Also (while we’re talking Warner Bros.), we’ve learned that their 4K-upgraded Mad Max Trilogy is likely to arrive in early November as well, including Mad Max (1979), Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome remastered for physical Ultra HD.
Moving over to Lionsgate, retail sources are now indicating that the studio is tentatively planning to release Studio Canal’s new remaster of Russell Mulcahy’s Highlander (1986) on physical 4K Ultra HD in mid-September (the tentative street date is 9/14). The studio has also announced Rob Zombie’s 3 from Hell (2019) for 4K Steelbook release only at Best Buy stores on 9/28.
On the standard Blu-ray front briefly (we’ll come back to it in a moment), Lionsgate will release Michael Feifer’s Catch the Bullet on Blu-ray on 9/14.
Back to 4K for a moment: Some of you will be glad to know that you’ll be able to buy the individual Universal Classics Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection titles (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, and The Invisible Man) on 4K Ultra HD in Steelbook packaging exclusively at Best Buy stores on 10/5 (the 4K box set will of course be available widely).
And on the 4K Digital front, it appears that these Universal Classics Monsters: Icons of Horror Collection titles are starting to be upgraded to 4K HDR on iTunes/Apple TV, Vudu and elsewhere. Dracula is already up on iTunes/Apple TV and it looks like Frankenstein is about to be similarly upgraded. Also, Paramount’s Star Trek III: The Search for Spock has been updated in HD on iTunes/Apple TV (and likely elsewhere) from the new 4K remaster, much like Star Trek: The Motion Picture theatrical cut recently was (and Star Trek IV is likely to be similarly updated in the next couple of weeks too).
Back to good old regular Blu-ray for a moment, MVD is releasing William Webb’s Dirty Laundry (1987) as part of their MVD Rewind Collection on 10/5.
What’s more, our friends at Indicator Films have just announced a great slate of Limited Edition catalog Blu-ray titles for release in the UK in October, including Andrew V. McLaglen’s The Hellfighters (1968), Jack Smight’s Midway (1976), Joseph Sargent’s MacArthur (1977), and David Greene’s Gray Lady Down (1978). Street date for each is 10/18.
And finally today, this may come as a surprise to some of you, but only last month—on July 13th—did analog NTSC TV broadcasting in the U.S. finally end for good, some 80 years after it began. There are apparently a few stations in Canada still broadcasting in NTSC format until sometime next year, but the last U.S. station has finally gone dark. And I say good riddance to rabbit ears and square tube TVs that were Never Twice the Same Color. Though it certainly served us well for many decades, I shall not miss the era of analog TV.
All right, that’s all for this afternoon. We’ll be back with more tomorrow!
Stay tuned...
(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)