88 Films Selects Dec. 13 For The Domestic Blu-ray Debut Of Writer/Director Fernando Di Leo's Blood And Diamonds

The UK’s 88 Films, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has locked into Dec. 13 as the street date for a newly-minted Blu-ray edition of writer/director Fernando Di Leo’s crime thriller, Blood and Diamonds.

This is a new 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative.

Back in the early 60s Di Leo hit the jackpot as a screenwriter with the scripts for A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, followed those two Eastwood classics in 1966 with Kiss Kiss … Bang Bang, a series of Spaghetti Westerns and then found his calling as a director in 1969 with Naked Violence, a Poliziotteschi-thriller.    

 

Major recognition followed in 1972 with the release of Caliber 9, the first in what would come to be known as his “Milieu Trilogy” (Poliziotteschi crime dramas) … The Italian Connection was released later in the same year (domestic English-dubbed in 1973 with American International handling distribution) and The Boss in 1973 (1975, English-dubbed theatrical release by Cinema Shares International).

Now firmly established as an international filmmaker, he continued with a series of films into the 70s with Blood and Diamonds reaching the screen in Italy in the spring of 1978.   The timing could not have been worse for Di Leo as the Red Brigade ambushed former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro’s motorcade, slaughtering his body guards and kidnapping Aldo Moro.  

The entire country’s focus was on the drama that played out in the days that followed … and Blood and Diamonds went largely unnoticed and failed to find the same domestic theatrical following as the aforementioned The Italian Connection and The Boss.

Guido Mauri (Claudio Cassinelli — Slave of the Cannibal God, Avalanche Express, The Devil is a Woman) and his crime-partner, Marco (Carmelo Reale), pull-off a diamond heist, but Guido is caught and Marco gets away with the loot.

He serves a five-year jolt for the crime and is released into the caring arms of his woman, Maria (Olga Karlatos), but on the bus ride back to the city the bus is hijacked by two heavily-armed masked gunmen.  

Realizing immediately what they must be after, Guido makes a break for it, but Maria is shot in the back and dies on the highway.   The gunmen are quickly dispatched by Guido and now the race begins … the diamonds or death!  

The power behind the play for the missing diamonds is crime boss Rizzo (played by Martin Balsam), who sends his enforcer Tony (played by Di Leo regular, Pier Paolo Capponi) to take care of business!   Let the blood flow as murder, torture … and some show-stopping dancing by the alluring Lisa (Barbara Bouchet — as Moneypenny in Casino Royale, plus such films as Black Belly of the Tarantula, Amuck, Death Rage) — Guido’s former main-squeeze — follow!!

Bonus features include commentary by author and film historian Troy Howarth (“The Haunted World of Mario Bava”), the documentary titled Journey of Love: Discovering Fernando Di Leo and the featurette “Blood and Di Leo.”

Blood and Diamonds is presented in Italian with English subtitles … there is also an English-dubbed viewing option.

 

 

 

Mill Creek Entertainment To Release Sci-Fi From The Vault Blu-ray Collection On Dec. 13

Mill Creek Entertainment has tabbed Dec. 13 as the street date for a double-disc, four-film collection on Blu-ray titled Sci-Fi from the Vault.   Genre-fan favorites one and all!!

So, let’s get this going with a creature-feature thriller from the summer of 1955.  Director Robert Gordon, working with the special effects wizardry of Ray Harryhausen, destroys San Francisco with the help of a gigantic octopus — the result of nuclear testing in the Pacific — in It Came from Beneath the Sea.

Kenneth Tobey, who led the battle in The Thing from Another World and was there in New York City taking on The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, was no stranger to dealing with creatures, both from another world or right here on earth.   He’s back, this time as the commander of a nuclear submarine, that runs afoul of the eight-legged sea beast while on patrol.

Scientists, are called in and heading up the research team is none other than Faith Domergue as Prof. Lesley Joyce, a marine biologist, who quickly deduces that it was atomic radiation that created the beast … and now it roams the Pacific looking for food.

1955 was a very good year for Faith Domergue — in terms of genre-fan pleasures — she also starred in This Island Earth, The Atomic Man and Cult of the Cobra.

