Writer/Director Joel Potrykus’ Buzzard Heads To DVD On Sept. 15 Courtesy Of Oscilloscope Laboratories

Who knew that the streets, abandoned buildings and the occasional upscale hotel of a decaying Detroit would be a magical sanctuary for a daydreaming smalltime con man.   

Oscilloscope Laboratories announced this past week that writer/director Joel Potrykus’ quirky black comedy, Buzzard, will be heading to DVD on Sept. 15.  The ARR is 193 days … the film’s run to date is actually a mix of numerous film festivals (both domestic and international) during 2014 and 2015, plus a brief arthouse showcase run to gather mainstream critical reviews.  The buzz for Buzzard has been good, but now comes the time for a wider audience with the home entertainment release.

Meet Marty (Joshua Burge — Ape), he is bored with his mundane office job.  He’s sort of a bug-eyed younger version of Steve Buscemi, with a knack for coming up with unimaginative confidence schemes.   

 They all seem inspired to him and range from working without actually doing any work, ordering unnecessary office supplies (which are returned for cash) and other near-worthless penny ante cons.   They are time wasting and without much in the way of reward.   

But then the BIG con falls right into his lap.   Well, big by Marty’s standards.  His supervisor hands him a stack of returned insurance refund checks and tells him to find out the new addresses so that they can be forwarded.

Ca-Ching!  All he has to do is figure out ways to cash them.   Six dollars here, $12.98 there … easy money.  And he’s being paid to do it!

His only friend — and we use the word “friend” loosely — is a co-worker named Derek (Joel Potrykus).   He’s a sad sack too.   And there in lies the path to Marty’s eventual undoing.

After a few days at Derek’s eating junk food and playing video games he snaps.  All of those hidden cameras tracking his check cashing scam.  His paranoia has him convinced that the authorities will be there any moment to scoop him up, so it’s time to take it on the lam.  Hello Detroit!

After a nice set-up — where we get to know and “appreciate” Marty — filmmaker Joel Potrykus takes him on a magical journey to the wasteland of Detroit.  Our hero scurries here and there in sort of a demented Disneyland as a massive police dragnet slowly closes in.   Unhinged and just plain weird … but he does, in the end, find Shangri La!

Bonus features for this one-of-a-kind comedy include the featurette titled “Buzzard at the Locarno Film Festival” and an outtake reel.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment To Release Five Came Back On DVD On June 23

1939 was a very good year for film.   The Russians and Germans didn’t invade Poland until September, the worst of the Great Depression was behind most Americans and Hollywood had made amazing technological advances since the launch of The Talkie a decade earlier.

It was the year of Gone With the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Dark Victory, Stagecoach, Of Mice and Men and The Wizard of Oz.   And so many more, including director John Farrow’s Five Came Back, starring none other than Lucille Ball, along with Chester Morris, John Carradine, Allen Jenkins, Wendy Barrie and Joseph Calleia.   

The film’s script was by Jerome Cady (Oscar nominated for Wing and a Prayer), Dalton Trumbo (Oscar winner for both The Brave One and Roman Holiday) and Nathanael West (whose landmark novel, “The Day of the Locust,” was published just weeks before Five Came Back opened theatrically).

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced that a newly remastered edition of Five Came Back will be making its long-overdue DVD debut on June 23.

Other film releases making their DVD bow on the same date include Banjo, Gypsy Colt, Hugo the Hippo and Lad: A Dog.

Lon Chaney, the man of a thousand faces, will also be the focus of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s June 23 DVD hit parade with the release of the Lon Chaney: The Warner Archive Classic Collection.

Included here are five of his classic silent film performances, plus his only “Talkie,” director Jack Conway’s 1930 film release of The Unholy 3.

Among the silent films in this set are He Who Gets Slapped, Mockery, The Monster, Mr. Wu and director Tod Browning’s original silent version of The Unholy 3.

Lastly, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced that on Sept. 21 director Sidney Lumet’s 1975 Oscar nominee for Best Picture, Dog Day Afternoon, will be getting a “40^th Anniversary” makeover for release on Blu-ray.

Bonus features include commentary by director Sidney Lumet, the previously released four-part production featurette titled “The Making of Dog Day Afternoon” and a DVD bonus disc presentation of the 2009 documentary from Richard Shepard, I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale.

