Cleopatra Music And Films Readies The Rift: Dark Side of the Moon For DVD Release On Dec. 12

Cleopatra Music & Films, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has selected Dec. 12 for the DVD debut of director Dejan Zecevic’s sci-fi thriller, The Rift: Dark Side of the Moon.

Something happened on the moon.   In a prologue we learn that a team of American astronauts encountered something during their mission on the moon and now all hell is about to be unleashed on Earth!

With the aid of local Serbian operatives, a team of CIA agents are dispatched to a remote area north of Belgrade to investigate the downed spacecraft … included on the team are “John Smith” (Ken Foree — Dawn of the Dead, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, Water for Elephants, etc.), Liz Waid (Katarina Cas — The Wolf of Wall Street, Danny Collins) and Dysart (Monte Markham).

The effects of the conflict in Serbia remain and much of the area that they focus on in their search is battle scarred and abandoned, which brings an eerie and uneasy feeling to their efforts.   Soon they discover one of the astronauts from the mission, who is neither all that well (in fact, he’s dead) and he has a story for them that none of them are all that eager to hear.   

It seems that they encounter a malevolent force on the moon — an alien presence — that has transported itself to Earth (a presence that is capable of time-shifting and time-portal transporting) and this “force” is preparing an army for invasion.   Army?   What army … everything looks pretty much dead around here!   That would be the army … the dead from Serbia’s bloody recent past!!!

Mill Creek Entertainment Expands Its Jan. 16 (2018) Release Calendar With Blu-ray Editions Of Yor: The Hunter from the Future And S.W.A.T.: Special Edition

Mill Creek Entertainment continues to expand its first wave of 2018 DVD and Blu-ray priced-to-collect product offering with news this week that Italian filmmaker Antonio Margheriti’s 1983 film release of Yor, The Hunter from the Future, will be available on Jan. 16 as a 35^th Anniversary Blu-ray edition.

The future and the prehistoric past intersect in the world of Yor (played by Reb Brown — Sssssss, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Uncommon Valor, Howling II: ... Your Sister Is a Werewolf, etc.), a loner in what appears to be a prehistoric world inhabited by dinosaurs and cave dwellers.    

One day he comes to the rescue of a hunter named Kala’a (Corinne Cléry — perhaps best known as “O” in Just Jaeckin’s 1975 film release of The Story of O, plus such films as Bond Girl, Corinne Dufour, in Moonraker) and her mentor, Pag (Luciano Pigozzi), who are under attack from a strange beast.

This encounter sets in motion a series of life-and-death adventures that eventually lead Yor and Kala’a to the truth about the world in which they live.  They discover that is a post-nuclear holocaust Earth, with tech-survivor, The Overlord (John Steiner) holding dominion over the planet’s now primitive survivors.

Bonus features include a new commentary option with the film’s star, Reb Brown.

Also heading to Blu-ray on Jan. 16 is S.W.A.T.: 15th Anniversary Special Edition.   Directed by Clark Johnson and starring Colin Farrell, Samuel L. Jackson, Michelle Rodriguez and LL Cool J as Los Angeles S.W.A.T. team members who are locked in a war with a power drug dealer who is aided by a former team member (played by Jeremy Renner).

Bonus goodies include two separate commentary options.

Paramount Home Media Will Release Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series On DVD And Blu-ray On Dec. 5

Showtime and Paramount Home Media will be teaming up on Dec. 5 for the release of DVD and Blu-ray sets of Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series, the long anticipated follow up to the original Twin Peaks saga. 

It’s 25 years later and the various storylines of the original are explored by auteur filmmaker David Lynch in his own unique style of filmmaking … and both FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and the mysterious Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) return in the roles made famous in the original series.   

So who … or what, is Laura Palmer?  Will the answer be revealed?   Who is Janey-E Jones (Naomi Watts), Diane Evans (Laura Dern) and what does Carrie Page have to do with any of the strange events that unfold(ed) in the town of Twin Peaks (and beyond)?   Dec. 5, all will be revealed in 18 thrill-packed episodes, which can be viewed individually or as seamlessly-prepared feature presentations divided into four individual segments.

Bonus features include a multi-part look behind-the-scenes of Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series in a documentary created by long-time Lynch collaborator, Jason S., with the over-arching title of “Impressions.”   This is divided into ten roughly 30-minute segments … each with its own title.   That’s quite a feat of filmmaking in its own right.

There is the “San Diego Comic-Con 2017 Twin Peaks Panel,” a series of promo spots created by Lynch and the featurette titled “Phenomenon.” 

Exclusive to the Blu-ray SKU are three additional featurettes — “A Very Lovely Dream: One Week in Twin Peaks,” “Behind the Red Curtain” and “I Had Bad Milk in Dehradun.”

Jungle Records' L.A.M.F.: Live at Bowery Electric Heads To DVD On Dec. 8

Jungle Records, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has selected Friday, Dec. 8, for the DVD debut of L.A.M.F.: Live at Bowery Electric.

This reunion concert was a 40^th anniversary celebration of the release of Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers’ landmark album, L.A.M.F. (aka: Like a Mother F#$&er).   Since Johnny Thunders died in 1991, Jerry Nolan died the following year and both Richard Hell and Billy Rath have moved on, that left only Walter Lure to perform the album cuts at the reunion concert at the Bowery Electric last November in New York City.  

