All six episodes in this HBO extension of the Frank Herbert saga starring Emily Watson and Olivia Williams will be available as double-disc 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray collections, plus a three-disc DVD purchasing option.
Without details, there will be five production featurettes common to all SKUs, with an unspecified bonus featurette exclusive to the 4K Ultra HD edition.
The ARR works out to 102 days and the domestic box office haul is an impressive $225.9 million.
Planned for distribution on Combo Pack for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats, plus a stand-alone DVD product offering.
A premium VOD window opens on Feb. 18, which will give the “Helper” community six full weeks to distribute their own Blu-ray (the favorite physical medium for bandwidth … HD is not a consideration) copies to unsuspecting consumers.
It should be noted, based on data collected and reported by the DVD & Blu-ray Release Report, that consumers continue to visit the various “Helper” sites that we document in each edition of the report again and again … their demands are likely being filled.
Bonus features include a “Sing-Along” view mode, deleted scenes, outtakes, “Ostrich Eggs” and a pair of production featurettes — “Finding Milele: The Making of Mufasa: The Lion King” and “Songs of the Savanna” — and the Lin-Manuel Miranda music video “I Always Wanted a Brother.”
This look at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics massacre as told from the POV of Roone Arledge and his ABC sports coverage crew made its debut at the Venice International Film Festival last August and then worked the film festival circuit throughout October and into early November before getting a limited theatrical launch in December.
The ARR works out to 67 days and the domestic box office take was $2.3 million.
Bonus features include two Q&A panel discussions — Producers Guild and Screen Actors Guild — and a trio of production featurettes … “Remaking Broadcast History,” “A Meticulous Undertaking” and “On the Global Stage.”
Could you imagine Bram Stoker’s 1897 creation, “Dracula” — and all the cinematic incarnations that have followed over the years — using modern technology to showcase its vampire ways, especially with nubile young beauties?
Teaming with screenwriter Neal Marshall Stevens (AIMEE: The Visitor, Puppet Master: Axis Termination, etc.), Band has done exactly that with Arturo Valenor’s (played by Sean Ohlman — Letters to Stephanie) blood-sucker streaming show.
While the concept flips the traditional vampire trope upside down — showcasing the dark arts to the public, rather than doing the blood-feasting in sensual secrecy — Valenor’s story is pretty much your basic haunted mansion coupled with a victim pool horror tale.
We might add, a seemingly willing “victim pool” of lusty young women! And we also know right up front who the monster is, but is there a final girl in all of this blood lust?
It is a production run by Alex Jarvis (Aaron McDaniel) and his two lovely co-hosts, Juniper (Kaitlin Moore) and Edwina (Emma Massalone), who have stumbled upon this rival streaming site and have decided — after some debate — to try and take advantage of the “Death Streamer” and the eye-popping viewership numbers that he generates.
Alex surmises (correctly) that what they are witnessing is real, but he concludes (incorrectly) that the so-called vampire is nothing more than a very public serial killer with fake fangs.
Will the alluring Edwina — or perhaps the lovely Juniper — be in the running for the coveted honor of being the final girl?
To find out, be sure to tune-in on Mar. 11 when Full Moon Features unleashes both Blu-ray and DVD editions of director Charles Band’s Death Streamer.
Bonus features include footage of the film’s Los Angeles premiere and the featurette titled “Videozone: Behind the Scenes.”
This is a new 4K restoration and fans can view the film in two separate format ratios — the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio or the 4:3 standard television ratio (common before flat screens, etc.).
There was a time — a brief period in the 1970s before the arrival of VHS — when neighborhood single-screen theatres and college campuses were the go-to place for repertory film/cinema screenings.
Several factors contributed to this “Golden Age.”
First, the “Baby Boom” audience, which arrived in force during the mid to late 1950s (the sci-fi/horror cycle), was now older, but still eager for entertainment that was “different.” College campuses were alive with “screenings” and cinema events.
Next, the advent of the Xenon arc lamp, which would change the face of theatre construction and give rise to the multiplex … no longer was it necessary for a projectionist to be tethered to two Simplex projectors with carbon-arc “change-overs” every 20 minutes.