VCI Entertainment Preps Four-Film Noir Collection For DVD Release On Aug. 18

VCI Entertainment announced this past week a pair of four-film collections for delivery on DVD this coming Aug. 18.

First up is Noir Collection, which kicks off with director Russell Rouse’s 1955 mob thriller, New York Confidential, starring Broderick Crawford as Charlie Lupo, a dealer in death and the head of the New York operation of a nationwide crime operation — aka: the syndicate.   His main henchmen is Arnie Wendler (Mike Mazurki), but when a hit goes south out of town muscle Nick Magellan (Richard Conte) is given the assignment by Lupo to clean up the mess. 

With rats turning on rats, Arnie decides to sing like a canary before Nick can turn out his lights.   That’s bad for Lupo, the other bosses don’t like squealers, so Nick gets a new assignment ... and we all know that loose ends will be cut by the film’s final fade.

Anne Bancroft co-stars as Lupo’s daughter, who meets a deadly end herself.  

Next up is director Samuel Fuller’s 1964 neo noir The Naked Kiss, starring Constance Towers as Kelly, a reformed hooker, who has a dreamy courtship with the wealthy J.L. Grant (played by Michael Dante), only to discover a secret so terrible that she kills him.   Anthony Eisley as the local police chief, a one-time lover, and best friend of her victim … it looks like death row for poor Kelly if she can’t expose Grant’s filthy secret.   

Director St. John L. Clowes’ No Orchids for Miss Blandish is a 1948 British import that stars Linden Travers (The Lady Vanishes, The Stars Look Down) as Miss Blandish, the heir to a massive fortune, who is the victim of a robbery gone wrong that quickly escalades into multiple murders and a clash between rival gangs over her kidnap ransom.   

 She is to be murdered and the money collected anyway, but she falls in love with one of the gang members — Slim Grisson (Jack La Rue — Paper Bullets, Dangerous Passage, etc.) — and the two plan their getaway.   It all ends badly.

And the last entry in VCI Entertainment’s Noir Collection is director Fritz Lang’s 1948 film noir gem, Scarlet Street, starring Edward G. Robinson as Christopher Cross a milquetoast cashier and would-be artist who is stuck in a loveless marriage.   When he meets Kitty (Joan Bennett), a hooker, his life quickly spirals out of control.

The other four-film collection on VCI Entertainment’s Aug. 18 release calendar is the Dirk Bogarde Collection, Volume 2.

Included in the set are: Once a Jolly Swagman (aka: Maniacs on Wheels — 1949, directed by Jack Lee featuring post-war motorcycle racing in England), Boys in Brown (1949, directed by Montgomery Tully, an early forerunner to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner) Hunted (aka: The Stranger in Between — 1952, directed by Charles Crichton) and Dear. Mr. Prohack (1949, comedy directed by Thornton Freeland).

   

Wolfe To Release Seashore On DVD This Coming Aug. 4

The Brazilian filmmaking tandem of Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon will see their award-winning film, Seashore, released on DVD in the domestic market by Wolfe on Aug. 4.

Martin (Mateus Almada) is dispatched by his father to Rio Grande do Sul — on Brazil’s southern border with Uruguay — to deal with issues at an old holiday home.   Get there, get it done, get back home … besides, there is nothing to do there.

To break up the monotony of the trip, Martin brings along his old grade school friend, Tomaz (Mauricio José Barcellos).   They haven’t spent much time together in recent years, so this little trip will serve, so Martin thinks, as a time to reconnect.

At first Rio Grande do Sul is exactly as expected.   It is a place where there is little to do.   But the serenity gives both Martin and Tomaz time to reconnect, plus there are local teens like themselves.   Alcohol, partying and time to reflect make this trip to Rio Grande do Sul something that Martin or Tomaz never expected, or will soon forget.

Seashore is presented in Portuguese with English subtitles.

Well Go USA To Release DVD And Blu-ray Editions Of Jackie Chan's Latest, Police Story: Lockdown On Aug. 11

Patience is for the hunter and revenge is a dish served cold.   Nightclub owner Wu Jiang (Liu Ye — Dark Matter, City of Life and Death) has the patience of a hunter and his need for revenge has made him a killer with a heart that has grown cold. 

This is what Jackie Chan is up against in Well Go USA’s Aug. 11 DVD and Blu-ray release of Police Story: Lockdown, the sixth installment in the venerable Police Story line of films that date all the way back to 1985.   

