Paramount Home Media Targets Sept. 24 For The DVD Debut Of Madam Secretary: Season 5

It was another very busy week for Paramount Home Media with multiple street-date assignments for hit selections from their extensive TV-on-DVD library.

In the last couple of weeks we’ve learned that Billions: Season Four will be available on Sept. 24, The Good Fight: Season Three arrives on Sept. 10 and Bull: Season Three hits retail outlets on Sept. 3.

This week we find that not one, but three more full seasons of popular TV series will be available on DVD for fans to enjoy during the month of September.

Sept. 24 marks the arrival of Madam Secretary: Season 5 — all 20 episodes — on DVD.   And, as with other current announcements, Madam Secretary, starring Téa Leoni, has been renewed for a sixth season.

Also getting full-season release packages on DVD — both streeting on Sept. 10 — are SEAL Team: Season Two and Hawaii Five-O: The Ninth Season.

But wait, there is more … from Nickelodeon on Sept. 3 is the latest round of adventures of Sunny Day and her talking dog Doodle, Sunny Day: Welcome to the Pet Parlor.   Four fun-filled episodes will be available on DVD featuring a royal pet wedding, the design and conversion of a truck into the new dog-grooming truck, “Groom & Vroom,” and more.

Lastly, and timed to take full advantage of the theatrical release of Stephen King’s It Chapter Two on Sept. 6, is a new Blu-ray presentation of Stephen King's apocalyptic mini-series, The Stand.    The double-disc special edition Blu-ray set will be available on Sept. 24.

Mill Creek Entertainment Acquires Distribution Rights To The Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd Ultraman Library • First Wave On Oct. 15

Mill Creek Entertainment announced this past week that the company had acquired domestic distribution rights to the entire Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd Ultraman library.   Over 50 years of programming, which represents in excess of 1,100 series episodes and 20 feature films.

This is a big one and Mill Creek wasted no time in setting Oct. 15 as the street date for Blu-ray sets of both Ultra Q: Complete Series 01 and Ultraman: Complete Series 02 … Steelbook special editions will be available on Oct. 15 as well.

When domestic audiences were gathered around their TV sets in 1966 to watch Star Trek, half a world away Japanese audiences were treated to Ultra Q, a “Kaiju” (literally translated as giant monsters or beasts … think along the lines of Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and you will be in the right ball park) anthology of stories and weird tales featuring exotic beasts, dragons, aliens, you name it and Ultra Q threw in just about everything, including ghostly aberrations.

A reporter (Hiroko Sakurai) and a sci-fi writer/aviator (Kenji Sahara) are the forerunners to the X Files’ Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, who investigate and report on the various creatures that are among us.

All 28 episodes in the Ultra Q series will be available on Blu-ray as a four-disc collection … with Digital Copy as a bonus.   These are the original Japanese-language broadcast episodes (with optional English subtitles).

Also arriving on Oct. 15 is the first installment in the Ultraman series.   With the huge success of Ultra Q, Tsuburaya Productions sprung into action and quickly developed a slew of “Ultra” series adventures that continue to run to this day.    

The first of these was a 39-episode series titled Ultraman, which starred Susumu Kurobe as “Ultraman,” Akiji Kobayashi as the leader of “The Science Patrol” and both Kenji Sahara and Hiroko Sakurai are back, but in different personas. 

More monsters, more aliens … bigger, bigger, bigger and even more exciting with a member of Earth’s defense force, “The Space Patrol,” as the hero who is the very mysterious “Ultraman” — he can who grow to a giant size in order to battle monsters and save the earth!!!   

Ultraman will be available as a six-disc collection on Blu-ray, with Digital Copy as a bonus.  Ultraman is also presented in its original Japanese broadcast form, with English subtitles.

67 episodes down … Mill Creek Entertainment is just getting started.   Stay tuned fans!!!

Wild Eye Releasing's Plaguers: 10th Anniversary Edition Will Ship As DVD And Blu-ray Product Offerings On Oct. 29

Wild Eye Releasing, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed Oct. 29 as the street date for both DVD and Blu-ray editions of writer/director Brad Sykes’ outer space thriller, Plaguers: 10^th Anniversary Edition.

The Pandora is returning to Earth, the captain is dead and the ship’s cargo is something that should have been left where it was found, the blob-like thing known as Thanatos.   Somehow the crew will sell the thing (some mumbo-jumbo about a source of unlimited energy), profit from it and the death of their captain will be quickly forgotten.   Just get back to Earth!!

