Paramount Home Media Announces Good Kill (Sept. 1), Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (Oct. 6) And More!!!

There are viewing riches galore on the menu from Paramount Home Media in October, but first, word arrived this past week that Paramount has added the IFC Films production of writer/director Andrew Niccol's Good Kill to its Sept. 1 release calendar.   

Blu-ray and DVD editions for this recent theatrical release will be available on that date.  The ARR for Good Kill comes in at 109 days and domestic ticket sales from the film’s limited showcase theatrical break currently stand at $316,842.

Ethan Hawke teams with filmmaker Andrew Niccol for the third time in this no-win scenario tale of a CIA drone pilot.   Their previous collaborations were Gattaca back in 1997 and In Time in 2001 … and, although Good Kill is a departure from the dystopian themes of these two earlier efforts, it still carries with it some of the underlying elements of despair and societal alienation.

Here, Ethan Hawke is Major Tommy Egan — a former air combat pilot with six tours of duty under his belt — who spends his time now in a pre-fab trailer — air conditioned and full of high tech gear — near an active runway at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.   From this close-to-home “bunker” he flies drone aircraft half a world away for the CIA.   It is a no-win scenario for him as well as a thankless, unrewarding job.  

In fact, Egan is not cut out for this type of combat.   He’s fought in the real world, where there are risks.   Here, any kid with good hand-eye coordination can do his job.  Put those crosshairs on your target, launch the hellfire missiles and be sure to stop by the supermarket on the way home for the necessary fix’ins for tonight’s BBQ.

His life is miserable.  His marriage is on the rocks.   And, there’s no satisfaction in killing the enemy … yes, the Taliban are evil little shits, but this is not a combat method that Egan can’t identify with and he takes no joy in it.   It is, in fact, destroying him.

Bonus nuggets included with Good Kill is the featurette titled “Good Kill: Behind the Scenes.”

Now to the DVD and Blu-ray goodies that Paramount has announced for delivery on Oct. 6.

First up, it is the long-awaited DVD debut of the 1980 theatrical animated feature film, Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!), which has been digitally remastered for this release.  

Directed by the team of Bill Meléndez (if it has anything to do with Charles M. Schulz and the Peanuts gang you can bet Bill Meléndez was involved as either producer or director … or both) and Phil Roman (18 Emmy nominations, with multiple wins for his work on The Simpsons and Garfield animated series), we find Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Marcie and Snoopy on their way to France as participants in a student exchange program.

Bonus features here include a newly prepared making-of featurette.

On the TV series front, Paramount Home Media has four — rather diverse — selections ready for fans to enjoy as part of this Oct. 6 Blu-ray and DVD release onslaught.  

First, we have both DVD (a double-disc set) and Blu-ray editions of all ten episodes of the Comedy Central production, South Park: The Complete Eighteenth Season.   The ageless Stan, Kyle, Eric and Kenny — and their cohorts — continue to find ways to amuse themselves (and us) with subjects that most television shows steer well clear of.

Bonus goodies include uncensored presentations for all ten episodes, deleted scenes and “mini” commentaries from the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Next up on the Oct. 6 release calendar are three-disc Blu-ray and three-disc DVD collections of Penny Dreadful: The Complete Second Season.

Josh Hartnett (as Ethan) and Eva Green (as Vanessa) return for ten new thrill-packed adventures spun around classic 19^th Century literary characters — Dorian Grey (Reeve Carney), Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and his Creature (Rory Kinnear) — plus explorer Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) and his sidekick Sembene (Danny Sapani) … and, of course, the resurrected Brona Croft/Lily Frankenstein (Billie Piper).   

This second season’s story arc involves the Nightcomer Witches — Evelyn Poole/Madame Kali (Helen McCrory) and Hecate Poole (Sarah Greene) and their minions.

Bonuses for Penny Dreadful: The Complete Second Season include interview sessions, a video production blog and five featurettes — “Reeve Carney Round Table,” “History of the Occult,” “Character Profile,” “Evelyn Poole's Mansion” and “Behind-the-Scenes.”

Making its debut on Oct. 6 is the double-disc DVD release of Happyish:  Season One, starring Steve Coogan as Thom Payne, an advertising executive, who begins to question all the crap he’s been pushing.   Kathryn Hahn plays his “Stepford” yuppie wife, who is an artist and conflicted over motherhood, Jewish guilt and her career.

Lastly, Oct. 6 marks the arrival of a colossal 46-disc collection of Mission Impossible: The Original Televison Series — all 171 episodes!!!

Not done yet!   Oct. 6 is also the street date for director David Von Ancken’s ambitious mini-series, Tut, starring Avan Jogia as King Tutankhamun and Ben Kingsley as the crafty Grand Vizier Ay.  Both DVD (three disc set) and Blu-ray (double-disc) sets will be available.

The famous “Boy Pharaoh” of Egypt’s 18^th Dynasty is presented here in full splendor, including his incestuous relationship with his wife/sister, Queen Ankhe (Sibylla Deen), and enough court intrigues to make the cast of Game of Thrones envious. 

Bonus features include four production featurettes — “Inside the Series,” “The Costumes of Tut,” “History Revealed” and “Unmasking the Legend: The Making of Tut.”