Displaying items by tag: Ron Howard

We’ve got some MAJOR announcement news to share with you all today, we’re starting things off as always with four new disc reviews...

Tim has checked in with his thoughts on Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass’ animated The Last Unicorn (1982) in 4K Ultra HD and 4K Steelbook from Shout! Studios.

And Dennis has weighed in with this take on Norman Z. McLeod’s My Favorite Spy (1951) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, as well as Serge Bourguignon’s Two Weeks in September (1967) on Blu-ray from Kino Classics.

Now then, our friends at Shout! Studios and the Warner Archive Collection have announce major slates of Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD catalog titles for release in November and December!

The Warner Archive Collection has revealed 6 new classic Blu-ray titles for release on 11/26, including Jean Negulesco’s Humoresque (1946)—mastered from a 4K scan of original nitrate camera negative—Jack Haley Jr. That’s Entertainment! (1974)—re-constructed from original negatives and preservation elements—The Complete Thin Man Collection (1934-47)—a 6-disc set mastered from 4K scans of the best surviving elements, featuring WS Van Dyke’s pre-Code The Thin Man (1934), After the Thin Man (1936), Another Thin Man (1939), and Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), as well as Richard Thorpe’s Song of the Thin Man (1944), and Edward Buzzell’s The Thin Man Goes Home (1947)—Hanna-Barbera’s animated Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972-74) TV series—featuring 48 episodes on 6 discs—Gary David Goldberg’s Must Love Dogs (2005), and finally the Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice: Volume 4 (1937-64)—including 27 classic Looney Tunes fully restored and remastered shorts, including Friz Freleng’s Streamlined Greta Green (1937), Double Chaser (1942), Meatless Flyday (1944), Peck Up Your Troubles (1945), Along Came Daffy (1947), A Bone for a Bone (1951), Muzzle Tough (1954), Stork Naked (1955), Hyde and Go Tweet (1960), Lighter Than Hare (1960), D’ Fightin’ Ones (1961), Devil’s Feud Cake (1963), and Road to Andalay (1964), Tex Avery’s The Sneezing Weasel (1938) and Dangerous Dan McFoo (1939), Tex Avery and Bob Clampett’s The Cagey Canary (1941), Chuck Jones’ Fox Pop (1942), Mouse-Warming (1952), Double or Mutton (1955), and Hopalong Casualty (1960), Robert McKimson’s The Mouse-Merized Cat (1946), Henhouse Henery (1949), Leghorn Swoggled (1951), Muscle Tussle (1953), and Quack Shot (1954), Arthur Davis’ Holiday for Drumsticks (1949), and Norm McCabe’s The Impatient Patient (1942). Whew! [Read on here...]

Boy, we’ve got a bunch of new catalog title announcements for you today, along with a TON of new Blu-ray and 4K cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. But first, we have a few more new disc reviews...

Tim has taken a look at the new animated double-feature of Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan’s The Addams Family (2019) and The Addams Family 2 (2021) in 4K Ultra HD from Shout! Studios.

And Dennis has offered his thoughts on Frank Borzage’s The Shining Hour (1938) and King Vidor’s Northwest Passage (1940) both on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

Now then, let’s dive right into those announcements...

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has just revealed that Sidney Hayers’ Circus of Horrors (1960) is coming to 4K Ultra HD on 10/29, but with an SDR only grade (probably due to limitations with the original camera negative).

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment and HBO have set Veep: The Complete Series for release on Blu-ray on 10/22, in a new 13-disc set. This follows closely in the wake of Warner’s newly-announced release of The West Wing: The Complete Series in a new 28-disc Blu-ray set on 10/1. Both are obviously timed to the upcoming Presidential Election here in the States. They’re now available on Amazon.com and you can see the cover artwork below the break (click on each to visit the pre-order pages). [Read on here...]

Sorry for the lack of a news update yesterday, but I spent the entire day on the phone with studio and industry sources digging into upcoming 4K catalog titles. Rest assured, I’ll share more on all of that in the days and weeks to come.

In the meantime, we have some great release news for you—which we’ll share in a couple of news posts today—as well as more new disc reviews. Those include...

Stuart’s look at Jerry Hopper’s Alaska Seas (1954) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, as well as Carlotta Films’ Region B Blu-ray release of Roger Corman’s The Intruder (1962), which is one of his best films and also features one of William Shatner’s early film roles.

Dennis’ thoughts on John Farrow’s Submarine Command (1951) and Charles Vidor’s Thunder in the East (1952) both on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Tim’s look at the complete Hanna-Barbera’s Superstars 10 (1987-1988) Blu-ray box set from the Warner Archive Collection.

And finally Stephen’s take on Wellson Chin’s The Inspector Wears Skirts 2 (1989) on Blu-ray from 88 Films, as well as Michael Benveniste and Howard Ziehm’s Flesh Gordon: 50th Anniversary Edition (1974) on region-free Blu-ray from Turbine Medien.

Now then... let’s get to the announcement news, because we’ve got a bunch of it. [Read on here...]

“American Graffiti is one of those films where a filmmaker brings his youth to the screen with such a sense of sweetness and genuine nostalgia, that his or her personal recollections somehow become universal for the audience.” – Gary Leva, director of Fog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Francisco

The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this longform retrospective commemorating the golden anniversary of the release of American Graffiti, George Lucas’s popular film that nostalgically asked, “Where were you in ‘62?”

