Now then, the big news today is that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has just officially set their long-awaited Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 2 box set for release on 9/14. The set will include Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Carol Reed’s Oliver! (1968), Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976), Ivan Reitman’s Stripes (1981), Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility (1995), and David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010), along with an 80-page book.
The collection will also include a Blu-ray bonus disc that presents 20 classic short films from the Columbia Pictures library in HD (including Umpa, The Three Stooges: Disorder in the Court, Charley Chase: Man Bites Lovebug, Color Rhapsodies: The Little Match Girl, Charley Chase: The Sap Takes a Wrap, Color Rhapsodies: Dog, Cat and Canary, The Ragtime Bear, The Wonder Gloves, Georgie and the Dragon, Madeline, Pete Hothead, The Tell-Tale Heart, When Magoo Flew, The Man on the Flying Trapeze, Christopher Crumpet’s Playmate, Stage Door Magoo, April in Portugal, The Chubbchubbs!, The Early Hatchling Gets the Worm, and Puppy!: A Hotel Transylvania Short).
In terms of AV specs, Anatomy of a Murder will include HDR10 and Dolby Atmos audio. Oliver! will include HDR10 and Dolby Atmos audio. Taxi Driver will include Dolby Vision HDR and DTS-HD Master Audio. Stripes will include both the theatrical and extended editions in HDR10 with Dolby Atmos audio. Sense and Sensibility will include HDR10 and Dolby Atmos audio. And The Social Network will include Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos audio.
All of the previous Blu-ray special features should carry over here and you’ll also get some new features on each title. The new content will include audio commentary with historian Foster Hirsch on Anatomy of a Murder, audio commentary with historian Steven C. Smith and a Jack Wild Screen Test on Oliver!, the 20th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer on Taxi Driver, a new 2-part 40 Years of Stripes on-camera reunion of Bill Murray and Ivan Reitman and the Theatrical Trailer on Stripes, the 25th Anniversary Reunion: Back to Barton Cottage featurette on Sense and Sensibility, and Theatrical Trailers on The Social Network. Again, this is in addition to the legacy special features.
Here’s a look at the packaging (click here or on the image to pre-order the title on Amazon.com)...
Also today, Studio Canal’s long-anticipated 4K Ultra HD release of Akira Kurosawa’s Ran is now available for pre-order on Zavvi US (click here) and Zavvi UK (click here). Street date is expected to be 7/19. Note that this is an import release, so the 4K should not be region locked by the Blu-rays in the package may be. You can see the cover artwork below.
Note that we’ve updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List here at The Bits accordingly.
And finally, we need to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of actor Ned Beatty. Beatty was of course well known for his roles on such films as Network, Deliverance, Superman: The Movie, Rudy, Back to School, and many more. He was also a regular on TV’s Homicide: Life on the Street, and was an accomplished stage actor as well. Beatty was 83. You can read more on his life and work here at The New York Times today.
All right, we’ll leave you with a look at the cover artwork for Akira Kurosawa’s Ran in 4K (with a link to the Zavvi US pre-order page) as more (with the usual Amazon links if available)...
Stay tuned!
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