Paramount Home Media Announces The Return Of Full Season Sets On Bonanza On May 7

The prayers have been answered … Bonanza rides again!!   Beginning in 2009, Paramount Home Media release full seasons of the venerable Western television series starring Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright — along with his three sons, played by Dan Blocker, Pernell Roberts and Michael Landon — each year until 2015 (Season Eight) and then suddenly nothing.  

Online petitions were even started: “We are many different races and our beliefs are varied but we have this one thing in common: we love our Bonanza” … they called themselves “Bonanzaphiles.”  

Paramount Home Media, teaming with CBS Home Entertainment, will release (drum roll, please) Bonanza: The Official Ninth Season, Volumes One and Bonanza: The Official Ninth Season, Volumes Two (both four disc sets) on May 7!!!

Indican Pictures Targets Apr. 2 For The DVD Release Of Director Robert Cole's Chilling Off Season

The “summer people” come, the “summer people” go and those that remain throughout the rest of the year see and experience a very different world on Martha’s Vineyard.   It can be a lonely place.

The summer vacation hotspot of Martha’s Vineyard serves as the location for director Robert Cole’s Off Season, which was spawned by a script from a “local” by the name of Erik Lieblein — he came one season after college and stayed until after the tourists left … it was a very different place.  He kept coming back.

Indican Pictures, which has something of a knack for discovering edgy films like Off Season, has selected Apr. 2 for the DVD debut of this “suspense” thriller.

We are introduced to Lena (Jessica Cadden Osborne), who worked the summer season on Martha’s Vineyard and had high hopes for a well-paying gig in New York City, but as the “summer people” moved out those plans fell apart.   Going back home is not an option and there’s nothing for her in the “off season,” but a chance meeting with a woman named Becca (Amanda Good Hennessey) changes all that.

It seems that Becca and her husband, Kellen (Chance Kelly — as Vinny in Ray Donovan and as Detective Ed Cutler in Aquarius), operate a landscaping business and a farm and they are always desperate for help after the summer season ends.   It’s a terrific match, wonderful people, quiet, nice money and a chance for Lena to put the past in the past.

Now Off Season could have been one of those “come back to my place and we will torture and kill you” kind of films.  All of the elements are there.   Lonely, dreary place, a family that seems too good to be true and co-workers that are exactly like Lena … loners with no connection to the outside world.   They call that “the victim pool.”  

However, Off Season, while it turns the screws like any good horror film, takes a different approach to the terror.   Lena, meets Becca and Kellen’s daughter, Sadie (Braedyn Clark — who is actually a local school girl … she delivers a knockout performance), and the two form a friendship.   Things seem normal, lots of hard work, co-workers run the gamut from quiet to pushy — counted among them is Cassie (played by Sosie Bacon — Here and Now, 13 Reasons Why) — but for all of that there’s not much to do.   And there’s your tension.

As the audience, we know that this pleasant little picture of a happy-place farm is not all that it seems.   It’s only when little Sadie gives hints about a “sadness,” asks if Lena has any sisters and then finally one evening there’s that moment where she knows that things are about to go south when the little girl, who genuinely likes her, says “I hope you don’t go missing.”   

Off Season, Apr. 2, a chiller that pulls you in … and won’t let go!!   

Icarus Films Picks May 7 For The DVD Debut Of Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus

Icarus Films announced this past week that the documentary filmmaking team of Niels Bolbrinker and Thomas Tielsch’s will have their film, Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus, available in the domestic marketplace on DVD this coming May 7.

Bauhaus, an experimental “art school,” was founded by Walter Gropius in the aftermath of World War I.   1919, Germany in ruins — financial ruins — following their defeat in “The Great War,” and out of this despair came the thought of building cheap, efficient and attractive housing for the masses; the poor.   A different approach, so to speak, where the building trades and architecture would co-mingle and be blended with the arts.

Thus “Modern” architecture was born … Walter Gropius, perhaps did realize that his idea would have far-reaching consequences.  

Bolbrinker and Tielsch, not only capture the essence of the Bauhaus founding and influence, but take us also on an international journey to discuss the history of the movement … in 1933, the school closed because of the rise of Nazism and the teachers, students and disciples of Bauhaus scattered to the four-corners of the world.

