Displaying items by tag: Craig Miller
Where Were You in ‘73?: Remembering “American Graffiti” on its 50th Anniversary
“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...]
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bill Hunt
- History Legacy & Showmanship
- Michael Coate
- The Digital Bits
- 50th Anniversary
- George Lucas
- 1962
- 1973
- Gary Leva
- Richard Dreyfuss
- Ronny Howard
- Ron Howard
- Paul Le Mat
- Charles Martin Smith
- Candy Clark
- Mackenzie Phillips
- Cindy Williams
- Wolfman Jack
- Harrison Ford
- Universal Studios
- retrospective
- interview
- American Graffiti
- Ray Morton
- Joseph McBride
- Richard Ravalli
- Peter Krämer
- William Kallay
- Beverly Gray
- John Cork
- Rob Hummel
- Roy H Wagner
- Paul Hirsch
- Jon Burlingame
- Larry Blake
- Steve Lee
- John Rotan
- Cliff Stephenson
- Craig Miller
Criterion’s June slate, Indiana Jones in 4K update, THX 1138 at 50, more release/industry news & In Defense of Home Entertainment
Okay, we’ve got some serious ground to cover in today’s My Two Cents update, so let’s get right to it...
First, we’ve just posted Michael Coate’s brand new History, Legacy & Showmanship column here at The Bits, featuring a terrific new retrospective of George Lucas’ THX 1138 in honor of the film’s 50th anniversary (which was last week on 3/11 – the piece was delayed due to a technical issue). The column takes an in-depth look back at the original theatrical release and also features a great roundtable discussion with film historian Chris Barsanti, documentary filmmaker Gary Leva, and original Director of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm Craig Miller. I think you’ll really enjoy it. So you’ll find that here.
Next up, as some of you may have noticed over the weekend, we posted word on Saturday (see here) that video distributors had begun listing a 4-film Indiana Jones Collection for release on 4K Ultra HD on 6/8. This is still not to be considered official until Paramount and Lucasfilm make their actual announcement, however be aware that I’ve now confirmed it with multiple film industry sources in addition to retail and distribution sources. And it’s really not all that surprising given that 6/12 is marks the 40th anniversary of the original film’s theatrical release. We expect the set to include all four existing films in 4K with HDR10 high dynamic range and the previous DTS-HD Master Audio lossless sound mixes (but that’s still subject to change). [Editor’s Note: We’ve just confirmed that the set WILL include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. Details to follow shortly.] The 5-disc set will also include a disc of bonus features that are TBA. Of course, we’ll post more information on this as it comes in.
The other big news today is that our friends at The Criterion Collection have just unveiled their June slate of titles. [Read on here...]
- Lucasfilm
- Steven Spielberg
- Harrison Ford
- George Lucas
- Raiders of the List Ark 40th anniversary
- Paramount Home Entertainment
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 4K
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 4K
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 4K
- Raiders of the Lost Ark 4K
- Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection 4K
- 4K Ultra HD
- Bluray
- My Two Cents
- The Digital Bits
- Bill Hunt
- Michael Coate
- History Legacy & Showmanship
- THX 1138 50th Anniversary
- Gary Leva
- Chris Barsanti
- Craig Miller
- Criterion June Slate
- The Human Condition BD
- Streetwise BD
- Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell BD
- Pariah BD
- The Signifyin’ Works of Marlon Riggs BD
- Pickup on South Street BD
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 2Movie Collection 4K
- Mission: Impossible remastered BD
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider remastered BD
- Shout! Factory
- Explorers BD
- Vanquish
- David Lynch's Dune 4K
- Basic Instinct 4K
- Studio Canal
- Mandabi
- In Defense of Home Entertainment
- Hercules and the Captive Women BD
- The Film Detective
- Warner Archive Final 4 for 44 sale
- Media Play News
- TK Arnold
- Paramount layoffs
Love, 25th Century Style: Remembering “THX 1138” on its 50th Anniversary
“What’s fun about seeing THX 1138 now, after 50 years, is to see how George Lucas took the rather dark themes and dynamic visual storytelling of his first film and found a way to infuse them into the Saturday matinee style films of the Star Wars series. THX is not his best film, but it’s fascinating to see the seeds of his future work within it.” – Gary Leva, director of Fog City Mavericks
The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the golden anniversary of the release of THX 1138, George Lucas’s feature-length adaptation of his award-winning 1967 USC student film Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB.
Released two years before American Graffiti and six years before Star Wars, Lucas’s first motion picture starred Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now, Tender Mercies) and Donald Pleasence (You Only Live Twice, Halloween) and was about a dystopian future where love and individuality are forbidden.
THX 1138 was executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) as part of a deal in which Warner Bros. would finance and distribute American Zoetrope productions. [Read on here...]
- The Digital Bits
- Michael Coate
- History Legacy & Showmanship
- George Lucas
- Star Wars
- THX 1138
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Robert Duvall
- Donald Pleasence
- student film
- Warner Bros
- Albert Kihn
- David Myers
- Walter Murch
- dystopia
- Don Pedro Colley
- Maggie McOmie
- Ian Wolfe
- science fiction
- Chris Barsanti
- Gary Leva
- Craig Miller
- roundtable discussion
- The SciFi Movie Guide: The Universe of Film from Alien to Zardoz
- Artifact from the Future: The Making of THX 1138
- Fog City Mavericks
- Star Wars Memories