Mill Creek Entertainment Expands Its June DVD Release Package With Merlin Mini-Series And More!

Mill Creek Entertainment expanded its already busy June home entertainment release calendar with five new priced-to-collect DVD product offerings this past week.

Added the June 6 package is director Steve Barron’s 1998 epic mini-series Merlin, starring Sam Neill as King Arthur’s wizard mentor, Merlin.   Others in the cast include Miranda Richardson as the Lady of the Lake (she also pulls double-duty as Queen Mad), Helena Bonham Carter as Morgan le Fay, Paul Curran as Arthur, plus the likes of Martin Short, James Earl Jones, Rutger Hauer and Sir John Gielgud.

The timing of the DVD release of Merlin by Mill Creek Entertainment couldn’t be more spot-on as Warner Bros. mega-budget production of director Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword hits theatres nationwide on May 17.

Also on the way to retailers on June 6 are four movie collections.  First up is a set of five early John Wayne Westerns, which is being promoted as John Wayne: American Legend.   Included in the group are Riders of Destiny (1933, with Gabby Hayes and Cecilia Parker), Sagebrush Trail (also 1933, with Yakima Canutt, Lane Chandler and Nancy Shubert), The Lucky Texan (early 1934 release that includes both Yakima Canutt and Gabby Hayes, plus Barbara Sheldon), West of the Divide (1934, Canutt, Hayes and Virginia Brown Faire) and lastly, Blue Steel (from the spring of 1934, Hayes and Canutt ride again with Eleanor Hunt).

More Hollywood Hounds in a four-film set targeted for dog fanciers … the set includes director John Clayton’s 1977 family comedy, Summerdog (an abandoned mutt is taken in by the Norman family while on vacation), Buddy (1997, based on Gertrude Davies Lintz’s book “Animals are My Hobby … a true story about a rich girl named Trudy (aka Gertrude), who raised championship Briards and a gorilla named Buddy), George! (writer/director Wallace C. Bennett’s 1972 film release about a mischievous St. Bernard named George) and Mooch Goes to Hollywood (Mooch — aka: Higgins the Dog — joins the likes of Jim Backus, Vincent Price, James Darren and Jill St. John as themselves in Hollywood).

Rounding out the June 6 new DVD additions are More Star-Studded Stallions (a four film set that includes Return of October, Red Fury, Casey's Shadow and All the Pretty Horses) and the double-disc release of Selma Hayek: 4-Movie Collection (which includes Living it Up, Lonely Hearts, Timecode and The Velocity of Gary).