Meanwhile, our own Russell Hammond has once again posted the weekly update of the Release Dates & Artwork section with a look at all the latest Blu-ray and DVD cover art (each with clickable Amazon.com pre-order links) sortable by date. Do give it a look and remember that any time you order anything from Amazon through our links, you’re helping to support our work here at The Bits and we really do appreciate it!
Now then, the big announcement news today is that 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has officially set Ridley Scott’s The Martian for Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD release on 1/12, with the HD digital release due on 12/22. The disc is set to include 90-minutes worth of special features, among them 3 documentary featurettes (Signal Acquired: Writing and Direction, Occupy Mars: Casting and Costumes, and Ares III: Refocused), all 5 of the “in-world” promotional featurettes that were created for the film (Ares III: Farewell, The Right Stuff, Ares: Our Greatest Adventure, Leave Your Mark, and Bring Him Home), a gag reel, and a production gallery. That batch of extras seems a little light, and the lack of audio commentary by Scott makes me wonder if there isn’t a more elaborate version coming at some point. In any case, you can see the final cover artwork is below.
Also today, Universal Studios Home Entertainment has just officially set Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak for Blu-ray and DVD release on 2/9, with an HD digital release due on 1/26. Both disc versions will include deleted scenes, audio commentary with Del Toro, and 2 featurettes (The Light and Dark of Crimson Peak and Beware of Crimson Peak). Meanwhile, the Blu-ray version will add 5 additional exclusive featurettes (including I Remember Crimson Peak, A Living Thing, A Primer on Gothic Romance, Crimson Phantoms, and Hand Tailored Gothic). Again, you can see the official cover artwork below.
In other BD-related news, Bits readers are reporting that they’re starting to receive their replacement Blu-ray discs for the Army of Darkness: Collector’s Edition from Shout Factory. So if you put in your request by the online form (see the instructions in our review here), you should be seeing them in the mail very soon.
Finally today, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of actors Robert Loggia and Martin E. Brooks. Loggia will be familiar to many of you already from his appearances in Big, Scarface, Prizzi’s Honor, the Pink Panther films, and many others. He was 85. Brooks is best known as Dr. Rudy Wells from The Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman, though he was a staple of network TV in the 1970s and early 1980s. He was 90. You can read more via the links provided.
We’ll leave you with that new cover artwork for Crimson Peak and both BD versions of The Martian, with their respective Amazon pre-order links (just click on the images)...
Stay tuned...
- Bill Hunt