A simple plan, but when the derelict Diana sends out a distress call, the acting captain of the Pandora, Darian Holloway (Alexis Zibolis — The Da Vinci Treasure, Mouthpiece, etc.), diverts course to attempt a rescue and her and her crew get quite the surprise and the prospects of returning to Earth grow dim.   Four sexy “nurses,” in cheerleader-like outfits, are the only survivors of a space pirate attack!!

Before you can say “ahoy, matey,” or “shiver me timbers!,” or something else pirate-appropriate, the crew of the Pandora discovers that the sexy wenches, led by Kyra (Noelle Perris), are in fact the pirates.   Well there’s booty aplenty aboard the Pandora and when one of these sweet young things tampers with the Thanatos she is splattered with a green ooze that mutates her into a pirate zombie.

It doesn’t take long for both the crew of the Pandora, including their “synthetic human,” Tarver (played by Steve Railsback), and the remaining three mini-skirt clad pirates, to unite in common purpose.   

But one by one they too become zombies!   Who will be the final girl — Kyra or Darian?   Yes, Plaguers has all of the elements of a slasher-in-space thriller, with the Pandora acting as a haunted house in space and the crew and pirates the victim pool.

Plaguers is great fun!!   As to bonus goodies, we have filmmaker Brad Sykes and producer Josepina Sykes providing two commentary options … one with and one without actor Steve Railsback.   Plus there is a behind-the-scenes documentary titled “Scares in Space” and a Q&A session with the cast and crew.

Icarus Films Tabs Sept. 3 As The DVD Street Date For Documentary Filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein’s Ghosts Of Attica

Emmy-nominee and two-time Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards-winner, Brad Lichtenstein’s 2001 look back at the bloody carnage of the Attica Prison riot of September 1971, Ghosts of Attica, will be available on DVD from Icarus Films on Sept. 3.

In retrospect, Attica was a disaster waiting to happen.   Originally designed to house 1,200 prisoners, by September of 1971 the number of inmates was nearly twice that number.   A small, seemingly innocuous event on the morning of Sept. 9, 1971 triggered the takeover, which saw 42 guards and prison staff members taken hostage.

For four days negotiations drug on and then broke down, even though most of the demands of the prisoners had been agreed to.   Shortly before ten in the morning on Sept. 13 the prison was retaken … and in the aftermath ten guards were dead along with 29 prisoners. 

 

Only after the smoke had cleared and order had been restored did the true horror of the re-taking of the Attica become clear.   New York State Police had, in their zeal to put down the rebellion, killed nine of the ten guards and 25 prisoners in their barrage of fire (one guard had been killed in the early going, while four prisoners were murdered by their fellow inmates for various reprisal reasons). 

Lichenstein’s “time capsule” documentary uses vintage newsreel and broadcast footage from the period and contemporary interviews with guards, inmates and officials some thirty years after the events.   Ghosts of Attica, as a result, is a scholarly-like review of the Attica Prison riot and its aftermath that expertly draws out the experiences from all those who were there and experienced it first hand.

Narration is by Susan Sarandon.

Also getting a DVD release date from Icarus films this past week is documentary filmmakers Josh Fox and Steve Liptay’s DIVEST! The Climate Movement on Tour … the DVD will be available on Sept. 10.

350.org was founded back 2008 by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben (“The End of Nature,” “Hope, Human and Wild: True Stories of Living Lightly on the Earth,” etc.) and colleagues with the goal of reducing carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million.   

Filmmakers Fox and Liptay caught up with McKibben on his “Do the Math” national bus tour, which began in November of 2012 and hop-skipped across the country to packed venues.    DIVEST! The Climate Movement on Tour captures the presentations — which features such guest lecturers such as author Naomi Kline (“No Logo,” “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate,” etc.) Desmond Tutu, radio personality Ira Glass (“This American Live”), environmentalist Winona LaDuke (executive director of Honor the Earth) and Reverend Lennox Yearwood — and the bus journey itself which features candid interviews.

AGFA's 2K Film Restoration Of Writer/Director Daniel Erickson’s Scary Movie Ready On Oct. 15 As Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Edition

Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean that you are crazy.   Such is the case with Warren (played by Oscar-nominated John Hawkes — Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, plus such films as Everest, Winter's Bone, The Sessions), the star of writer/director Daniel Erickson’s 1991 horror tale, Scary Movie.

AGFA (American Genre Film Archive), with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, announced this past week that a new 2K restoration from the original 16mm camera negative of Erickson’s long-lost indie film production will be available as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack edition on Oct. 15.   If you’ve seen a bootleg copy on VHS from back in the day, toss it … it’s crap, this is the real deal.