Those that contributed to the film through interviews (and insights) include Rosan Bosch (artist, designer and architect), Torsten Blume (research associate, artist and choreographer at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation), Alfredo Brillembourg (architect and urban designer) and Christian Loclair (robo-dancer, computer scientist, and choreographer) … among others.

Bauhaus Spirit: 100 Years of Bauhaus is presented in German, English and French, with English subtitles where appropriate. 

Lords Of Chaos On DVD And Blu-ray From Unobstructed View On May 28

It is the 1980s, which somehow seems oddly appropriate in an Orwellian sort of way, and that is when a Norwegian guitarist by the name of Oystein Aarseth formed the band Mayhem.   To those who don’t follow such things a history lesson is about to be unleashed on the unsuspecting come May 28.

Unobstructed View, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed that street-date Tuesday for the release of both Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and stand-alone DVD editions of prolific Swedish filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund’s Lords of Chaos.

The film worked a few venues on the festival circuit, including Molins de Rei Horror Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain this past November and captured Best Picture honors.   That led to a limited domestic theatrical break last month … the ARR works out to 109 days and box office revenues generated from the film’s limited theatrical run to date stand at $218,415.

Aarseth, who called himself Euronymous (played by Rory Culkin — Scream 4, Columbus, etc.), was at the vanguard of “Black Metal” in Norway in the mid-‘80s, forming the band Mayhem and eventually opening a record shop (actually more like a gathering-place for the like-minded) by the name of Hell.

Åkerlund’s film deftly chronicles Euronymous rise, his influence on the heavy metal music scene and, perhaps, more importantly the crazed nature of Euronymous, his “friends” and music colleagues (a little blood-letting during performances only adds to the insanity of it all).   The more radical and fringe they could become, the better. 

To this end, their music was an all out assault on society, which included a series of church burnings and eventually murder (and a well-timed “suicide”).   Filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund knows this subject personally, it shows (founder of the Swedish heavy metal group, Bathory … before becoming a high-profile music video producer and director) and his choice of Rory Culkin to play Euronymous is inspired … downright creepy.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment's Glass Heads Home On Apr. 16

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has targeted Apr. 16 for the release of the first $100 million theatrical opening in 2019.   This would be writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass.

The film opened Jan. 18 and has pulled in an impressive $107.9 million in domestic sales thus far.   That mid-April street date yields an ARR of just 88 days.

Planned for release are a stand-alone DVD edition and Combo Pack SKUs for both 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD).

As to bonus goodies, all three home entertainment packaged media choices include an alternate opening (with an introduction by M. Night Shyamalan), a dozen deleted scenes (M. Night Shyamalan also provides introductions to these) and a video session with M. Night Shyamalan and actor James McAvoy.

Exclusive to the Combo Pack presentations are a whopping 12 production featurettes — “The Collection of Main Characters,” “Bringing the Team Back Together,” “David Dunn vs. The Beast,” “Glass Decoded,” “Breaking Glass: The Stunts,” “Connecting the Glass Universe,” “M. Night Shyamalan: Behind the Lens,” “The Sound of Glass,” “Enhancing the Spectacle,” “Raven Hill Memorial” and “Night Vision.”

Alien: 40th Anniversary Edition On 4K Ultra HD On Apr. 23 From 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment

On Apr. 23, 20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment will be celebrating the 40^th Anniversary of director Ridley Scott haunted house thriller in outer space, Alien, with a new 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack release.

The Alien 40^th Anniversary Edition arrives with the 2018 4K restoration supervised by Ridley Scott and Fox Film Entertainment’s Pam Dery and includes two cuts of the film — the original 1979 theatrical cut and Ridley Scott’s 2003 “Director’s Cut” of the film.   

Additional bonus goodies include two vintage commentary tracks and deleted scenes.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Taps Apr. 9 As The Street Date For A Dog's Way Home

Director Charles Martin Smith’s feel-good canine adventure tale, A Dog’s Way Home — based on W. Bruce Cameron’s 2012 novel of the same name — will be heading home on Apr. 9 courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

The ARR is a quick-to-market 88 days and ticket sales currently stand at $41.2 million.

Planned for release are a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and a stand-alone DVD edition.

Bonus nuggets included deleted scenes and a trio of featurettes — “DIY Doggie Treats With Shelby,” “Unforgettable Journey” and “Dog Days: Shelby’s Production Diary.”