In a follow-up to yesterday’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Extended Edition announcement news, we’ve learned that in addition to the Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray packages, you’ll also be able to buy each version in a special “deluxe” edition box that comes with a WETA statuette depicting the Dwarves’ barrel ride down the rapids in Mirkwood. We assume there’s a DVD version too, but nothing has yet appeared on Amazon. Here’s all four versions, with cover artwork and pre-order links…

In other news today, Lionsgate has set Mad Men: The Final Season – Part 1 for Blu-ray and DVD release on 10/21. Click the link to pre-order.

Lionsgate has also set The Prince for Blu-ray and DVD release on 10/28. The film stars Bruce Willis, John Cusack and Jason Patric.

Olive Films has announced the Blu-ray and DVD release of Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) on 11/11, starring John Wayne and Forrest Tucker, followed by Cauldron of Blood (1971 – a.k.a. Blind Man’s Bluff) starring Boris Karloff on 10/14.

Anchor Bay Entertainment and RADiUS-TWC have set 14 Blades for release on Blu-ray on 9/2. The film stars Donnie Yen.

Shout! Factory has announced that they’re releasing Ben Stassen’s Thunder and the House of Magic in theaters on 9/5, to be followed by a home video release at a later date TBA.

Dark Sky Films will release Willow Creek on Blu-ray on 9/9.

And Millennium Entertainment will release Dead Within on DVD on 9/9 as well.

Finally today, a number of Bits readers have asked when Disney will release Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises on Blu-ray here in the States. The pattern that’s usually followed is that Disney waits at least a good six months after these films are released on Blu-ray in Japan, which – in the case of The Wind Rises – was mid June. Note that Spirited Away was released on BD in Japan on 7/16, and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro comes out on BD in Japan today. There was also a pretty elaborate 11-film, 13-disc Complete Miyazaki BD box set released in Japan on 7/2. Given all of that, and assuming that Disney follows their usual pattern, the earliest you’d probably see The Wind Rises on BD here (likely accompanied by one or two other Ghibli BDs) would be Q1 or Q2 of 2015. We’ll certainly post updates as they come in.

Here’s a look at a little more Blu-ray cover artwork for Kino Lorber’s Planet of the Vampires (directed by Mario Bava – due 10/28), Gorky Park (10/21), and Mulholland Falls (10/7), Lionsgate’s The Prince, Well Go USA’s Child of God (due 10/28) and Kundo (10/21), and Olive Films’ Cauldron of Blood, Sands of Iwo Jima, and Dragonfly Squadron (in both BD and BD3D, due 10/14)…

Stay tuned…

- Bill Hunt