My Two Cents
Friday, 03 February 2023 18:01

UPDATED: Station Eleven is official, plus new Paramount 4Ks, Curzon’s Wings of Desire UHD replacement, a look at the Casablanca restoration & more

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We’re finishing the week off with a trio of new disc reviews here at The Bits...

Tim has reviewed another film in Arrow’s Shawscope: Volume One Blu-ray box set, specifically Chang Cheh and Hsueh Li Pao’s The Boxer from Shantung (1972).

Stephen has taken a look at Todd Haynes’ music documentary The Velvet Underground (2021) on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

And Stephen and yours truly have given Ryan Coogler’s latest MCU installment Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) a spin on 4K Ultra HD from Marvel and Disney.

In terms of catalog release news today, our retail sources are reporting that Paramount will be bringing F. Gary Gray’s The Italian Job (2003) remake and Antoine Fuqua’s Shooter (2007)—a wide-release Amaray, as the film was released as a 4K Steelbook last year—to Ultra HD likely on 5/16. We’ve confirmed that Mimi Leder’s Deep Impact (1998) is coming to 4K as well in the next few months (street date is TBD). [Read on here...]

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You can also now add Peter Weir’s The Truman Show (1998) and Gregory Hoblit’s Primal Fear (1996) to the list of Paramount catalog titles that are now streaming digitally in 4K, which means that physical media 4Ks could follow in the coming months.

Paramount has also made Station Eleven official for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 2/21. That’s no surprise though; the title has been available for pre-order on Amazon for many weeks now.

And Turbine has announced Franck Khalfoun’s P2 (2007) for Limited Edition Blu-ray “Mediabook” release in Germany next week on February 10th, complete with Dolby Atmos und Auro 13.1 surround mixes. You’ll find that exclusively in their web store here.

While we’re talking 4K, the good people of Curzon in the UK have investigated the English SDH subtitle issue on their recent Ultra HD release of Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987 – which we’ve recently reviewed here at The Bits) and have decided to correct it with a fixed disc and a replacement program. To request a copy, you can fill out this official form here.

Also on the subject, A.Frame, the “Academy’s Guide to Movies,” has just posted a great piece by Adam Yeend on Warner’s recent 4K restoration of Casablanca, a spectacular Ultra HD release that we’ve reviewed in-depth here at The Bits. Adam talks with Sheri Eisenberg, the senior colorist at Warner Bros. Digital Imaging, who worked on the title. I think you’ll really enjoy the article, so be sure give it a look.

And one more thing on the topic of 4K: I’ve just posted a new Digital Bits “Movie Request Poll” on my Twitter feed here, asking which of three popular Warner Bros. catalog films disc fans would most like to see remastered and released in 4K Ultra HD: Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff (1983), John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981), or Milos Forman’s Amadeus (1984)? Be sure to vote in the poll and share the link with your fellow physical media fans on social media. And feel free to reply with your own most hoped for Warner 4K titles in the comments. I would also greatly appreciate it if you’d consider giving my Twitter feed (as well as The Bits’ feed) a follow, which helps us to grow The Bits and the site’s online reach in the future. Watch for more polls to follow on Twitter in the weeks ahead!

Finally today, CNet has posted a good look at the state of the theatrical business, specifically the current difficult situation the major movie theater chains find themselves in here in the US. You can find that here (and thanks to our friend Melinda B-M for the heads-up!).

That’s all for now... though fans of early aughts sci-fi/horror filmmaking might want to check back in here at The Bits around Midnight tonight for an exclusive Blu-ray trailer drop that we’ll be adding to this post right here. See you then!

[UPDATE: Here’s an exclusive sneak peek look at next week’s Blu-ray release of Nico Mastorakis’ .com for Murder (2001) from our friends at Arrow Video! Street date is 2/7 and you can pre-order the title here on Amazon. Enjoy the trailer...]

Stay tuned...

(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)

 

 

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