After scoring big theatrical numbers in China, the film made its domestic debut on June 5 … this yields an ARR of 67 days (domestic box office results have not been posted yet).

The Wu Bar (filmed on location in Bejing) is the hunting ground for Jiang and it is to this upscale nightclub that the last element in his sinister game of death is lured.   This would be Police Captain Zhong Wen (Chan), who thinks he is going there to persuade his estranged daughter (played by Tian Jing — Special ID, Tears in Heaven, The Warring States, etc.) that Jiang is not the man for her.

Instead, before he can say “Mai Tai, please,” he is bludgeoned unconscious and awakes to find himself wired to a chair where the real reason he is there is revealed.  The Wu Bar is actually an elaborate trap, wired with explosives and riddled with secret passages.   Jiang will have his revenge tonight!

To save his daughter Zhong must meet his captor’s demands.   Cooperate fully knowing full well that his survival is unlikely … ah, but this is Jackie Chan and we all know how resourceful he can be!!!

Police Story: Lockdown is presented in Mandarin with English subtitles.  Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes featurette and newly prepared interview sessions with director Sheng Ding (Little Big Soldier), the film’s star, Jackie Chan, and other members of the cast.

Paramount Home Media Prepares First September 2015 Release Wave With Madam Secretary, Scorpion, Blue Bloods And More

Paramount Home Media Distribution dipped its release toe in the warm waters of September with a flurry of new product offerings this past week.

The action begins on Sept. 1 with three TV series collections — two of which are making their debut in the home entertainment market place — plus a documentary on the life and times of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt and the latest edition of Nickelodeon’s CGI-generated adventures of PAW Patrol.

First to the Television excitement and the debut of Téa Leoni as Dr. Elizabeth Faulkner McCord, a former CIA analyst who is whisked into the position of Secretary of State, in the six-disc DVD collection of Madam Secretary: Season One.

The launch of the half-dozen “test” episodes proved to be so successful that CBS ordered a full season (all 22 episodes are presented here) and then a little over halfway through the season re-upped it for a full second season.

Bonus features for this action and intrigue series include episode commentaries, deleted scenes, the featuette titled “Extraordinary Credentials: The Making of Madam Secretary Season One,” a video session from the Politico Playbook Luncheon and a cross-promotion bonus episode from The Affair (season one, episode one).

Also making its home entertainment debut on Sept. 1 is the six-disc DVD and five-disc Blu-ray, 22 episode collection of Scorpion: Season One (with UltraViolet).

Based loosely on the real life of self-promoting “genius” Walter O'Brien (who is also counted among the producers of the series) and starring Elyes Gabel (World War Z, Body of Proof, A Most Violent Year, etc.) as O'Brien, the head of an elite team of geniuses (Team Scorpion) who take on dangerous hackers and other sophisticated criminal undertakings that are beyond the capabilities of either the government agencies that recruit them or their corporate counterparts (ranging from art museums to Las Vegas casinos).

Bonus nuggets include selected audio commentaries, eight production featurettes, including “Building Team Scorpion” and “Unlikely Heroes: The Making of Scorpion Season 1,” deleted scenes and a gag reel.

Rounding out the TV series releases of Sept. 1 is the six-disc DVD set of Hawaii Five-O: The fifth Season, starring Alex O'Loughlin, Scott Caan and Daniel Dae Kim in the successful 2010 reboot of the “Five-O” Hawaii-based detective series.

Bonus features include selected audio commentaries, deleted scenes, a gag reel, the Freelance Riot music video titled “Sweet Disaster” and five featurettes.

Documentary filmmaker Jeff Cvitkovic teamed with NASCAR Productions and Spike TV for an insightful look at the life and racing career of the late Dale Earnhardt in the feature-length film, I Am Dale Earnhardt.   It will be available for fans to own on DVD on Sept. 1.

This is the fourth “I Am” entrant in the bio documentary series from Spike TV — Dale Earnhardt joins Bruce Lee, Seven McQueen and Evel Knievel.   Interview sessions featured in the I Am Dale Earnhardt release include such NASCAR greats as Jimmie Johnson, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon and Richard

Childress.

Rounding out the Sept. 1 slate of new releases is Nickelodeon’s DVD presentation of PAW Patrol: Meet Everest!   The adventures of the newest addition to the PAW Patrol, Everest the Husky … and his first assignment is a doozy, he has to help rescue Jake who is lost at the South Pole.

