HBO has just listed House of the Dragon: The Complete First Season for Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD pre-order on various retail sites, including Amazon (click here for that). There’s no official street date yet announced, but multiple retail sources are telling me the date will be 12/20 (and 19 December in the UK). There’s no final cover artwork available yet, but the temp art is above left.
Meanwhile, Kino Lorber Studio Classics has revealed their plans to release Sidney Lumet’s Serpico (1973) in 4K UHD in the coming months (street date TBA), as well as Robert Benton’s Nobody’s Fool (1994) on 12/20. Both titles will feature Dolby Vision HDR and new 4K scans of the original camera negatives.
Not to be outdone, Lightyear Entertainment has announced that they’re working on a 4K Ultra HD of Jim Wynorski’s The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) for release sometime early in 2023. So file that in your list of titles we never imagined would get released on this format!
Also, Paramount has set a Sonic the Hedgehog: 2-Movie Collection for release on 4K Ultra HD in Steelbook packaging on 11/15.
Plain Archive International is releasing Park Chan-wook’s recent TV miniseries adaptation of John le Carré’s The Little Drummer Girl as a new Director’s Edition 4K Ultra HD in multiple configurations on 11/27, but unfortunately the title is already sold out in pre-orders. The series stars Florence Pugh, Michael Shannon, and Alexander Skarsgård.
And Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has set Spike Jonze’s Adaptation (2002) for release on 4K Ultra HD with a street date of 12/6. And while there’s no cover art yet, you can pre-order that here on Amazon as well.
Finally this morning, we have a couple of deaths to acknowledge...
Nikki Finke, the creator of the popular entertainment trade Deadline Hollywood Daily (now simply Deadline), has passed away. Nikki’s was a subversive, even biting, take on the goings on in this industry, but she definitely made an impact, calling out bad behavior and dubious practices wherever she saw them. Love her work or hate it, you certainly couldn’t ignore it. I was definitely a reader. Nikki was 68. You can read more here at Deadline.
And I’m also very sad to learn that the longtime Hollywood PR guru Carl Samrock has died. I first met Carl way back in 1997, when he was working with Warner Home Video president Warren Lieberfarb to promote the then-new DVD format. Carl—along with Ronnee Sass—was one of the first people in this industry to embrace our work here at The Digital Bits, and he frequently reached out to me personally to share format information, behind-the-scenes access, and other PR details or opportunities. He was also one of the kindest human beings I’ve ever met in the home video industry, always quick to greet me with a warm smile and a handshake at studio and industry events, happy to answer questions, and to eager to catch up on real life developments. Carl was just a gentleman in every sense of the word, and I’m grateful to have known him. Carl Samrock was 81. You can read more about him here at Deadline and here at The Hollywood Reporter. Thank you, my friend!
That’s all for today. Stay tuned...
(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)