Writer/Director Joachim Lafosse’s After Love Available On DVD From Icarus Films On Nov. 21

Icarus Films domestic distribution pack with French film distributor Distrib Films continues to pay dividends with the news this week that writer/director Joachim Lafosse’s After Love will be making its DVD debut on Nov. 21.

A brief and limited arthouse run of just five screens has generated ticket sales of $12,485, which sets up an ARR of 102 days.

Unless you live in close proximity to one of those venues your chances of catching Lafosse’s latest film are pretty much slim and none … Icarus Films has you covered.

A test of wills begins when Marie (Bérénice Bejo — Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 2012 performance in The Artist) and her husband of some 15 years, Boris (Cédric Kahn), decide to call it quits.   

They have two young children, but surprisingly the battle is not over the custody of the kids, but over who gets their fair share of the apartment.   Boris refuses to leave until this is worked out and it becomes clear from the get-go that Marie has no intention of selling the prime location and splitting the proceeds with him.

In a closed set — this small apartment in Brussels — a ballet of movement, with purpose, is played out by filmmaker Lafosse as Marie and Boris take turns using the space like a weapon to try to dominate the other.   The two kids — Jade and Margaux — become but pawns in the game.

It is, however, though their mutual love for the girls that we get glimpses into what must have been happier days for Marie and Boris.   These hints make this current test de testaments all the more poignant, especially when a dinner party hosted by Marie becomes a cringe-worthy event when Boris arrives home. 

After Love is presented in French with English subtitles.

Wolfe Tabs Dec. 5 For The DVD Debut Of Writer/Director Stephen Cone's Princess Cyd

There is a great disturbance in the force.   Where have we heard that before?

While a mid-summer visit to Chicago may not be a disturbance of galactic proportions, nevertheless author Miranda Ruth’s (Rebecca Spence) gets just that when her niece, Cyd, (Jessie Pinnick) comes for a short visit in writer/director Stephen Cone’s latest film, Princess Cyd.

Wolfe announced this past week that Princess Cyd will be making its DVD debut on Dec. 5.

Cyd is banished to a visit with her father’s sister when he reaches his limit — teenagers can turn into aliens, they say — and a much needed “time out” is in the solution.  Of course, from Cyd’s POV, her father is the problem, but that’s a story for another day.

Miranda runs a social and intellectual circle that is beyond Cyd’s young years — in fact, Miranda hasn’t seen the kid since she was in second grade, so an adult-sized tyke is something that she is not quite prepared to deal with.   Is this really my brother’s child?

For Cyd this particular visit to her aunt is a WOW experience!  Chicago!  There’s so much to see and do!

For filmmaker Stephen Cone, who gave us Henry Gamble's Birthday Party and The Wise Kids, this is quite a departure.  You have an inquisitive teenage girl and an intellectual aunt, who has “churned” away her years with intellectual pursuits, who is suddenly confronted by a force of nature.  It is very different for Cone and he nails it. 

While Cyd is eager to engage with her peers — with Katie (Malic White) at the coffee shop or an over-eager teenager at one of her aunt’s social gatherings —Miranda begins to realize that she has let too much time slip away.   Cyd is exactly the breath of fresh air that was needed.   Ironically, a father’s loss of patience created the perfect summer for both his daughter and his sister!

MVD Entertainment Group Preps Director Richard Schenkman’s The Man from Earth For Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Release On Nov. 21

MVD Entertainment Group will be guiding the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack release of director Richard Schenkman’s 2007 cerebral sci-fi tale, The Man from Earth, to market on Nov. 21.

Famed sci-fi storyteller Jerome Bixby provided the script, which, as legend has it, remained unfinished — a work in progress so to speak — for years and was only completed by Bixby when he knew that the end was near for him.   He died in 1998.

He was known for his work on the original Star Trek series (scripts for “Mirror, Mirror” and “Requiem for Methuselah,” among others), plus such classic sci-fi films as It! The Terror from Beyond Space and Fantastic Voyage, but it was his prolific output of short sci-fi stories during the 1950s that made him something of a legend among the genre community.

With The Man from Earth we are introduced to Prof. John Oldman (get it, “Old Man”), who is portrayed by David Lee Smith (Fight Club, A Walk to Remember, etc.), who is about to move on from his current teaching position.   His colleagues decide to throw him a hastily fashioned going-away party, which sets in motion an evening that none of them will ever forget.

Instead of an elaborate CGI, action-packed sci-fi thriller, Bixby’s script presents an evening “roundtable” of sorts, with Oldman’s peers listening to a fastastic tale of how he is actually a 14,000-year old “cave man,” who does not grow old.  He stays in one place for roughly ten years — a period too short to notice that there has been no change in his appearance — and then moves on.   That time has come once again.

