Oscilloscope Pictures Preps Blu-ray And DVD Editions Of Documentary Filmmaker Stephen Wilkes’ Jay Myself For Delivery On Oct. 29

The film is killing it in its limited arthouse run.   Six weeks in release (and counting) and ticket sales have already cruised to an impressive $128,703.   Before the late July theatrical launch, the film in question opened at DOC NYC way back in November of last year, competed for the Metropolis Grand Jury Prize and made the rounds of some selected film festivals.

So what are we talking about?   What is the film?   It is noted photographer Stephen Wilkes’ documentary titled Jay Myself, and word arrived this past week from Oscilloscope Laboratories that it will be making its DVD and Blu-ray debut on Oct. 29.   

And get this, so successful has the film been it is arthouse run that it has bookings into October and early November — Austin Film Society (Nov. 4), Toronto (Oct. 25), Detroit Institute of Art (Nov. 11) and more.

For the record, that Oct. 29 street date yields an ARR of 88 days.

So why did Stephen Wilkes, whose works includes the six-year long Ellis Island project (beginning in 1998) — and the subsequent publication in 2006 of “Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom” — plus his famed millennial portrait in 2000 titled “America in Detail,” turn to the world of documentary filmmaking?

Simple, way back in 1979, when he was just starting out as a photographer he had the good fortune of being mentored by award-winning photographer Jay Maisel.   He maintained his friendship with Maisel for the decades that followed, and when the news arrived that something big was happening in the Bowery it was just too good a story to pass up.

So what is the story and what is Jay Myself all about?   It seems that in 1966 Jay Maisel bought a six-story bank building in a really bad area of lower Manhattan.   They were closing up shop and looking to dump the property and so he bought it for something like a hundred grand.   Six stories, 72 “rooms” and 36,000 square feet … and it is there that he set up shop with a studio, living quarters and vast amounts of storage.

The building, located at Spring and Bowery, became legendary.   A mystery for New Yorkers … and as the years passed, the area became “gentrified” and Maisel’s home and studio became one of the greatest real estate investments of all time.   

Wilkes’ Jay Myself is not so much about the biography of Jay Maisel (there is plenty there) or about the building itself, but the fact that he had decided to sell the building and “downsize” (taxes and upkeep made that an imperative) … and what caught Wilkes interest was what was in those 72 rooms, spread across six stories and over 50 years of history.

For people of New York City, this film gives insights in those mysteries.   What was stored inside for over 50 years … what treasures?   What stories?   Oh, and get this, his $100,000 investment netted him $55 million!!!

Bonus goodies include extended conversations with Jay Maisel (there is just so much there to talk about), extended interviews with his colleagues and outtakes.

Paramount Home Media Selects Dec. 10 For The DVD Debut Of The Catch-22 Mini-Series

Paramount Home Media has selected Dec. 10 as the street for the six-part mini-series adaptation of the Joseph Heller’s 1961 masterpiece, Catch-22.

Drawing the coveted role of Capt. John Yossarian is Christopher Abbott (First Man, Martha Marcy May Marlene, James White, etc.).

If you read the book or if you have seen the director Mike Nichols’ 1970 film adaptation of Heller’s book, starring Alan Arkin as Yossarian, then you already know the punch line.   The “Catch-22” is that if you are crazy you don’t have to fly any more bombing missions over Germany.   All you have to do is ask to be grounded, but the moment you ask, that’s a rational act and therefore you are not crazy.   25 is the number of missions and then you get to go home, except the number keeps changing.   

In the original film, Nichols had to cram as much as he could into 122 minutes.   With the six-part mini-series, tag-team directors (each doing two of the six segments), Ellen Kuras (two-time Emmy-winner for Jane and P.O.V., plus Oscar-nominated for her documentary titled The Betrayal: Nerakhoon), Grant Heslov (Oscar-winner for his production of Argo, plus nominated for Oscars for his scripts, The Ides of March and Good Night, Good Luck) and George Clooney (who also plays the role of Scheisskopf) can expand the presentation to include additional characters and more of the storyline.

All of the production values are top-notch (Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited Series).

In other home entertainment packaged media release news from Paramount Home Media this week, writer/director David Raymond’s creep-out serial killer thriller, Night Hunter, has been added to the Oct. 15 mix of products as both DVD and Blu-ray selections.

Already in place on that date are Blu-ray editions of Crawl (also DVD), The Haunting of Hill (also DVD), Star Trek: Picard - Movie & TV Collection and 16-disc set of Twin Peaks: The Television Collection.