In any case, the beast arrives in San Francisco (noted for its fine sea food dining) and destroys numerous landmarks before our sub captain can destroy it!

Also in the collection, and also from 1955, is director Edward L. Cahn’s ingenious gangster-flick-turned-mad-scientist-thriller, Creature with the Atom Brain.  

Richard Denning, who was no stranger to 50s sci-fi and horror films (Creature from the Black Lagoon, Target Earth, Day the World Ended) is a scientist who is recruited by the police to help them solve a series of brutal murders … turns out a deported Mafia-type has recruited a mad Nazi scientist to create an unstoppable army of atom-powered zombies.   The dead walk … the dead kill and can’t be stopped!!

Rounding out the Sci-Fi from the Vault Blu-ray collection from Mill Creek Entertainment on Dec. 13 is another Ray Harryhausen treasure 20 Million Miles to Earth, starring William Hopper and Joan Taylor … and the Ymir from Venus, a creature who grows and grows and grows!!!

One of the biggest sci-fi films of 1958 was Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, starring Allison Hayes.  As Hollywood usually does with a success, they reason that if one giant woman was a hit, why not another?   That’s exactly what happened in 1959 when iconic funnyman Lou Costello was teamed up with Dorothy Provine in director Sidney Miller’s The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock.         

Poor Emmy Lou has gotten a dose of cave radiation and, as a result, has grown to be a very-plus-sized woman … it’s up to Artie (Costello), who is an amateur inventor, to get her back to normal size before the army blows her up, literally!!

 

 

 

Dec. 27 Will Be The Street For Bayview Entertainment's Blu-ray Debut Of Writer/Director Jason Hawkins' Deleted

Bayview Entertainment gives us a sci-fi chill on Dec. 27 with the Blu-ray debut of writer/director Jason Hawkins’ Deleted.

Will Perditus (Calvin Morie McCarthy — Directed by Evil, Vengeance, Lake Noir) is a lonely, isolated man, who is adrift … and now suddenly desperate.   He has begun to think that he might just be a bot, a figment of someone’s imagination.  Nothing more than a fake profile … automated software programed to be lonely, isolated and adrift.   But who created him?  And why?

With the help of Iris (Kelsey Tucker — Finding Oblivion, V-Force: New Dawn of V.I.C.T.O.R.Y., Judith), an AI build as a woman, he sets out to find the one who created him — and to answer the why of it — before he is deleted.

Hawkins (The Devil Knows His Own, Finding Oblivion, The Midnight Show) also introduces us to Nomi (Myriam Baillargeon), the woman who conjured-up Will.   

 She is, as you might suspect, a mess … is he her fantasy; her escape?   Perhaps, since her real-world lover, Mike (played by Steve Larkin — Conjuring: The Beyond, Cross Hollow), is abusive, judgmental and dealing with frustration and anger issues … Nomi is often the target.

Will Perditus is on a quest for answers in a world where he does not exist.  But, will he be Nomi’s shining knight; the one who rescues her before the deleted button is pressed?   Or, is there more going on here than meets the eye … Dec. 27 when Deleted arrives on Blu-ray to find the answers.

 

 

MVD Entertainment Group Preps DVD And Blu-ray Editions Of Filmmaker Cody Smith's Can't Be Stopped For Delivery On Dec. 13

MVD Entertainment Group has DVD and Blu-ray editions of documentary filmmaker Cody Smith’s Can’t Be Stopped ready for delivery on Dec. 13.

Are they urban vandals or artists in a medium little understood or appreciated by the outside world?   That’s what Smith’s ten-year-long odyssey is all about … to document the history, or perhaps, better-stated, “the movement,” of the Hollywood-area’s legendary graffiti crew, C.B.S. (Can’t Be Stopped).  

They were never taggers; tag-bangers, but beginning in the early 1980s, through the leadership of Aaron Seth Anderson, known as Skate-One, C.B.S. became a multi-generational family.  Mainly kids from the underbelly of society; broken homes … on the streets.   He shaped them into an artistic crew, planning their art and carrying it out.

Through vintage footage, interviews with both founding members — Frost, Theory, Hex and Demo — to such iconic artists as Seen, Mek and Trigz (and more), Cody Smith tells the story of their art, the music, the family … and the street.

