Mill Creek Entertainment Selects June 11 As The DVD Debut Date For The Dove Award-Winning Forty-Seven Days With Jesus

Mill Creek Entertainment has selected June 11 for the DVD debut of the writing and directing team of David M. Gutel and Emilio Palame’s Dove Award-winning film, Forty-Seven Days with Jesus.

This was a limited Fathom Event release with a reported one-night box office gross of $348,317 … the ARR works out 88 days.  However, Pinnacle Peak Pictures in association with the Faith Content Network, have also held numerous church-hosted screenings of the film (box office revenues unknown) … all generated by word of mouth.

Forty-Seven Days with Jesus is a different faith-based film than one might expect.   The opening framework is not atypical in that Joseph and Juliana Burdon are parents struggling with family tensions.  

Joseph and Juliana are played by two stars of the very popular theatrical and broadcast series, The Chosen.  Audiences drawn to this film are likely familiar with, and fans of, both Yoshi Barrigas, who plays Philip in series and recording artist Catherine Lidstone as Mary (plus such films — Dead in the Water, Guardian Angel, Proof Sheet, Salvation Street, etc.).  

This is a major selling point for Mill Creek Entertainment’s DVD release of Forty-Seven Days with Jesus on June 11.

As the film begins, they feel that a family visit to Joseph’s parents, Poppa (Emilio Palame) and Noona (Norma Maldonado) is in order, so off they go with their two children, Daniel (Adam Perez Courtney) and Emma (Aliyah Camacho) in tow.   

Once there, the conversation eventually gets around to family problems and Poppa, who is having health issues of his own.  He begins to tell his heartfelt story about the final days of Jesus.  It is here that the film opens up to be more than just a faith-based family drama.   

Through Poppa’s words we, as the audience, are transported back in time to the very events that he is talking about.  Among the cast members introduced at this point are recording Jonathan Byram as Jesus, Erin Etoroma in her film debut as Mary Magdalene, Stephen Hailo as Judas, Cameron Arnett as Pontius Pilate and Cassie Byram as Mary.

As Poppa’s story unfolds, the parallels become clear.   Mill Creek Entertainment’s June 11 DVD debut of Forty-Seven Days with Jesus has a built-in audience, and perhaps, with the Dove Award, solid reviews and its faith-based message a wider following for the film might be in the offing.

Film Chest Announces The Release Of The Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Series Grand Star On Blu-ray This Coming June 25

Just when you think that there is nothing new under the sun, or at least in the world of physical media, up pops the Film Chest with something totally unexpected.

This would be the 2007 Canadian-produced sci-fi series Grand Star, based on French writer Georges-Jean Arnaud’s comic book series, “La Compagnie des Glaces.”  

This super-rare apocalyptic series has been restored, complete with all 26 episodes and will be released as a double-disc Blu-ray set on June 25.

A devastating nuclear disaster on the Moon has plunged the Earth into an Ice Age.  It is world run by tyrants, plus strange creatures roam the planet that seem to be immune to the cold.   There are few survivors, and even fewer who have any concept of the past (knowledge of such things is forbidden).

Cal (played by Tyler Johnston — Pressed, The Odds, Christmas Icetastrophe), has known nothing but a frozen planet, but he lives in relative comfort in one of the protected “railway” stations, run by his father, a geothermal scientist.   However, one day he has a strange “light” vision and, with some friends, he feels compelled to go on a quest of discovery … will it be his doom, or the beginning of a new era on Earth?  

June 25 to discover the answer(s) with Film Chest’s Blu-ray debut of Grand Star.

Cauldron Films Prepares The Definitive Blu-ray Edition Of Director Ruggero Deodato's Off Balance For Release On July 09

What a wonderful surprise in the Blu-ray arena past week.   That would be the July 9 Blu-ray release news from Cauldron Films — with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group.

Cauldron has a new 2K film restoration (from the original camera negative — uncut) of director Ruggero Deodato’s 1987 mixed giallo and horror entry, Off Balance, which is also known widely as Phantom of Death.

You could also label Deodato’s bloody tale a “slasher” film — four stunning beauties meet gruesome — and very bloody — ends.   Off Balance could also be a “creature feature” as our villain, Robert (played by Michael York), is suffering from a rare disease that is causing him to rapidly age physically (special effects by Dino Galiano — Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Dune, Red Sonja), which also affects his sanity.

Regardless, the race is on.   Can Inspector Datti, played by Donald Pleasence no less, catch Robert (whose description keeps changing), before he can slaughter the fifth beauty Helene, played by the incredible Edwige Fenech.

The film ended up going direct to VHS back in 1987, but here Cauldron Films as what genre fans have home for … a Blu-ray restoration loaded with extras!!

For starters, Off Balance can be viewed with the original Italian language track or the English-dubbed export track.

There is also a July of 2022 33-minute video session with Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust, House on the Edge of the Park) recorded shortly before his passing.   This session is titled “An Uncommon Director.”

Italian film experts/historians Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth provide commentary.

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment Targets July 9 For The 4K Ultra HD Debut Of Director Jan de Bont's Twister

In long overdue — but nonetheless very welcomed — 4K Ultra HD release news, the Ken Paxton and Helen Hunt tornado chasing thriller, Twister, will be touching down on July 9.

Directed by Jan de Bont (Speed, The Haunting), the film was released in May of 1996 and was among the first batch of DVD releases that were rollout in March of 1997.