The first post-Labor Day release on Paramount Home Media’s schedule is the Sept. 8 six-disc DVD set of Blue Bloods: The Fifth Season.  

The Reagan clan is back for more NYPD cases … headed by Tom Selleck as Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Danny Reagan, Will Estes as Officer Jamie Reagan and Bridget Moynahan as Executive Assistant District Attorney Erin Reagan.

Bonus features include selected commentary, deleted scenes, a gag reel, the featurette titled “Blue Bloods 100th Episode: A Celebration” and five additional production featurettes.

In other release news from Paramount Home Media, the short-lived Hulu comedy series, Resident Advisors (all seven episodes), starring Jamie Chung (Eden, The Hangover Part III, The Man with the Iron Fists, etc.) as the head advisor of a group of unmanageable college RAs.   The street date will be Aug. 4 for the DVD release.

The following week, Aug. 11, documentary filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng’s fashion-world exposé, Dior and I, has been added to Paramount’s DVD release schedule.

This indie theatrical pickup arrives with an ARR of 123 days and the limited major metro and arthouse run generated an impressive $980,971 in ticket sales.   That’s a very solid number for both an indie release (CIM Productions with theatrical distribution through The Orchard) and a documentary.

The fashion dynasty of the House of Christian Dior in Paris has a new creative director, Raf Simons, and his efforts to launch a new collection — in just eight weeks — are explored in depth.  

Wild Eye Releasing Sets Loose A Plague So Pleasant On DVD On Aug. 25

Indie filmmakers Benjamin Roberds and Jordan Reyes have clearly seen their share of zombie-themed thrillers.   So their vision of the aftermath of a zombie plague touches all the right bases (think: Night of the Living Dead), but then takes our undead “friends” down a very different rabbit hole.   

Their film, A Plague So Pleasant, will be making its way to DVD on Aug. 25 courtesy of Wild Eye Releasing, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group.

A year has passed since the world faced a zombie apocalypse, hundreds of millions died in a World War Z-like conflict.   But then something amazing happened, the human survivors discovered that if they simply let their undead brethren alone, the zombies would simply shuffle along peacefully.

It’s not exactly kumbaya time, but life — and undead-life — has sort of returned to normal.   Clay (David Chandler) understands that the carnage has stopped, but he’s not happy with this zombie co-existence, especially since his sister Mia (Eva Boehnke) is seemingly obsessed with an on-going relationship with her undead boyfriend.

What to do, what to do … a violent intervention could set anew the zombie apocalypse, but visions of Mia and her blood-drooling lover might be too much for Clay to deal with.   Armageddon or peace, the world is clearly at a crossroads in A Plague So Pleasant.

Also on the release calendar from Wild Eye Releasing is the June 23 DVD release of writer/director Jason Hawkins’ All American Bully.

John Brooks (Daren Ackerman) roams the school hallways looking for easy targets.   Geeks are easy to push around and one such member of this high school “tribe” is Devon (Alexander Fraser), who runs afoul of John and his minions and takes a beating for it.

That’s the least of it, while knocking him around they also forced Devon to do a video about just how gay he is and they plan on posting it on the web.  Physical terror and social disgrace … the ultimate bullying weapons.

But Devon has a little something on John and when fellow geek, Becky (Alicia Rose) decides its time to fight back with a little video manifesto of her own … it could be all-out war!

Bonus features include behind the scenes interviews.

Artsploitation Films Will Release Writer/Director Curtis Burz’s The Summer House On DVD This Coming Aug. 25

Say no to the voices and do the right thing.   That’s the challenge facing Markus Larsen (Sten Jacobs) in writer/director Curtis Burz’s The Summer House, which will be making its domestic DVD debut on Aug. 25 courtesy of Artsploitation Films.

Markus is a moderately successful architect, living a comfortable life on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany with his wife, Christine (Anna Altmann) and their 12-year old daughter, Elisabeth (Nina Splettstöber).   But it is not all wine and roses as the Larsen marriage is definitely on the rocks.

Markus, it seems, has an addiction.   No, it is not drugs or alcohol, but his addiction is one of a sexual nature.   He is into men, but still finds time for the occasional rough-sex session with Christine.   

It is a home and marriage that reads like quiet desperation.   Christine suspects her husband’s secret and their daughter is at the age where she notices the friction.   

That’s your set up.   A family in trouble, a daughter coming-of-age, a professional with problems and his wife is not happy, perhaps even suicidal.  Now how can you make that any worse?