Dec. 13, Cody Smith’s Can’t Be Stopped on both DVD and Blu-ray from MVD Entertainment Group … Narration is by House of Pain’s Everlast (aka: Erik Francis Schrody).

 

 

 

Wolfe To Bring Writer/Director Bretten Hannam's Wildhood To The DVD Marketplace On Nov. 29

Wolfe has tabbed Nov. 29 for the DVD debut of writer/director Bretten Hannam’s award-winning coming-of-age drama, Wildhood.

Link (Phillip Lewitski — The Legendary Bear Lake Monster) and his younger half-brother, Travis (Avery Winters-Anthony), live a life of misery with their trailer park trash father, who has hidden the identity of Link’s mother … don’t ask, she’s just dead, that’s all you need to know. 

Through circumstances he discovers that his mother is a Mi'Kmaw Indian by the name of Sarah and faced with tough times at home, a streak of escalating delinquency, he embarks upon a quest to find her … Travis, who looks up to his brother and detests his father, decides that the search — even perhaps pointless — is far better than living with dear old dad.

This magical journey leads to unexpected discoveries.

Wildhood, the winner of the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, Atlantic Film Festival and Devour! The Food Film Fest, is presented in English and Mi’kmaw, with English subtitles where appropriate.

 

 

 

 

Writer/Director Parker Finn's Hit Horror Film Smile Arrives On Dec. 13 From Paramount Home Entertainment

Paramount Home Entertainment announced this past week that a full-spread of home entertainment packaged media products of writer/director Parker Finn’s horror hit, Smile — starring Sosie Bacon (as Skye Miller in the 13 Reasons Why TV series; as Carrie Layden in the Mare of Easttown mini-series) — will be available on Dec. 13.

The ARR for 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD selections of Smile works out to 74 days.   Over the weekend, the film crossed the $100 million mark in box receipts $102,777,000 and counting) … add in another $109 million in foreign markets and we may have seen a new horror franchise born.

Back in 2020, Parker Finn was a complete unknown, but he had an eleven-minute short film titled Laura Hasn't Slept, which he began entering in various film festival competitions.   Boom, SXSW Film Festival saw it win the Special Jury Award … ditto for the Mile-High Horror Film Festival (and more).  

Paramount took notice and made a deal for a feature-length version, which was destined for streaming on Paramount+, but two things happened along the way.  First, Top Gun: Maverick blew the roof off with its theatrical box office performance and everyone at Paramount saw the benefit of that.   Next, before committing to a final streaming date, the studio began having test screenings of the film and the results were eye-opening … wait!   Stop!   Smile is going the theatrical route first.

A first-time director with a $100 million hit!   Don’t you just love it!!

Bonus features include commentary from filmmaker Parker Finn, deleted scenes (with optional commentary), a pair of featurettes — “Something’s Wrong with Rose: Making Smile” and “Flies on the Wall: Inside the Score — and the original short film, Laura Hasn’t Slept, which started it all!

 

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Sets Director David Gordon Green's Halloween Ends For Release On Dec. 27

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has premium New Year’s holiday viewing lined up for genre fans that will be a must on Dec. 27 with the three-SKU home entertainment packaged media launch of director David Gordon Green's Halloween Ends, starring Jamie Lee Curtis as the iconic Laurie Strode,

The ARR is 74 days and domestic box office receipts stand at $63.5 million.

This completes Green's reboot trilogy and brings us to a very appropriate “13” films in this venerable horror series that dates back the Halloween-season of 1978.

Planned for distribution are Combo Pack editions for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats, plus a stand-alone DVD purchasing option.

Bonus goodies include commentary from filmmaker David Gordon Green, who is joined by actors Andi Matichak (as Allyson Nelson, Laurie’s granddaughter) and Rohan Campbell (as Corey, a babysitter with a dark history) as well as crew members Atilla Salih Yücer and Hugo Garza, a gag reel, deleted and extended scenes and six production featurettes — “Ending Halloween,” “Final Girl,” “No Place Like Haddonfield,” “A Different Threat,” “The Visions of Terror” and “Twisted Deaths.”