It wasn’t a one-man show as Lure recruited the likes of Clem Burke (Blondie), Tommy Stinson (The Replacements, Guns N’ Roses, etc.) and Wayne Kramer (MC5) to deliver the same dozen songs featured on the original album.  It was a smash!

Bonus features include video sessions with all four band members, plus special guest vocalist Jessie Malin of D-Generate.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Preps Home Again (Dec. 12) And Victoria And Abdul (Dec. 19) For Home Entertainment Release

Open Road Films and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will be joining forces on Dec. 12 for the release of both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack offerings of child actress-turned-writer/director Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s Home Again, starring Reese Witherspoon as a separated single mom who ends up with three twenty-something filmmakers moving in with her and her two young daughters. 

The ARR works out to 95 days and box office receipts for this post-Labor Day theatrical release came in at $26.9 million.

Producer and filmmaker Nancy Meyers (The Intern, What Women Want, Father of the Bride, etc.) guides her daughter’s debut as both a screenwriter and director with this interesting story about a SoCal mom of two, from a prominent Hollywood family (Candice Bergen plays Witherspoon’s mother, a former actress), who is separated from her husband (Michael Sheen) and ends up mentoring three young men with filmmaking aspirations of their own.  

Perhaps there are some parallels here with Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s own experiences growing in a “Hollywood” family — her father is writer/producer Charles Shyer (Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer shared the Oscar-nomination for the Private Benjamin script starring Goldie Hawn back in 1980) — which makes the May/September romance between Alice (Witherspoon’s character) and one of the young filmmakers, Harry (Pico Alexander — A Most Violent Year, War Machine), much more interesting than just an end-of-summer romantic comedy starring an A-list actress.

As to bonus goodies, writer/director Hallie Meyers-Shyer and producer Nancy Meyers provide commentary.

In other release news from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment this past week, look for director Stephen Frears’ biopic, Victoria & Abdul, to make its domestic DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack debut on Dec. 19.

The ARR is 88 days and box office receipts currently stand at $14.8 million.

The special relationship that developed between Queen Victoria (played by Judi Dench) during her final years and Indian servant Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal — Furious 7, 3 Idiots, Always Kabhi Kabhi) is the focus of this film adaptation of India-born journalist Shrabani Basu’s book, “Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Confidant.”

This bit of “lost history” was discovered by Basu while researching a book that she was writing on the history of curry in 2003 — “Curry: The Story of the Nation's Favourite Dish” — and discovered during her research the fascinating relationship that developed between Karim, known to Victoria as “Munshi,” during the final 15 years of her life.   Upon her death, her son, King Edward VII, ordered all of the letters between Victoria and Munshi burned and banished him back to India … to be forgotten.

Bonus nuggets include a pair of production featurettes — “Judi & Ali” and “The Look of Victoria & Abdul.”

20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment Tabs Nov. 28 For The Release Of DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Director Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit

20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment will be guiding the Annapurna Pictures’ production of writer/director Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit to the home entertainment marketplace on Nov. 28 as both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions.

The ARR for this independently distributed theatrical release, which is the final summer-season film grossing in excess of $10 million to get a street date, works out to 123 days.   Box office receipts in the domestic market came in at $16.8 million (that’s a solid number for an indie).

Based on the 1967 “Algiers Motel” police action, which occurred during the Detroit riots of July 1967, the film arrives as a home entertainment production with bonus features that include the Algee Smith music video “Grow,” featuring the actual Larry Reed, plus five featurettes — “The Truth of Detroit,” “The Cast of Detroit,” “The Invasion of Detroit,” “The Hope of Detroit” and “Detroit: Then and Now.”

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Rushes Director Michael Cuesta's American Assassin To The Home Entertainment Marketplace On Dec. 5

Lionsgate Home Entertainment will be robbing Peter to pay Paul on Dec. 5 with the three-SKU home entertainment launch of director Michael Cuesta film adaptation of Vince Flynn’s novel, American Assassin, starring Dylan O’Brien as CIA operative Mitch Rapp.

American Assassin is a post-Labor Day theatrical release that is being rushed to market to fill holes in the December release calendar.   The ARR is a sizzling-fast 81 days and box office receipts were a solid $36 million.

This will not be the only post-Labor Day theatrical film to make the cycle before the end of the year.   With fewer theatrical hits to work with (those grossing in excess of $25 million), the studios — not just Lionsgate — will have to fill up the December release calendar with films that would traditionally be released to the home entertainment marketplace during the first quarter of the new year.

Couple that with the constant push to shorten the window between a film’s theatrical debut and its subsequent release on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD, the harsh reality is that there are simply not enough to go around.

So Peter’s pocket is picked to pay Paul now … what holes will emerge in ‘Q1 2018 are for another day.

As mentioned, Lionsgate Home Entertainment will be releasing a stand-alone DVD edition, a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo.   The only bonus nugget common to all of these SKUs is the Alamo Drafthouse Q&A session with Dylan O’Brien (as Thomas in The Maze Runner and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials) and co-star Taylor Kitsch (Lone Survivor, Battleship, John Carter).

Exclusive to the Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD editions are a quintet of production featurettes — “Target Acquired: Creating an American Assassin,” Finding Mitch Rapp: Dylan O’Brien,” “Transfer of Power: Hurley and Ghost,” “Weaponized: Training and Stunts” and “In the Field: Locations”