Simon (Brendan Fletcher — Freddy vs. Jason, Rampage, RV) is a serial killer and the police have him in custody, but to build their case against him, Harper, the near-manic police commissioner (Stanley Tucci) wants detective Marshall (played by Henry Cavill), a man with domestic problems, to put everything aside and fast-track his investigation because one of his victims, a young girl, might not be dead (yet).

Helping Marshall is a methodical profiler by the name of Rachel (Alexandra Daddario — Baywatch, San Andreas), who has her ways of dealing with nut jobs, but that doesn’t please the girl’s father, a former judge by the name of Cooper (Ben Kingsley), who, as it turns out, has been using his daughter as bait to catch pedophiles and dispense his own special brand of “justice” to them.

The serial killer may be locked up, but the clock is ticking for Cooper’s daughter and, if you can imagine this in your mind, certain characters are essentially screaming at the top of their lungs … while other, with problems and/or methods, try to sort things out.   That sounds like “bedlam” … and it is!!!

Oh, and our little sex-killer has a booby-trapped “sex dungeon” and that just about puts the icing on the cake!!!  

Arrow Video's 2K Restoration Of Hitchhike To Hell Heads To Blu-ray On Nov. 19

It was 1977 and Harry H. Novak’s Boxoffice International Pictures was in to its 14^th year of distributing adult-themed (The Dirty Mind of Young Sally, The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet, Below the Belt, etc.), horror films (Axe, Rattlers, The Mad Butcher) and exploitation thrillers … and then suddenly Novak folded up shop and Boxoffice was gone.    It remains something of a mystery as to exactly why.

Nevertheless, Novak then turned his attention to adult films and the launch of Valiant International Pictures, but that’s another story.   

One of the last films to be released under the BIP banner was the October of 1977 launch of director Irvin Berwick’s Hitchhike to Hell, which received some solid trade reviews (“As topical and tense as anything in the genre to come along in quite a spell” – Boxoffice Magazine, Oct. 31, 1977 edition) and has, over time, become something of a cult film, even to the point of suggesting that the film was shot sometime in the 1960s (not true).

In any case, word arrived this past week from Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, that a 2K restoration of Hitchhike to Hell — from the original film elements — will be available on Nov. 19 as newly-minted Blu-ray product offering.

Howard Martin (Robert Gibben — Trip with the Teacher, Goodbye, Norma Jean, Don't Go Near the Park, etc.) has a couple of problems.   His sister disappeared six years ago and he has obsessed about it ever since … she was a runaway.   His mother (played by Dorothy Bennett) hasn’t gotten over it.   So he obsesses about that too.

In the opening set-up, Howard’s problem would be no big deal, but as a delivery driver for a local cleaners, he comes across a young woman by the name of Sharon Parker (Jacqueline Poseley) and offers her a ride.   Nice enough at first, but when Sharon says that she’s running away from home because she can’t stand her mother, our boy Howard snaps.    A serial killer is born … he beats her, rapes her and then strangles her.

Detectives J. W. Shaw (Russell Johnson — yes, The Professor from Gilligan’s Island) and Phil Davis (Randy Echols) draw the case, but have few clues.   While they are busy with Sharon’s murder, Howard has a meltdown at home, plays with his toy cars and, sure enough, picks up another hitchhiker.   

This one is named Gail (Jane Ratliff) and she’s one tough chick who could give a rat’s patootie about what her mother thinks about her life on the road.   SNAP!!  He beats, rapes and then stranglers her with a handy coat hanger in the back of the delivery van and then dumps her body.

Ah ha, a clue!!   Shaw and Davis have a coat hanger and that could be significant.

By now you’ve got the pattern.   Howard picks up young women out hitchhiking, finds out that they don’t like mommy and murders them … at home his mother frets over him, his boss berates him for his erratic behavior, he plays with toy cars and has bad dreams.   A real sweetheart!

How many victims and how many clues before Howard is cornered?    

Bonus goodies include a newly minted video discussion of the film by author Stephen Thrower (“Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents,” “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco,” “Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci,” etc.) and the featurette titled “Road to Nowhere: Hitchhiking Culture Goes to Hell.”

Darkside Releasing Looks To Nov. 12 For The Blu-ray Debut Of Virgin Cheerleaders in Chains

Horror icon Herschell Gordon Lewis would have been proud of the directing team of Gary McClain Gannaway and Paulo Biscaia Filho and their collaboration on the best-titled film of the year on Blu-ray, Virgin Cheerleaders in Chains.