Bonus goodies include a new feature-length documentary titled The Man From Earth: A Look Back, two commentary options — one featuring director Richard Schenkman (Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God ... Be Back by Five, The Pompatus of Love, etc.), who is joined by actor John Billingsley (he plays Harry, one of Oldman’s colleagues), and a second with producer Emerson Bixby (Jerome’s son) and sci-fi author/scholar Prof. Gary Westfahl — plus four featurettes — “From Script to Screen,” “Star Trek: Jerome Bixby's Sci-Fi Legacy,” “On the Set” and “The Story Behind the Story.”

There is also a short film titled “Contagion” and a teaser trailer for The Man From Earth: Holocene.

Paramount Home Media Selects Dec. 5 For The DVD Debut Of Rusty Rivets

Paramount Home Media has selected the first street-date Tuesday in December (Dec. 5) for the DVD debut of Nickelodeon’s CGI animated kidvid series, Rusty Rivets.

Rusty Rivets (voiced by Kyle Harrison Breitkopf, who also does the voice of Gekko in the PJ Masks series) and his sidekick, Ruby (Ava Preston, voices the “Polly Graph” character in the Odd Squad series) are young inventors who use their skills to solve problems.   

These can range from cooling down penguins on hot days to runaway hot air balloons, from runaway monkeys to gadgets that need fixing … perhaps more than once, or twice!    The series is a STEM-themed (Science • Technology • Engineering • Math) based teaching presentation that uses Rusty and Ruby’s adventures — along with their dinosaur robot, Botasaur — to deliver basic concepts.

This first DVD release contains eight adventures.

 

Also getting a December release date is the four-disc CBS mystery/sci-fi series, Zoo: The Third Season, which will be available for fans to enjoy beginning on Dec. 12.

Man’s dominance at the top of the “food chain” continues to challenged by the animal kingdom, which now includes “hybrids” — lab-created creatures — that must be stopped by Jackson Oz (James Wolk) and his team.   We pick up the storyline in the year 2027 as things have become desperate for the ultimate survival of man.

Bonus goodies include deleted scenes, a gag reel, the featurette titled “Season 3: First Look” and two demonstration reels — “Sizzle” and Season 3 VFX.”

Arrow Video Selects Nov. 21 For The Release Of Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Edition Of Steve Buscemi's Animal Factory

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new hi-def transfer of actor-turned-filmmaker Steve Buscemi’s 2000 film adaptation of Eddie Bunker’s 1977 semi-autobiographical novel, Animal Factory, planned for release as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack on Nov. 21.   

Bunker, who served time at San Quentin in the early 1950s, where he met Caryl Chessman, author of “Cell 2455 Death Row.”   This crossing of paths proved to be an important turning point in Bunker’s life as he too took to writing … it would be, however, something like 18 years of being in-and-out of prison before he finally got the hang of it.   

Animal Factory was his second novel and its publication opened up an acting career that began with a bit part in Dustin Hoffman’s 1978 film Straight Time (which was adapted from Bunker’s first novel, “No Beast So Fierce”) … other films included Runaway Train, The Running Man and his role as Mr. Blue in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 film, Reservoir Dogs.

Which brings us back to Animal Factory and its production history, where, if you’ll recall, Steve Buscemi was Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs.   And that connection with Bunker eventually led to Buscemi producing and directing Animal Factory on a micro budget, but his show biz connections earned him a cast — well beyond the film’s budget — that included William Defoe and Edward Furlong, plus Danny Trejo (who also co-produced), John Heard, Seymour Cassel, Mickey Rourke and Tom Arnold (among others).   

The story is about a new fish at San Quentin, played by Furlong, who is taken under the wing of Defoe — a shrewd manipulator — and a run-in with a prison predator (Tom Arnold) that results in a stabbing and eventually a murder.

The gritty prison drama earned solid reviews, but failed to find major studio distribution and ended up with a very limited theatrical break in the autumn of 2000.

Bonus features include a vintage commentary track featuring Eddie Bunker (who passed in 2005) and Danny Trejo and video session with author and critic Barry Forshaw (“The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction,” “British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia,” etc.), who discusses the checkered career of Eddie Bunker.

VCI Entertainment's 2K Restoration Of Director Steve Barkett's The Aftermath Arrives As A Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack On Nov. 21

VCI Entertainment has Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack featuring a new 2K transfer ready on Nov. 21 of writer/director Steve Barkett’s 1982 post-apocalyptic sci-fi tale, The Aftermath. 

In Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston and his fellow astronauts returned to a future earth ravaged by nuclear war only to discover that man had been replaced by apes as the dominant specie.   In Barkett’s The Aftermath, it is the earth of the here and now as astronauts Newman (played by Barkett) and Matthews (Larry Latham) return from an extended stay in space to discover that Los Angeles is in ruins … the result of a nuclear war!   

No apes this time, but something perhaps even more sinister dominates the post-apocalyptic landscape, a mutant gang of bikers lead by the vicious “Cutter” (played by none other than Sig Haig).   The apes had a logic to them, but Cutter is simply a killer, who takes women for his gang’s own personal use … all others are murdered.

