Meanwhile, we’ve been talking about this year’s upcoming anniversary releases of James Cameron’s The Abyss (25th) and True Lies (20th) on Blu-ray from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment for a while now.  Actor Tom Arnold has now confirmed that he and the rest of the cast shot interview material for a True Lies: 20th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray.  Watch for the official announcement of both titles over the coming weeks and months.

Speaking of Fox, on last night’s live 5by5 Screen Time podcast, host Moisés Chiullan had a great discussion about Blu-ray and DVD special feature production with our old friends (and veteran producers) Robert Meyer Burnett, Charles de Lauzirika and Brian Ward – something like the podcast equivalent of our annual Digital Bits Blu-ray Producers panel at Comic-Con in San Diego.  During the discussion, Burnett confirmed once again that Fox is not only remastering The X-Files in HD for eventual Blu-ray and syndication release, but that they’ve actually decided to go back to the original negative for the first few seasons (that originally aired in 4x3) to remaster them for 1.78:1/16x9 widescreen.  Fox’s timeframe for announcing and releasing the series on Blu-ray is still TBD.  Nevertheless, work is well underway.

[Editor’s Note: By the way, here’s a link to the Screen Time archive.  An edited recording of last night’s podcast will be available there soon – look for #53.  I should add, it’s a fine podcast.  Moisés does a heck of a good job with it, so our hats off to him!]

Finally, you may recall that, at our Comic-Con panel this past July, Shout!’s Brian Ward announced that the studio is working with Paul Rubens to bring the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse TV series to Blu-ray Disc.  Brian confirmed during last night’s podcast that work continues on the release and that the title should be out by the holidays this year, if not sooner.

Don’t forget – everything included in The Rumor Mill is here because official release announcements for these titles have yet to be made by the studios in question.  So what we post here – while it comes from fine industry and retail sources that we’ve cultivated over the last sixteen years here at The Bits – should still be considered unofficial and subject to change.  That is, after all, why it’s called The Rumor Mill.

Stay tuned…

- Bill Hunt