The Gore Gore Girls, The Wizard of Gore … Virgin Cheerleaders in Chains … you can easily see how they could be cousins, film-cousins!

Darkside Releasing, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has selected Nov. 12 as Blu-ray debut date for this genre-twisting thriller … with a sense of humor.

He’s got great ideas — call that an ego — but the Hollywood studios simply won’t listen, so Shane (Ezekiel Z. Swinford — The Long Road Home), a wanna be filmmaker with a flare for horror, sets out to make the definitive horror film for the ages.   A few little problems … he has limited production resources, no experience at making movies and no script, plenty of ideas, but no script. 

His production partner, Chloe (Kelsey Pribilski — Last Girl Standing, Tag Team Truckers), is a frustrated writer too, but she has a can-do spirit that moves Shane along.   First, she has a brother (played by Michael Morford), that’s a body and he’s family so that means that he has go along with their plans.   Their roommate, Nelson (Evan Michael Glover), he’s got to be in … you can see the cast and crew forming before your eyes.

Where do you get a “virgin cheerleader?”   You need a pro, not some high school kid going “zip, boom, bah.”   The solution: local strip club.   Amber (played by voice talent Elizabeth Maxwell — Attack on Titan, Nomad of Nowhere, Overlord) is interviewed, no screen test needed!!

The big score, however, is a real horror pro, the star of the horror classic, Maine Machete Massacre, Mike Beale (played by Don Daro — The Emeryville Experiments), who agrees to be in Shane and Chloe’s movie for a piece of the profits (if there are profits).

Oh, and it gets better, even better, Beale’s Uncle Albert (Gary Kent) has the perfect location for the filming of Virgin Cheerleaders in Chains, an old abandoned orphanage.   The film is literally making itself, it’s all coming together, even if the script is still a work in progress.

What Chloe, Shane and Amber will soon discover is that Uncle Albert and his buddy Otto (Woody Wilson Hall) — and their hounds from hell — are serial killers and the film production of Virgin Cheerleaders in Chains could be their pièce de résistance!!!

What a hoot, fun, gore and Amber, who could ask for more!!

As to bonus goodies, there’s a featurette titled “Behind-the-Scenes & Bloorhouse Tour,” promotional videos for the film’s Brazilian release and the complete episode from ZombieLife TV: Season 1 featuring the cast and crew.  

   

Vinegar Syndrome Announces Oct. 29 Film Restoration Calendar For Release On Blu-ray

Vinegar Syndrome teased it nicely.   The October film restoration package would be announced on, appropriately enough, Friday the thirteenth … the clock ticked down and sure enough Vinegar Syndrome’s web site came alive with four new Blu-ray releases that will hit retail outlets on Oct. 29 (just in time for Halloween screenings).

Leading the parade of 2K and 4K genre-themed film restorations is the four-film collection titled Amityville: The Cursed Collection (all four films are new 4K restorations from their respective 35mm original camera negatives).  

In the summer of 1979 director Stuart Rosenberg’s The Amityville Horror burst upon the scene and proved to be a blockbuster release.   So much so that it launched a forty-year long film love affair with Amityville-themed films that have been released theatrically, made for TV or direct to video.

To celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of this venerable horror franchise, Vinegar Syndrome will be delivering four in the series, beginning with the number four entry in the series, the 10^th Anniversary all-star television event production of writer/director Sandor Stern’s Amityville: The Evil Escapes, starring the late Patty Duke, Jane Wyatt, Aron Eisenberg (of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame), Norman Lloyd, Fredric Lehne and Brandy Gold and Zoe Trilling (aka: Geri Betzler) as the Evans sisters tormented by the demonic force.

Bonus features included with Amityville: The Evil Escapes include newly-prepared video sessions with filmmaker Sandor Stern (who adapted the Jay Anson novel for the first film, The Amityville Horror, in 1979) and cinematographer Tom Richmond.

Next up in the series is director Tony Randel’s 1992 direct-to-video release of Amityville: It's About Time (the sixth film in the series, chronologically speaking).   

Here, architect Jacob Sterling (Stephen Macht — Galaxina, The Choirboys, Graveyard Shift) returns home from a routine business trip with a prize find, a clock that in discovered in the debris of an old house.   It is possessed and he puts his girlfriend Andrea (Shawn Weatherly — J.J. Starbuck, Baywatch) and his two teenage kids, Lisa (Megan Ward — Encino Man) and Rusty (Damon Martin) in danger of being taken over by the clock’s demonic forces.