American Graffiti starred Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Ronny Howard (The Andy Griffith Show, Happy Days), Paul Le Mat (Aloha, Bobby and Rose, Melvin and Howard), Charles Martin Smith (Never Cry Wolf, The Untouchables), Candy Clark (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Blue Thunder), Mackenzie Phillips (One Day at a Time), Cindy Williams (The Conversation, Laverne & Shirley) and Wolfman Jack (popular radio DJ), plus a small, early-career performance by Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark). The film was nominated for five Academy Awards (Picture, Director, Supporting Actress—Candy Clark, Screenplay, and Film Editing). In 1995 the Library of Congress selected American Graffiti for preservation in the National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” Its most recent home media release, on 4K UHD, was in November of this year (but received less than high marks for A/V quality in most reviews).[Read on here...]

“It’s heartening to remember now, at a moment of sharp political divisions, how the whole world seemed to hold its collective breath when the three American astronauts were in mortal danger.” — Beverly Gray, author of Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon… and Beyond

The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the silver anniversary of the release of Apollo 13, Ron Howard’s popular and award-winning docudrama about the aborted 1970 Apollo 13 lunar expedition starring Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump) as astronaut Jim Lovell.

Apollo 13 — featuring Kevin Bacon (Footloose, Tremors) as Jack Swigert, Bill Paxton (Aliens, Twister) as Fred Haise, Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, CSI:NY) as Ken Mattingly, Ed Harris (The Right Stuff, The Abyss) as Gene Kranz, and Kathleen Quinlan (Twilight Zone: The Movie, Breakdown) as Marilyn Lovell — was released twenty-five years ago this summer. For the occasion The Bits features a package of statistics and box-office data that places the movie’s performance in context, along with passages from vintage film reviews, a reference/historical listing of the movie’s IMAX re-release presentations, and, finally, an interview segment with a film historian who reflects on the film two and a half decades after its debut. [Read on here...]

All right, there’s not a whole lot going on today news-wise, so we’re busy working on new disc reviews.

But we did want to check in briefly with a new interesting odds and ends.

To start with, we have a sneak peek at temp cover artwork from our retail sources (in Europe in this case) for Universal’s Spartacus and Jaws on 4K Ultra HD, which are expected to street widely in June or July (street date TBA). You can see Jaws at left and both of them below. This should be close to final, but know that it’s not actually final until the studio officially announces the titles.

Also coming from Universal on 6/2 (only at Best Buy stores in the US) is a new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook version of Ron Howard’s Apollo 13. You also can see that below. [Read on here...]

Disney has just announced that Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, directed by Ron Howard, will arrive on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 9/25 (just as we first predicted here on The Bits way back when), with the Digital release due on 9/14.

The Digital 4K offering will offer Dolby Vision HDR, but it appears that the physical 4K disc will feature HDR10 only. This would seem to be a reversal for Disney (and it’s one that appears to be the case with Avengers: Infinity War in 4K as well). Aspect ratio is 2.39:1 on all SKUs.

The 4K SKUs will feature Dolby Atmos object-based audio. There’s no 3D SKU planned for the US, but as usual it appears there will be an all-region Blu-ray 3D SKU available in the UK (click here) for those who wish to import. [Read on here...]

All right, sorry for the lack of a news post yesterday, but the reason for it is that we’re hard at work on reviews for you here at The Bits. Speaking of which, late last night I posted my thoughts on Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant in 4K Ultra HD format from 20th Century Fox. That streets today. Yesterday afternoon, I also completed a review of Arrow’s new Blu-ray edition of John Frankenheimer’s Ronin, which arrives in stores on 8/29.

Meanwhile, Tim has turned in his thoughts on Scream Factory’s fine new Teen Wolf: Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and he’s also taken an exhaustive look at the contents of Sony’s recent Spider-Man: Limited Edition Collection Blu-ray box set. Now, a number of Bits readers have asked me recently what’s in the set, do all the legacy extras carry over, and what new content there may be. Tim has answered all of those questions for you in his review. The highlight of the set if definitely the new Spider-Man 3: Editor’s Cut created by Bob Murawski – we hear it’s a definite improvement upon the theatrical cut. So do give all of the above a look.

Also know that I am currently hard at work on my review of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on 4K Ultra HD format and I hope to have that posted later today. So keep checking back for it. [Read on here…]

“[The failure of Far and Away] taught Ron Howard that even in a star-driven vehicle, the story must be strong, and that action and character elements must be well integrated in order to achieve a successful outcome.” — Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon… and Beyond author Beverly Gray

The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective article commemorating the silver anniversary of the release of Far and Away, Ron Howard’s 70mm Irish immigrant epic starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. [Read on here...]

We have just an interesting Friday post for you today, with some new Blu-ray and 4K release news…

First though, we have two new Blu-ray reviews from our own Tim Salmons, who’s taken a look at Scream Factory’s Alienator and The Angry Red Planet, both newly released in HD. Do give them a look.

Also, since we have a bit of a long holiday weekend here in the States, we’re uploading next week’s Release Dates & Artwork section today, featuring all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD news and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, anything you order from Amazon after clicking through to them from any of our links helps to support our work here at The Bits and we really do appreciate it.

Now then… back to that release news… [Read on here…]