With the Halloween promotional season just over the horizon, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced this past week that two film vault horror features will be getting the 4K Ultra HD treatment as their contribution to the genre-themed viewing festivities.
Arriving on Sept. 20 is director Joel Schumacher’s summer of 1987 vampire gem, The Lost Boys, which didn’t quite start out as what it ended up. Which is all to the good.
Janice Fischer and her screenwriter partner, James Jeremias, came up with their first feature film script and it was immediately snatched up for a mid-six figures sum and was originally slated as an indie production. However, Warner Bros. got wind of it and stepped in with Goonies director, Richard Donner, to do a similar-themed kids adventure (think: grade-school kids) on a much-much bigger budget.
During pre-production, Donner switched over to the direction of Lethal Weapon and so Donner’s wife, Lauren Shuler Donner, who had just produced writer/director Joel Schumacher’s St. Elmo’s Fire, brought him on board to take over the director’s duties. Screenwriter Jeffrey Boam (The Dead Zone, Straight Time, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2, Lethal Weapon 3, The Phantom), who was attached with Donner to Lethal Weapon, transferred over to this production and took Fischer and Jeremias’ script and completely re-worked it to give it a much sharper edge … worked like a charm.
One other Goonies connection was Corey Feldman, who was recruited for the role of Edgar Frog, with the rest of the “teenage” cast being relative newcomers — Feldman’s nemesis from Stand by Me, Keiffer Sutherland, got a huge break here as David, the leader of “The Lost Boys.”
The “Goonies” equivalent group included Jason Patric, Corey Haim (with Silver Bullet and Lucas under his belt) and Jamison Newlander, with the mysterious Star, Jami Gertz, seemingly connected to David’s vampire clan — Alex Winter, Brooke McCarter and Billy Wirth were David’s vampires … however there is one above them all!! That’s the mystery that the “Two Coreys” must solve.
Bonus features are all vintage featurettes on the companion Blu-ray disc, with the 4K Ultra HD disc featuring the archived commentary track from the late Joel Schumacher.
Also arriving on Sept. 20 is the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack edition of director Tobe Hooper’s 1982 chiller, Poltergeist.
The companion Blu-ray disc includes a trio of vintage featurettes — “They Are Here: The Real World of Poltergeists Pt. 1- Science of the Spirits,” “They Are Here: The Real World of Poltergeists Pt. 2- Communing with the Dead” and “The Making of Poltergeist.”
Not done yet. September also brings two new-to-Blu-ray releases culled from the vast Warner Bros. film library. Sept. 6 look for the Blu-ray debut of Paul Newman directing his wife, Joanne Woodward, in the 1968 film adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s novel, “A Jest of God,” which was retitled for the screen as Rachel, Rachel.
Paul Newman was Oscar-nominated as the producer of the film, which was in the Best Picture running (losing out to Oliver!) and both Joanne Woodward (Best Actress) and Estelle Parsons (Best Supporting Actress) also received Oscar nominations, as did Steward Stern for his adapted script.
The following week, Sept. 13, look for the new 4K scan of director John Cromwell’s 1940 film adaptation of Robert E. Sherwood’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize winning play, Abe Lincoln in Illinois.
Raymond Massey portrayed Lincoln in Sherwood’s play and was rewarded by Sherwood — who refused to sell the screen rights without Massey attached. Of note, Howard Da Silva (as Armstrong) and Herbert Rudley (as Seth Gale) also made the transition from Broadway to the silver screen.
Massey, for his performance, was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar … it was a top-notch field that year, with James Stewart (The Philadelphia Story), Henry Fonda (The Grapes of Wrath) Sir Laurence Olivier (Rebecca) and Charles Chaplin (The Great Dictator) all vying for Oscar gold (Stewart won).
Bonus features include the 1940 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast featuring Massey, Fay Bainter and Otto Kruger.
No comments:
Post a Comment