My Two Cents
Monday, 03 August 2020 17:44

Pitch Black 4K delay, Dawn of the Dead 4K now shipping to the US, “lost” silent film recovered, Rick & Morty: S4 & Star Trek: TMP 4K on hold

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All right, today’s news update is going to be a quick one. The reason is that I’m working to confirm a number of interesting rumors that I’ve heard in the last 24 hours, both on the interwebs and also from my own industry sources. I’m talking not one, but multiple interesting topics, including word of forthcoming releases and also more general stuff that’s going on in the home video industry right now. I’d actually hoped to be able to confirm one of them in time for this post, but I’m waiting on sources to get back to me. So I’ve decided to post a quick update now and come back with more as I hear it.

Before I continue with what news we have this afternoon, we do have a new disc review for you here at The Digital Bits today. Dennis has turned in his thoughts on Noel Black’s A Man, a Woman, and a Bank (1979) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. You can read that here.

Now then... Arrow Video has pushed back the street date for Pitch Black on 4K Ultra HD to 9/1 (from 8/18). Adjust your plans accordingly. [Read on here...]

CLICK HERE to BACK THE BITS in our fight to preserve Physical Media Shopping on Amazon? START HERE! US & Canadian readers: CLICK HERE to support The Bits by shopping at ZAVVI! UK & International readers: CLICK HERE to support The Bits by shopping at ZAVVI UK!

Also today, a number of you Bits US readers have asked when you’ll be able to pre-order Second Sight UK’s forthcoming Dawn of the Dead 4K Ultra HD box set (due on 10/26). Well, while Amazon.uk doesn’t seem to be shipping to US addresses right now due to the pandemic, the good news is that Zavvi is able to ship it to US addresses. They have the 7-disc set (which includes 3 4K discs, a Blu-ray, and 3 soundtrack CDs) available for pre-order for $99. The Blu-ray will be Region B, but all of the other discs are region free. Act fast if you’re interested (click here or on the cover art below)...

Arrow Video October 2020 slate

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced the Blu-ray and DVD release of Rick & Morty: Season 4 on 9/22 (SRP $29.98 and $24.98). Extras will include 7 featurettes (A Day at Rick and Morty: Inside Season 4, Creating Snake Jazz, Directing Rick and Morty, Samurai and Shogun, Prop Process, Character Creation, and Animation Challenges) and Inside the Episode clips for each episode.

Mill Creek Entertainment will release Blue Ridge on Blu-ray and Digital on 10/20.

Shout! Factory has set when The B-52s: Live at the US Festival for release on DVD on 9/4. It includes their hour-long set from the iconic 1982 music event.

RLJE Films will release Brandon Christensen’s horror film Z on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital on 9/1.

And in other news, The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the only remaining nitrate print of director Edward Sedgwick’s long-lost silent film The First Degree (1923)—all five reels of it—has been found in a box in the closet of a home in Peoria, IL. The Chicago Film Archives has had it scanned and preserved. You can read more here.

Finally today, we have an update on a story we posted a couple weeks ago: You may recall that Bruce Botnick, the original score mixer for Robert Wise’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture, mentioned in a YouTube interview that he was remixing the score for Dolby Atmos. Well, we’ve now confirmed with Paramount—and Director’s Edition restoration supervisor Mike Matessino has confirmed it as well—that Botnick was talking about a music demo on the format only. And multiple sources tell me that the 4K film restoration project on the title is currently at on hold. The pandemic has understandably made all of the Hollywood studios more risk-adverse in terms of spending money right now. We’ll keep our eyes open on this and update you as we hear more.

All right, hopefully we’ll have more on some of those other rumors we’re tracking here at The Bits tomorrow. That’s all for now. Stay tuned...

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

 

 

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