Bonus features are two new video sessions with director Tony Randel (Hellbound: Hellraiser II, The Double Born) and producer Chris DeFaria (Mad Max: Fury Road, Gravity, Amityville: A New Generation).

Next up in the Amityville: The Cursed Collection from Vinegar Syndrome on Oct. 29 is director John Murlowski’s 1993 direct to video release of Amityville: A New Generation … it is seventh in the series and also produced by Chris DeFaria.

This tale spins around a mirror from the original Amityville house that comes into the possession of photographer Keyes Terry (Ross Partridge), who soon discovers that those — mainly his unsuspecting friends — who gaze into the mirror see a future that does not bode well for them.   

Bonus goodies include commentary by director John Murlowski who is joined by producer/director Elijah Drenner (That Guy Dick Miller), plus there are two featurettes — “Through the Looking Glass” and “Malevolent Reflections,”

Rounding out this genre-fan collection is director Steve White’s 1996 direct-to-video chiller, Amityville Dollhouse — the eighth film in the original cycle and the last one before director Andrew Douglas’ 2005 re-boot of the series.

Bill (Robin Thomas — The Contender) and Claire Martin (Starr Andreeff — Ghoulies II) find a dollhouse in a shed on their new property that is an exact replica of the original Amityville house on 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York.    They give it to their young daughter and all hell breaks loose!!!

Bonus nuggets include video sessions with producer/director Steve White (he also produced Amityville: The Evil Escapes), cinematographer Tom Callaway and special effects artist Roy Knyrim.

Also on the film restoration calendar from Vinegar Syndrome and slated for delivery on Oct. 29 are three new Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack releases.   These are: Director Jefferson Richard’s 1987 film release of Berserker (bonuses include newly-prepared video sessions with director Jefferson Richard and actors Joseph Alan Johnson, Shannon Engemann and Mike Riley), director Jeff Kwitny’s 1989 horror tale, Beyond the Door III (includes featurettes titled “Running Amok” and “A Long Walk to Yugoslavia”) and director Anders Palm’s 1989 serial killer “comedy,” Unmasked Part 25 (includes commentary by Anders Palm and second commentary option with producer Mark Cutforth).

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw From Universal Pictures Home Entertainment On Nov. 05

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has circled Nov. 5 on its release calendar as the street date for director David Leitch’s “spin-off” of the Fast & Furious film franchise series, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

Spin-off or the ninth entry in the series matters not to the fans as ticket sales in the domestic market were a sweet $165.5 million (and counting) and over a half-a-billion dollars in international markets.

Planned for release are three home entertainment packaged media selections.  There will be two Combo Pack editions — 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) — as well as a stand-alone DVD release.

Bonus features common to all release configurations include commentary with director David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde), deleted and extended scenes, plus four featurettes — “Johnson & Statham: Hobbs & Shaw,” “New Friends,” “Progress of a Fight Scene With Director David Leitch” and “Practical Action.”

Exclusive to the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray SKUs are an alternate opening sequence and nine additional featurettes — “The Bad Guy,” “The Sister,” “Hobbs’ Family Tree,” “The Matriarch,” “Elevator Action,” “Stunt Show and Tell,” “Keeping it in the Family: A Conversation With Roman and Dwayne,” “Blind Fury” and “Dwayne and Hobbs: Love at First Bite.”

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Targets Oct. 22 For The Home Entertainment Package Media Launch Of Director Jon Favreau’s The Lion King

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has confirmed the rumors that director Jon Favreau’s blended live action/CGI blockbuster, The Lion King, will be making the transition from theatrical venues to the home entertainment packaged media marketplace on Oct. 22.

That date yields an ARR of 95 days and domestic tickets currently register a regal $529.2 million … throw in twice that overseas and The Lion King has accumulated over $1.6 billion in box office revenues worldwide.

Planned for release are a three-SKU selection of products (plus “exclusive” editions at Best Buy and Target), which include a stand-alone DVD edition and Combo Packs for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats.

Bonus treasure to be mined by consumers are exclusive to the Combo Pack SKUs and include commentary from director Jon Favreau, who also provides an introduction to the film, the three-part presentation of “The Journey to the Lion King” and the “layer-by-layer” progression of three key scenes in the feature titled “More to be Scene.”

Also included is the ability to jump to the seven musical numbers featured in the film and a pair of music videos — Elton John’s “Never too Late” and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s “Spirit.”