As near as can be sketched together, Scary Movie was filmed in and around Austin, Texas, using a lot of local talent, and then premiered at the WorldFest Houston International Independent Film Festival in April of 1991.   Around Halloween of the same year it had a screening in Austin and then more or less disappeared.

Thanks to the efforts of the American Genre Film Archive, genre fans will have an opportunity to enjoy this little gem for the first time on Blu-ray.

The story revolves around a young man by the name of Warren, who is barely hanging on emotionally.   Call him fragile.   In any case, he agrees to go with his buddy Brad (Jason Russel Waller), Brad’s girlfriend, Shelley (Virginia Pratt), and their friend, Barbara (Suzanne Aldrich), to the opening of the local Halloween Haunted House.   

Warren hears that a mental patient has escaped during a routine transfer from one nut house to another and begins to worry that the Haunted House will be a good place for him to hide.   This fear is only reinforced when the gathering crowd begins to the spread the same news … killer on the loose and heading this way!!!

A paranoid young man, a crazed killer on the loose and a Halloween Haunted House ... what could possibly go wrong!!

Bonus goodies include commentary from filmmaker Daniel Erickson, who is joined by AGFA’s Joseph A. Ziemba and there are two short films from Erickson, Mr. Pumpkin and Little Hero.

VCI Entertainment Launches The Pearl River Collection On Oct. 15 With A 2K Restoration Of The Leg Fighters

VCI Entertainment announced this past week the launch of a new line of Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions that will be released under the “The Pearl River Collection” promotional banner.  

Neglected, lost and rare … these describe the martial arts films that VCI Entertainment and “Brucesploitation” connoisseur, Michael Worth (actor, director and producer) will be teaming up to restore, promote and release.   For many, these films will be seen for the first time.

The timing is perfect, with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, opening theatrically on July 25, featuring Mike Moh as Bruce Lee, there will be plenty of buzz about the iconic martial arts star.   

So, with that in mind, the first entry in the “The Pearl River Collection” will be director Tso Nam Lee’s 1980 film production of The Leg Fighters (aka: The Invincible Kung Fu Legs), starring Tao-Liang Tan as Tan Hai-Chi, a lethal Kung-Fu master, who is hired to train an unruly “princess” by the name of Phoenix (Hwa Kwan-Li; aka: Kuang-Li Hsia).   Despite her tricks and mischief-making schemes Tan will get her into shape before the final showdown with a rival master out for revenge (played by Kang Peng).

The Leg Fighters will be released on Oct. 15 as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack.  This new 2K restoration from a recently discovered 35MM Chinese print, features both the original Mandarin-language track and a newly prepared English-dubbed alternative.

Bonus features include commentary from Michael Worth, plus there is a video session featuring Worth and director Lee Tso Nam and a second video session Dan Halsted, curator of Portland's Hollywood Theater Kung Fu Night.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Says Aug. 27 Will Be The Home Entertainment Launch For The Secret Life of Pets 2 • Ma Folllows On Sept. 03

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will be moving director Chris Renaud’s smash animated hit, The Secret Life of Pets 2, swiftly to market on Aug. 27 as a three-SKU home entertainment package media array of product offerings.

The ARR is a lightning fast transition at just 81 days.  Box office revenues currently stand at a robust $140.7 million.

Consumers will be able to select between Combo Pack editions for either the 4K Ultra HD format (with Blu-ray) or the Blu-ray format (with DVD), as well as a stand-alone DVD edition.

As to bonus goodies, there are deleted scenes, eight featurettes — “A Tapestry of a Tail,” “How to Draw,” “Frame by Frame: How to Make a Flip Book,” “Character Pods,” “The Further Adventures of Captain Snowball,” “A Party Fit for a Pet,” “Pops' Puppy Training School with Kevin Hart” and “Pet’s Yule Log” — plus there are two new Mini-Movies featuring the Minions (and “The Making of the Mini-Movies”). 

Also announced this week as a two-SKU home entertainment packaged media presentation is writer/director Tate Taylor’s creepy horror tale, Ma, which gave three-time Oscar-nominee, Octavia Spencer (Best Supporting Actress winner for The Help, plus Best Supporting Actress nominations for The Shape of Water and Hidden Figures), a chance to play against type.

Ma will be heading home on Sept. 3, which yields an ARR of 95 days.   Box office receipts were a solid $45.1 million.

Genre fans will have buying options for a stand-alone DVD edition as well as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack.

Bonus goodies include deleted scenes, an alternate ending and a pair of featurettes — “Creating Sue Ann” and “Party at Ma’s.”