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Given that it’s a Friday, there’s not a lot of announcement news to report today, but we do have a couple of things for you…
First, Disney has still not listed the James Cameron 4K titles for pre-order on Amazon (or anywhere else) here in the States, and they’re still working to make that happen. So soon as we have confirmation from the studio as to when that’s likely to happen, we’ll be sure to let you all know here.
We mentioned the other day that David Fincher’s Se7en is now available for pre-order in 4K Ultra HD box sets on Amazon UK and US. And the US street date was listed as 1/12, which we suggested was likely to change. Indeed, the dates have now changed—they’re currently listed to street on Amazon US on 5/3. So adjust your plans accordingly.
Deadline is reporting that Shout! Studios has made a deal with The Jim Henson Company to distribute via Digital and packaged media (think Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UHD) a number of movie and TV titles, including Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, and others. This comes in the wake of their previous deal with Henson for such titles as Farscape and The Storyteller.
Naturally, this deal does not include Disney-owned content featuring The Muppets, but one can only hope—given the fact that Sony recently released The Muppets Take Manhattan in 4K Ultra HD—that perhaps Disney might consider making available on the format titles like The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper.
And finally today, Variety has a great editorial piece up (it was posted yesterday) by former Paramount, Disney, and Fox exec Bill Mechanic, in which (I believe) he puts his finger exactly on the problem with Hollywood at the moment, which is a tendency to focus on making streamers and mergers rather than good movies that anyone actually wants to see (much less releasing those movies on physical media). These mergers also have the unfortunate side effect of taking beloved studio catalog titles—that many people would love to buy on Blu-ray and 4K UHD—and essentially chucking them into the Bermuda Triangle never to be seen again on disc. Anyway, it’s a good piece and I strongly recommend you all check it out.
Have a great weekend and we’ll see you all back here on Monday!
(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)