow is releasing Park Chan-wook’s JSA: Joint Security Area and Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales on Blu-ray Disc in the UK, US, and Canada.

Finally, those of you who missed out of Arrow’s recent (and fast selling) Gamera box set (reviewed here on The Bits) will be pleased to know that its films are being reissued on Blu-ray (again in the UK, US, and Canada) in a more wide-release configuration. Three SKUs will be available: Gamera: The Heisei Era (3 films plus a documentary and the Gamera the Brave film as a bonus) as both a wide-release box set and as a Steelbook, and Gamera: The Showa Era (8 films) as a wide-release box set. Obviously, you won’t get all the swag their original big box included, but at least this gives more of you access to the films in HD. [Read on here...]

Here’s a look at the cover art for Arrow’s full January line-up...

Arrow Video's January 2021 slate

And here’s a look at Zavvi’s Oldboy 4K Steelbook. You can pre-order it via Zavvi US here and via Zavvi UK here (and here’s the Zavvi US, Zavvi UK, and Amazon UK pre-order links for the regular Oldboy 4K, pictured above-left)...

Oldboy (Zavvi UK 4K Steelbook exclusive)

Also today, Mill Creek Entertainment has just announced their January 2021 slate, which is set to include an Ultraman Taro Steelbook (BD – 1/12), Ultraman Taro: The Complete Series (BD – 1/12), Accepted (BD – 1/19), Your Highness: Unrated (BD – 1/19), and The Freshman, Crossroads, Like Father Like Son, and Blind Fury (BDs in Retro-VHS packaging – all 1/12).

Meanwhile, our friend Bob Furmanek of the 3-D Film Archive has just launched a new Kickstarter to fund the restoration of Abbott and Costello’s first color feature film, Jack and the Beanstalk (1952), in anticipation of its 70th anniversary. The restoration will be done from archival 35 mm SuperCinecolor positive print elements, as the original camera negative no longer survives. If successful, there will be a deluxe region-free Blu-ray release of this film from ClassicFlix in July 2021. Click here for all the details and to pledge your support.

In other news, there are new rumors that Apple is considering purchasing the streaming distribution rights to the new James Bond film No Time to Die (2020), should MGM decide to skip the film’s long-delayed theatrical release. The idea is that the movie would be exclusively available on Apple TV+ for a time. We do know that, at the start of 2020, Apple was considering buying the rights to the entire MGM film catalog, but the pandemic threw everything into chaos. You can read the Bond rumor report at Apple Insider now. It will be interesting to see if the mainstream industry trades pick it up (and if there is something actually to it).

And finally today, don’t forget that the long-awaited Borat sequel, aka Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, is now available for free streaming on Amazon Prime. I don’t know about you guys, but those of us here at The Bits could use a good laugh right about now.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. We wish you all a great weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday. Peace out!

(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)

 

 

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