Paramount has also just officially announced the Blu-ray and DVD release of 1923: A Yellowstone Origin Story – Season One on 8/8. Extras will include Behind the Story segments for each episode and 4 featurettes (Unstoppable Change: The Adventure of 1923, I Am the Land: Teonna Rainwater, Reflecting Humanity: The Art & Craft of Editing 1923, and Inside the Series).

Lionsgate has announced that the next installment in their Vestron Video Collector’s Series will be Jimmy Huston’s My Best Friend Is a Vampire (1988) on Blu-ray on 7/25. Extras will include audio commentary with Huston and film historian Nathaniel Thompson, 2 interview featurettes (A Most Alternative Lifestyle with Tab Murphy and Ken Aguado and Gabbing with Grimsdyke with Paul Willson), the teaser and theatrical trailers, and a still gallery.

Lionsgate has also set Jalmari Helander’s WWII actioner Sisu (2022) for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 7/11.

Our friends at Kino Lorber Studio Classics have announced more new catalog titles they’re working on for release in the coming months, including Henri Decoin’s Strangers in the House (1942) on Blu-ray on 8/8 and Harley Cokliss’ Malone (1987) on Blu-ray on 8/29. Also announced as “coming soon” are Kevin Reynolds’ The Beast (1988) on Blu-ray and Ted Kotcheff’s North Dallas Forty (1979) on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD.

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment has officially set The Flash: The Complete Series and The Flash: The Ninth and Final Season for Blu-ray and DVD release on 8/29.

Warner has also set The Handmaid’s Tale: Season Five for release on 6/6, but like recent seasons of the series it’s sadly DVD only.

MVD will release Luca Bercovici’s Ghoulies (1985) on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on 9/12 as part of their MVD Rewind Collection. Also coming that day is Ghoulies II (1987) on Blu-ray only.

And for you soundtrack fans, Varese Sarabande has just announced that Basil Poledouris’ score for Starship Troopers is coming as a 2-LP Extended Edition vinyl release on 8/4. You can pre-order it here.

We also have two other pieces of news to report, and unfortunately one of them is sad indeed: We’ve learned that the great UK home entertainment company Network Distributing has ceased operations. The company’s longtime managing director, Tim Beddows, sadly passed away late last year (on November 18). And while Network has been operating since 1997, and the Network team made a yeoman’s effort to keep the company going after Beddows’ passing, they have apparently closed up shop and begun liquidating their assets. Indeed, their Network on Air website is now gone as well. Network did an amazing job bringing great film and TV titles to DVD and Blu-ray, including their superlative releases of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Prisoner, Space: 1999, UFO, numerous Hammer Films titles, and so many more. All of us here at The Digital Bits would like to tip our hats in honor of Beddows and the whole Network team, and thank them for so many years of truly great work.

And now for a more positive piece of news: Our old friend, former Bits contributor, and legendary film restorer Robert A. Harris has informed us that he’s been working with American Zoetrope’s archivist and restoration supervisor James Mockoski on a new restoration of Irving Cummings’ silent classic The Johnstown Flood (1926). The restoration was completed in 4K from 5 reels of original 35mm tinted nitrate negative, along with a final reel from a duplication negative, all carefully preserved at the George Eastman Museum. Extras will include “a large collection of 2D and 3D (anaglyph) images of Johnstown before and after the disaster, 2 interview tracks with George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor being honored and presenting the 50th Anniversary Best Actress Award, and an extraordinary conversation between Craig Barron and Ben Burtt discussing the special effects used for the film.” The film stars Carole Lombard, and Clark Gable appears as an extra. The Blu-ray release is tentatively set for 9/12. We’ll post additional details when the title becomes available for pre-order. In the meantime, here’s a look at a still from the restored film…

Now we’ve got just a few more bits of release news that we’ve confirmed with our own industry and retail sources, but that can’t quite be considered official yet...

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment will release Robert Clouse’s Enter the Dragon (1973) on 4K Ultra HD on 9/12. The title is already up for pre-order on Zavvi. We expect it to be officially announced soon, and to appear on Amazon and elsewhere as well.

Also coming to 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray from Warner are The Flash (2023), along with the animated Babylon 5: The Road Home on both formats, as well as Adult Swim’s animated film The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart on Blu-ray. The latter will include creator commentary and 2 featurettes (Hodgman and Friends and Jackson and Doc Answer Fan Questions). Look for them in the August to September timeframe.

And Sony will release the animated Resident Evil: Death Island on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on 7/25, with the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (which is now in theaters) expected to follow in early September.

We’ve updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List to include all of these titles accordingly.

And we’ll leave you today with a look at the cover art for several of the titles mentioned above and more, with Amazon.com pre-order links if available...

Stay tuned...

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