We’ve got a bit of exclusive breaking news for you this morning here at The Bits, and as promised it’s a 4K Ultra HD announcement…

Sony Picture Home Entertainment is releasing Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men on the 4K Ultra HD format on 11/7, only at Best Buy stores as a retail exclusive.

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the film stars Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kevin Pollack. [Read on here…]

All right, folks... this is one of those posts it’s fun to write. None of this news has been officially announced, it comes from retail sources. But we know from our other industry sources that this information is legit. The street dates may change, but the titles should all be forthcoming.

The Swedish video retailer CDON.com has just listed for pre-order a number of catalog titles that we’ve known were either in production or planning for a while now, but the news is starting to break. They include (listed by studio and European street date):

Universal – The Mummy (1999 – 5/22), The Mummy Returns (5/22), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (5/22), Despicable Me (6/12), Despicable Me 2 (6/12), Gladiator (6/12)

Sony – The Bridge on the River Kwai (6/19), Spider-Man (6/26), Spider-Man 2 (6/26), Spider-Man 3 (6/26), The Amazing Spider-Man (6/26) [Read on here…]

Okay, we’ve got some good stuff for you today here at The Bits...

First up, our own Michael Coate has just turned in another new History, Legacy & Showmanship column here at the site, this time featuring a look back at Michael Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days in honor of the film’s 60th anniversary! His roundtable discussion includes film historians Sheldon Hall, Martin Hart, and Kim Holston. Do give it a look, as we think you’ll really enjoy it. And, believe it or not, Michael has one last retrospective History, Legacy & Showmanship column for 2016 coming tomorrow afternoon, so be sure to check back then for it.  [Read on here…]

Today’s update is quick one, as we’re doing a lot of disc review work here this week.

To wit... our own Tim Salmons has just checked in with his thoughts on Shout! and Scream Factory’s new limited edition Blu-ray titles, including Message from Space, The Velvet Vampire, and Time Walker. They’re only available from the Shout! website and are limited to 1,000 copies each. Do give the reviews a look. Message from Space in particularly is worth your time.  [Read on here…]

Hats off to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; the studio is doing much in terms of releasing solid catalog titles on the new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format.

Case in point: The studio has just set the original Underworld for 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release on 12/27. They’ve also set Resident Evil: Afterlife to follow on the format on 1/17. Both will include Dolby Atmos audio and High Dynamic Range, along with the previous Blu-ray release (with extras) and Digital HD versions.  [Read on here…]

All right, today’s post is going to be a quick one, as I’m celebrating my 26th wedding anniversary with my lovely wife, Sarah. But we do have a couple bits of very good news for you…

The first big announcement today is that CBS, Paramount, and the estate of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry are officially releasing a 3-disc Blu-ray collection on 12/13 called Star Trek: The Original Series – The Roddenberry Vault. Produced by our old friend Roger Lay, Jr., who created many of the amazing features for the recent Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-rays, this set will contain 12 classic Original Series episodes (specifically The Corbomite Maneuver, Arena, Space Seed, This Side of Paradise, The Devil in the Dark, The City on the Edge of Forever, Operation – Annihilate!, Metamorphosis, Who Mourns for Adonais?, Mirror, Mirror, The Trouble with Tribbles, and Return to Tomorrow) along with 3 new documentaries, including Inside the Roddenberry Vault (featuring Rod Roddenberry looking at long-lost film reels), Star Trek: Revisiting a Classic (a retrospective look at back at the making of the series), and Strange New Worlds: Visualizing the Fantastic (a look at the series’ visual effects and futuristic technology).  [Read on here…]

Welcome back for a new edition of Pick-Ups!

Thank you for joining me. This week I’m going to tackle a few Blu-ray titles from 2015 that we’ve missed here at the site... and don’t worry, not all of it will be horror. I’ve actually got some good movies that were released last year for you to check out. I thought I’d also let you know that I’m working on a column that’s Lord of the Rings related. I’m not sure when I’ll have that up for you, but hopefully sometime soon.  [Read on here...]

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All right, we’ve got kind of a slow news day today, but we do have one thing for you…

Sony has just announced a partnership with Dolby Labs for the use of its Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range (HDR) mastering process in forthcoming Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray releases (read the press release here at Business Wire). No titles have been announced yet, but based on the studio’s recent 4K remastering work you can reasonably expect such titles as The Fifth Element, Léon: The Professional, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, American Hustle, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Fury, Lawrence of Arabia, and more… eventually.  [Read on here…]

Nearly a decade after the high-definition Blu-ray Disc format was introduced, movie buffs and home theater consumers are finding there are still titles being released for the first time. Among the latest, 1776, the musical celebration of the founding of the United States, is being released this week by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

“I’m very happy that it is coming out on Blu-ray,” says Peter H. Hunt, the film’s director. “It’s not a major, major classic, but it is in its own right a ’classic.’ It has grown in that regard over the years. It’s like the little engine that could. It keeps chugging along. More and more people have seen it and love it.”  [Read more here...]