Now then, as many of you may already know, tomorrow is Prime Day on Amazon.com. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, there are going to be a TON of great deals on all kinds of products, including (very likely) Blu-ray and DVD titles. New deals will probably be posted hourly throughout the day, so you’ll want to keep checking back. As you know, The Bits is an Amazon affiliate - whenever you shop at Amazon you’re helping to support our work here at the site. So we would be extremely grateful if, as you launch your Amazon Prime Day shopping expeditions throughout the day, you’d consider clicking through one of our links first. We’ve created one just for that purpose. Here it is...
Just click on one of those images first, as you start shopping tomorrow, and not only will you get great Amazon deals, you’ll help us keep The Bits up and running. So thank you!
In news today, Olive Films has just announced a new Olive Signature line of Blu-ray and DVD titles that will “cult favorites, time-honored classics, and under-appreciated gems.” Each will include “a pristine audio and video transfer, newly designed cover art, and an abundance of exciting bonus material.” The first two titles coming in this new series are Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952) and Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar (1954). Both will be mastered from new 4K restorations. High Noon will include 5 featurettes (A Ticking Clock, A Stanley Kramer Production, Imitation of Life: The Blacklist History of High Noon, Ulcers and Oscars: The Production History of High Noon (a visual essay with rarely seen archival elements, narrated by Anton Yelchin), and Uncitizened Kane), along with the film’s theatrical trailer. Johnny Guitar will include an introduction by Martin Scorsese, audio commentary with historian and critic Geoff Andrew, and 5 featurettes (Tell Us She Was One of You: The Blacklist History of Johnny Guitar, Is Johnny Guitar a Feminist Western?: Questioning the Canon, Free Republic: The Story of Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures, My Friend, the American Friend, and Johnny Guitar: The First Existential Western). Here’s a look at the cover artwork (click to pre-order on Amazon.com)...
You can read more on the new Olive Signature Series on their official blog here.
Meanwhile, Kino Lorber has set Henri Verneuil’s The Sicilian Clan (1969) as coming soon to Blu-ray and DVD from a new 4K restoration, including both the 118-minute English cut and the 125-minute French cut. The studio has also announced Doomwatch (1972) as coming soon to Blu-ray, and other forthcoming titles that already have street dates include The Enemy Below (1957) and Fixed Bayonets! (1951) on 9/20, Chosen Survivors (1974) and The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) on 10/4, Man on Fire (1987), Witchcraft (1964), and Astro Zombies (1968) on 10/11, Trouble Man (1972) on 10/18, Wolf Lake (1980) and Boy on a Dolphin (1957) on 10/25, and Cry of the City (1948) on 11/15.
Scream Factory has set What We Become for Blu-ray and DVD release on 10/18.
Lionsgate will release Cell on Blu-ray and DVD on 9/27.
Universal has set The Darkness and Hard Target 2 for Blu-ray and DVD release on 9/6.
And HBO will release their LBJ film All the Way on Blu-ray and DVD on 9/6, featuring Bryan Cranston as President Lyndon Johnson.
Speaking of HBO, you can now pre-order Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season on Blu-ray, though the street date remains TBA. You can see the cover artwork below.
And finally today, there’s just a few hours left to enter our giveaway for a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray set of the Divergent Trilogy films from Lionsgate! The discs street tomorrow, but we’ll draw one lucky winner tonight (at 8 PM Pacific) who will get a set of the discs for free. E-mail us at: contest @thedigitalbits.com (remove the space) with the subject line: Divergent 4K Giveaway and please include your FULL MAILING ADDRESS (U.S. addresses only – sorry! – the info will NOT be used for other purposes). Good luck!
We’ll leave you for now with a look at some new Blu-ray cover artwork, with Amazon.com pre-order links...
We’ll be back in a few hours to announce the 4K Divergent Trilogy winner. Stay tuned!
- Bill Hunt (@BillHuntBits)