When, Johannes (Jaspar Fuld), the son of a business associate — who is about the same age as Elisabeth — enters the picture, it is a temptation that Markus finds nearly irresistible.   It is, by any standard, a forbidden desire, even criminal.

But don’t assume that the predator is Markus.   Johannes’ father is in serious financial waters and the boy is a quick study in the art of manipulation.

The Summer House is an intense look at the unraveling of a man.   It is a car wreck … a devastating one, that is impossible to turn away from.

Presented in German with English subtitles.  Bonus features include cast and crew interviews, an alternate ending and deleted scenes.

Midnight Releasing Selects Aug. 11 For The DVD Debut Of Zombie Resurrection

Midnight Releasing has tabbed Aug. 11 for the DVD debut of the British zombie import from the writing and directing team of Andy Phelps and Jake Hawkins.  The title is Zombie Resurrection and it has something of a different take on this popular film genre.

It’s been over a year since the world suffered a zombie plagued (likely a bio weapon of some kind) and in this post-apocalypse landscape we meet a half-dozen survivors who are trying to make their way to safety.   Nothing uncommon about this scenario, survivors seeking a safe haven — that’s right out of the Resident Evil film series.   

Here is where Phelps and Hawkins throw us a curse.  Our little band of survivors come across a zombie horde, bumping around, looking unkept and in search of human flesh.   But among them is this gentle, bearded and blind zombie (played by Rupert Phelps) who seems to at peace with his existence.

Zombies are terrifying enough, but these survivors have learned how to deal with them, but when they see this “Messiah” lay his hand upon one of the undead it is enough to give one nightmares.   The undead, once touched, is resurrected — cured — and is immediately set upon by the zombies that mingle around him (or her), ripped to pieces and devoured.   

Nightmares, indeed, this place that they’ve come to is an endless cycle of carnage.  To hum a few bars from The Animals 1966 rock classic, “We gotta get out of this place … If it’s the last thing we ever do!”   

Bonus features for Zombie Resurrection include the production featurette titled “Shooting The Dead: The Making of Zombie Resurrection.”

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Tabs Sept. 8 For DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Director Lee Toland Krieger’s The Age of Adaline

Lionsgate Home Entertainment has selected the first available post-Labor Day street date (Sept. 8) for Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and DVD editions of director Lee Toland Krieger’s The Age of Adaline.

The ARR is 137 days and the box office gross was a nice $42.1 million.

Adaline (Blake Lively) lives a bittersweet life of 107 years, even though she never ages beyond that of a 29-year old.    A freak accident has left her to a life of romance and sadness … and now it has come full circle again.

Bonus include commentary from director Lee Toland Krieger, a trio of featurettes — “A Love Story for the Ages,” “Style Throughout the Ages,” and “Discovering Young Harrison Ford: Anthony Ingruber, An Online Sensation” — and deleted scenes.

The Criterion Collection Announces Its September 2015 DVD And Blu-ray Release Slate

Tender Mercies may have earned director Bruce Beresford an Oscar nomination for Best Director in 1984, and his Driving Miss Daisy may have won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989, but ask cinephiles in his native Australia what his best work is, and they’ll all tell you it is Breaker Morant.

The 1980 film about the 1902 court martial (during the Boer War) of Lt. Harry “Breaker” Morant and two other lieutenants — all accused of the murder of a POW and the massacre of others — stands as a seminal work of Australian cinema.  Beresford’s look at what causes regular men to commit war atrocities helped influence other Australian New Wave war films from the country, including Gallipoli and The Lighthorsemen.

The Sept. 22 Blu-ray release comes with a new 4K digital restoration, supervised by Beresford, with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack, a vintage (2004) Beresford audio commentary and newly prepared interview sessions with Beresford, cinematographer Donald McAlpine and actor Bryan Brown.  Plus there is a 2004 interview with actor Edward Woodward and a new featurette about the Boer War from historian Stephen Miller.

Also streeting on Sept. 22 Beresford’s 1990 film release of Mister Johnson, a drama based on the 1939 novel of the same name by Joyce Cary.  Set in 1923 British Colonial Nigeria (and starring Pierce Brosnan), the film follows Mister Johnson, a Nigerian villager who works for the local British magistrate.  But educated or not, his schemes, ambitions and attempts to get ahead only end up leading to his downfall.

