My Two Cents
All right, looks like it’s going to take us a few days to completely catch up on news from and post Con, because the announcements keep coming in…
First up though, our very own Dr. Adam Jahnke has turned in the latest edition of his excellent Burnt Offerings MOD DVD column, featuring an update on Warner Archive releases for this week (including the classic Captain Caveman animated series) and upcoming MOD/DVD-R releases too! He’s also reviewed Warner Archive’s The White Dawn on MOD DVD-R. Don’t miss it!
Also here at The Bits today, Russell Hammond has once again posted the weekly Release Dates & Artwork update with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, a portion of anything your order from Amazon after clicking through to them from our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits and we greatly appreciate it!
Now then… let’s get to some announcements news…
Well… we’re back from Comic-Con! There’s lot of entertainment news to report from the event these days (including word that the next Man of Steel film will be a team-up with Superman and Batman), but the Blu-ray/DVD release news is excellent and abundant too…
First up, on our own Digital Bits BD Producers panel, we exclusively revealed that Shout! Factory is currently hard at work on a fully-remastered Blu-ray box set of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse: The Complete Series. The show was originally finished on 1-inch analog tape, but it was shot on film and star Paul Rubens has all the original 16 and 35mm negative. So it’s all being scanned in full HD and then digitally restored and remastered. Rubens himself is working closely with producer Brian Ward and the Shout! team to create new special features, so it should be pretty terrific. We showed a special video preview during our panel that offered fans a glimpse of the restoration work, with before and after comparisons. It looks absolutely amazing! (We’ll see if there’s any chance we can show it to you here.) The set is expected to be released sometime in early 2014. The exact time frame will depend on how long it takes to finish the restoration properly – they don’t want to rush it, they want to get it right. Watch this space for more details.
All right, for the next three days, some of The Bits crew is going to be making our yearly pilgrimage down to Comic-Con in San Diego. As you know, we’re holding our regular Blu-ray panel down there on Thursday afternoon (4-5 PM in Room 5AB) so if you’re down there, we’d sure love to see you there.
Meanwhile, we have a couple things for you while we’re away…
All right, quick one for you today…
First up here at The Bits this morning, Russell Hammond has updated the Release Dates & Artwork section with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD and Video Game cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, a portion of anything you order from Amazon after clicking to them through our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits and we surely do appreciate it!
Finally, I believe we promised you some reviews, did we not? Okay… here’s a couple. Our very own Todd Doogan has just checked in with a look at a pair of recent Blu-ray releases from the folks at Kino Lorber. To be specific, he’s reviewed a pair of classic Jean Rollin titles from Redemption Films in HD, including The Grapes of Death (1978) and Night of the Hunted (1980), both of which star a former French porn star by the name of Brigitte Lahaie. They’re fascinating film, so do give them a look.
Enjoy and see you back here tomorrow with more!
Back tomorrow! Stay tuned…
- Bill Hunt
Okay… it’s Comic-Con week here at The Bits, so our regular news posts are going to be brief and to the point as we’ll be down in San Diego Wednesday through Friday. We will be posting new Blu-ray reviews all week though so be sure to check back.
Meanwhile, for those of you attending Comic-Con, we hope to see some of you down at our Blu-ray Producers 2013 panel on Thursday afternoon. We’re going to reveal some cool new titles, show great clips and you’ll get a chance to ask questions of our excellent panel of leading special edition producers and intrepid Bits staffers.
Speaking of revealing cool new titles, we may have limited Internet access to get news posted on The Bits while we’re down at the Con, but I will try to post anything interesting I hear (as well as pictures and any news from our own panel) on The Digital Bits Facebook page and/or my own personal Facebook page, so you’re welcome to check those for more regular updates.