As to bonus selections, there is a newly prepared featurette titled “The Legacy of Twister: Taken by the Wind.”   Also included are vintage elements, including commentary by director Jan de Bont and visual effects supervisor Stefan Fangmeier, three featurettes — “Chasing the Storm: Twister Revisited,” “Anatomy of a Twister” and “The Making of Twister” — and the Van Halen music video titled “Humans Being.”

In other 4K Ultra HD release news from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment this past week, director Albert Magnoli’s 1984 film release of Purple Rain: 40th Anniversary Edition, starring Prince, will be available on June 25.

Bonus goodies include archived commentary by Magnoli, who is joined by producer Robert Cavallo and cinematographer Donald E. Thorin, the featurette titled “First Avenue: The Road to Pop Royalty” and no less than eight music videos, including “Purple Rain.”

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Announces The 4K Ultra HD Release Of Director Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai For Delivery On July 23

It’s film noir time!   

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on July 23 will be delivering a 4K restoration (from the original camera negative) of auteur filmmaker Orson Welles’ April of 1948 film release of The Lady From Shanghai (based on Sherwood King’s 1938 novel “If I Die Before I Wake”), starring Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles and a number of his Mercury Theatre players.

The production of the film is perhaps as interesting as the movie itself.   Filmed after the war in 1946 in Acapulco, Mexico, San Francisco and Sausalito (as well as Columbia’s domestic studio sets), the assistant cameraman died on location in Mexico of a heart attack (Donald “Ray” Cory) and Welles and Hayworth would end up going through a messy divorce during the film’s post production (she was not his first choice for the lead, but she was the studio’s darling at the time … so Rita Hayworth it was).

And to add to the tensions, Welles and then studio head, Harry Cohn, were on the outs with Cohn taking over the editing decisions for the film’s theatrical release (which was delayed for well over a year).

Also of note, the yacht used in the film, Zaca, was owned by Errol Flynn, who actually skippered it during the film’s production.

In the end, The Lady From Shanghai is pure film noir, with an illicit love affair with a femme fatale, murder, double-dealing, a frame job (with the lawyer doing the framing) and the amazing “Hall of Mirrors” climatic ending.   With new the 4K film restoration the glorious black and white cinematography should absolutely pop.

Bonus features include an archived commentary featuring fellow auteur filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich and the vintage featurette titled “A Conversation with Peter Bogdanovich.”

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment's Full Spread Of Physical Media Selections Of Kung Fu Panda 4 Available On May 28 • Helper Community Given Seven Weeks To Exploit Title With VOD WIndow

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has tagged May 28 as street date for a full spread of physical media product offerings for the animated hit, Kung Fu Panda 4.

The ARR works out to 81 days and the domestic box office haul was a solid $188.5 million.   

A premium VOD window was launch 32 days into the film’s theatrical run, which meant that the “Helper” community was presented with a pristine master of the film and, of course, responded with slickly packed Blu-ray product offerings on the same day.   

If you are doing the math, it means that seven full weeks were provided to these “Helpers” to garner sales.   Most consumers can’t tell the difference between real and pirated product (or don’t care), especially those who have made pre-street purchases in the past and have found the quality acceptable.

As to the full spread of physical media selections, both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) purchasing options will be Combo Packs.   

Bonus features are led by commentary teaming director Mike Mitchell with co-director Stephanie Ma Stine, production designer Paul Duncan, “head of story” Calvin Tsang and animator Sean Sexton, deleted scenes, the short film titled Dueling Dumplings, and seven featurettes — “Mastering the Dumpling,” “Bad Bunny Review,” “Kung Fu Talking,” “Meet the Cast,” “Kung Fu Panda 4 All,” “How to Draw” and “Shadow Puppet Theatre.”




    

The Criterion Collection Reveals Its August Slate Of New Film Restoration Toplined By Filmmaker Matha Coolidge's Not A Pretty Picture Blu-ray and DVD Debut On Aug. 20

The Criterion Collection announced its August slate of new film restorations, which includes three new 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack selections — Albert Brooks’ Mother and Real Life (Aug. 27) and director Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 Best Picture winner, The Last Emperor (Aug. 13) — however (and this always a subjective thing), the film that caught our eye among the August new arrivals is writer/director (and producer) Martha Coolidge’s 1976 experimental film, Not a Pretty Picture.

The film is what might be called a docu-drama, which purports to detail the events surrounding Coolidge’s date rape at the age of sixteen while attending a private boarding school.   

Coolidge (played by Michele Manenti) and her roommate (actually played by her real roommate at the time of the event, Ann Mundstuk) go out on a night on town with fellow students in Greenwich Village, which ends badly when her date, Curly (played by James Carrington), sexually assaults her.

The film was screened in 1976 and then vanished.   It remained something of a mystery until being restored by the Academy Film Archive and Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation in 2022.   Thus, the Aug. 20 DVD and Blu-ray release from Criterion will be the first opportunity for the general public to view this early work from Coolidge (Valley Girl, Real Genius, Lost in Yonkers, Rambling Rose, Material Girls, etc.).

As a bonus, Criterion is also including her 1974 documentary film, Old-Fashioned Woman (screened at the New York Film Festival and Whitney Museum of American Art in 1975), so this is something of a double-feature debut.   

Also included is a video session with Coolidge and fellow filmmaker Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging, Grace of My Heart, Border Radio).