The Blu-ray’s new 4K digital restoration was supervised by Beresford and includes an uncompressed stereo soundtrack, and bonus features include new video interviews with Beresford, producer Michael Fitzgerald and actors Maynard Eziashi and Pierce Brosnan.

Another September Criterion title of note comes from Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski.  You know him from the fantastic Three Colors trilogy (and the also highly celebrated, but slightly less entertaining epic The Decalogue).   Before those cinematic works of art Kieślowski brought us his first offering, the drama Blind Chance (available on Sept. 15). 

Initially censored by the Polish government (filmed in 1981, but unavailable there until 1987), Blind Chance offers three different storylines and three different outcomes for medical student Witek (Boguslaw Linda) as he tries to catch a train.  Such a seemingly small detail in life can result in wildly disparate paths for his life, depending on who he bumps (or runs) into, whom he speaks with, and whether or not he actually boards that train. 

Along with the 4K digital restoration of the film, Criterion’s Blu-ray includes a new interview with Polish film critic Tadeusz Sobolewski, a 2003 interview with Polish film and TV director Agnieszka Holland, nine parts of the film originally censored by Poland’s Central Film Board, an essay by film critic Dennis Lim and a 1993 interview with director Kieślowski.

Wes Anderson fans are also in for a treat with the Sept. 22 release of Moonrise Kingdom, an Oscar-nominated (best original screenplay) 2012 piece that follows two 12-year-olds who fall in love and run away, only to be dogged by local authorities and threatened by a hurricane and flood.  

The director-approved special edition includes a restored 2K digital transfer, supervised by Anderson, an audio commentary with Anderson, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola, storyboard animatics, interviews with cast and crew, an original documentary, behind-the-scenes footage, auditions and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien, a map of New Penzance Island and more.

On Sept. 29, Criterion has two more in store: the documentary-style crime film The Honeymoon Killers and the Oscar-winning romance drama A Room with a View (starring Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith).

Director Marni Zelnick’s Druid Peak Makes Its DVD Debut From Indie Rights, Inc. On July 21

Indie Rights, Inc., a subsidiary of Nelson Madison Films, with home entertainment sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed July 21 for the DVD debut of director Marni Zelnick’s Druid Peak.

There is no getting around it, Owen Wagner (Spencer Treat Clark — Cymbeline, Deep Dark Canyon, The Last House on the Left, etc.) is every kid’s worst nightmare (teen or otherwise).   He’s not just a bully, but a violent one with a ten-ton chip on his shoulder.   The anger rages and any little thing can set him off.

He’s a teenager, he should be home on a school night, but drinking and partying are a better choice for him.   It is on such a night that the police intervene and during the mad scramble to escape from getting busted his actions lead to the dead of a fellow student.

That’s your introduction to Owen.  Yes, it was an accident, but that is more than his mother and stepfather can handle.  So he is shipped off to the wilds of Wyoming to live with his father, Everett (Andrew Wilson — Bottle Rocket, The Big Bounce, Fever Pitch), a biologist whose focus is on the reintroduction of wolves into the wilds, in this case the 2.2 million acres that comprise the Yellowstone National Park.

Father and son?   You would never guess it.   They are opposites, Owen rages with anger, while Everett is seemingly at peace with the world.   This is not going to work … and besides, there is nothing to do out here.

It is here, in this peaceful place, that Owen — while out blowing off his latest mad-on — encounters one of the wolves.   From this single encounter he begins to find a outlet; a path to redemption and peace within.   

Druid Peak doesn’t preach, but its message is clear.  Life is about choices.  The path to making life-affirming ones is not always clear … sometimes it takes a walk in the woods to find that hidden path.

20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment Targets Aug. 4 As The Street Date For Blu-ray And DVD Editions Of Director Thomas Vinterberg’s Far From the Madding Crowd Remake

20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment will release both Blu-ray and DVD editions of director Thomas Vinterberg’s remake of the Thomas Hardy novel, Far From the Madding Crowd (originally made famous by director John Schlesinger in 1967 with Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Alan Bates and Peter Finch) on Aug. 4.

The ARR is a swift-to-market 95 days and domestic ticket sales were $10.7 million.

Carey Mulligan reprises the Julie Christie role, while Tom Sturridge, Matthias Schoenaerts and Michael Sheen take up the respective male leads from 1967 version.   Bonus features include nine featurettes and deleted scenes.