The two astronauts must make a decision, hide, evade and run … or stand and fight.   But, when the lovely Sarah (Lynne Margulies) is rescued by Newman, it becomes clear that confronting Cutter and his mutant savages for the supremacy of Los Angeles — and the future of mankind — is the only real choice they have.

Bonus features include commentary from Steve Barkett.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Announces October And November Catalog Selections

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment was busy this past week with announcements for DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD catalog selections, which is usually a strong indicator that release news relating to Dunkirk, It and Annabelle: Creation will be following soon.

Until then … we have the Oct. 31 unbundling of the January of 2009 four-film collection titled Warner Bros. Romance Classics Collection.   This four-disc, four-film collection, long out of print, is now being released as individual film MOD product offerings under the studio’s Warner Archive promotional banner.

These four films feature three starring Troy Donahue with direction by Delmer Daves — Rome Adventure (1962, co-starring Suzanne Pleshette and Angie Dickinson), Susan Slade (1961, with Connie Stevens and Dorothy McGuire)  and Parrish (1961, Connie Stevens and Claudette Colbert) — and Palm Springs Weekend (1963), which also stars Troy Donahue and Connie Stevens, but was directed by Norman Taurog … Ty Hardin and Stefanie Powers co-star.

Being released for the first time on DVD on Oct. 24 are two three-film collections.  The first of these is titled Glenda Farrell Triple Feature, which features three of her non-Torchy Blane films from the 1930s.   Included in the collection are two from director William Clemens — both from 1936 film — The Law in Her Hands (co-starring Margaret Lindsay and Warren Hull) and Here Comes Carter (with Anne Nagel and Ross Alexander) and director Frank McDonald’s summer of 1937 comedy, Dance Charlie Dance (with Stuart Erwin, Jean Muir and Allen Jenkins).

The other three-film collection showcases the talents of character actor Guy Kibbee in the DVD release titled simply, Guy Kibbee Triple Feature.   The three films are Mary Jane's Pa (1935, direction by William Keighley and co-starring Aline MacMahon), Going Highbrow (also from 1935, directed by Robert Florey and co-starring Zasu Pitts) and director Frank McDonald’s 1936 film release of The Big Noise, featuring Warren Hull, Dick Foran and Alma Lloyd.

Heading to Blu-ray for the first time during the month of October are The Green Slim (1968, with Robert Hutton, Richard Jaeckel and Luciana Paluzzi), Alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson and Joanne Dru star in director Frank Tuttle’s 1955 film noir entry, Hell on Frisco Bay and director Michael Curtiz guides Robinson as “Wolf” Larson in the 1941 adventure, The Sea Wolf (with Ida Lupino and John Garfield) — all streeting on Oct. 10 — and Rachel Ward stars in the 1981 horror entry, Night School, which will be available on Oct. 24.

Rounding out the film library selections are the Nov. 7 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack selections of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The other four films in the series were released as 4K Ultra HD editions in March of this year.

The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature Gets A Nov. 14 Home Entertainment Street Date From Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced this past week that writer/director Cal Brunker’s The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature will be joining Atomic Blonde (announced last week) on the studio’s Nov. 14 home entertainment release calendar.

Planned for release are both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions … the ARR comes in at 95 days and box office revenues currently stand at $28.1 million.

As to bonus chestnuts, filmmaker Cal Brunker will be providing commentary and he will be joined by co-writer Bob Barlen — they previously teamed for the 2013 animated hit, Escape from Planet Earth — plus there are deleted scenes, an “Animation Progression Reel” (two scenes are presented from concept to completion) and a “Concept Art Reel.”

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Selects Oct. 31 For Home Entertainment Rollout Of Stephen King's The Dark Tower

The control tower has them lined up for landing, a careful choreographed dance in the sky and one-by-one they touch down.   The view near LAX as the planes dance towards their touchdown?    

Sure, but in this case we are talking about Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s “control tower,” which has its summer theatrical hits lined up for their home entertainment touchdown … Baby Driver lands on Oct. 10, Spider-Man: Homecoming swoops in on Oct. 17, The Emoji Movie follows on Oct. 24 and this week’s landing clearance has been given to director Nikolaj Arcel’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series of novels, which arrives, nicely choreographed, on Oct. 31.   

The ARR is a swift-to-market 88 days and domestic ticket sales, especially in light of King’s other 2017 theatrical adaptation, It, were a little disappointing at $49.9 million.   

Still, with that number there will be plenty of reasons to celebrate the arrival of The Dark Tower as DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack editions on Halloween.

Bonus goodies common to all SKUs include a blooper reel and a pair of featurettes — “The Man in Black” and “The Gunslinger in Action.”

Exclusive to the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack editions are three additional production featurettes — “Last Time Around,” “The World has Moved On …” and “Stephen King Inspirations.”