The entire film could be spliced together and placed on platters and the projectionist could then move from one platter to the next and start each film (for a different screen) with a continuous source of light.
The old “barns” and outdated neighborhood theatres were cast-aside, shuddered or became “Rep Houses.”
Of note, the “projectionist” is now a dinosaur as well as “analog” projection (in many venues) has now been replaced by digital … just plug and play. Sad, very, sad.
Couple this dramatic change in theatrical exhibition was the rise of indie (maverick) distributors, chief among them was the visionary Robert Shaye and his New Line Cinema.
In 1976, on a micro budget, producer Joe Roth (Bachelor Party, The Final Terror, Young Guns, Nightbreed, etc.) teamed up with Neal Israel (Bachelor Party, Breaking the Rules, Surf Ninjas) and “friends” came up with this sketch comedy anthology built around a future Senate hearing (circa 1985) involving a probe into the horrible, very-foul, horrendous, offensive cable channel called Tunnelvision.
Robert Shaye acquired it for college distribution, while Stuart Shapiro's International Harmony guided the traditional theatrical distribution ... their combined resources made Tunnel Vision not only an underground phenomenon, but a commercial hit!!
Cast members are like a who’s who of future comedy, TV and film stars … and they were all just starting out when Tunnel Vision was produced. Examples include Chevy Chase, John Candy, Laraine Newman, Ron Silver, Al Franken, Howard Hesseman and more.
Tunnel Vision on Blu-ray and DVD from MVD Entertainment Group is absolutely the perfect addition to the company’s “Rewind Collection” library.
Bonus goodies include commentary by former Nuart Theatre projectionist turned film historian Marc Edward Heuck (Comedy Central’s “Movie Geek”) and a newly-prepared video session with Neal Israel and host Stuart Shapiro (former indie film distributor). There is also a collection of promotional materials associated with the film included here.
It was none other than Barry Nelson starring as James Bond, in a quick turn-around of Fleming’s 1953 novel, “Casino Royale.”
It would take eight more years before 007 would finally make it to the silver screen … and become, like we said, part of the “collective consciousness” of cinema-goers worldwide. A MEGA film franchise was born!!
On Apr. 1 you can learn about the entire history of Ian Fleming’s iconic secret service agent, Bond … James Bond! 007! This would take the form of Mill Creek Entertainment’s six-part documentary series titled Icons Unearthed: James Bond on Blu-ray.
From Sean Connery, the one-off of George Lazenby, followed by Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and the latest incarnation, Daniel Craig, this six-part series explores the early years (getting the whole thing rolling), through all of the various Bond incarnations and right up until the arrival of Daniel Craig and a “real” theatrical presentation of Casino Royale, it’s all here … Icons Unearthed: James Bond gives fans the insights and intrigues of this long-lasting film series.
Bonus features include a whopping thirteen hours worth of bonus footage and interviews … including the likes of George Lazenby, directors John Glen (For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylight and License to Kill) and Martin Campbell (Casino Royale and GoldenEye), plus Bond girls Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me) and Gloria Hendry (Live and Let Die).
Wildcat is arthouse. Wildcat is indie. Wildcat is sensational (meaning very, very good as Maya brilliantly plays against “type”).
The film made its debut way back in September of 2023 at the Telluride Film Festival, worked the festival circuit, including a stop later the same month at the Toronto International Film Festival and then was picked up for theatrical distribution by Oscilloscope. A domestic arthouse theatrical run was launched in May of last year.
For the record, the ARR comes in at 312 days and the box office take was an impressive $563,591 (excellent for a limited venue run).
Maya Hawke didn’t exactly come out of the blue with her breakout (scene-stealing) role as Robin in the Netflix series Stranger Things (she didn’t even show up until the third season) as she had been around for some time. However, like a force of nature, she literally took over the wildly-popular series with her performance.
Remember, she was nixed for the big budget live-action version of The Little Mermaid early in her career, and perhaps that has stuck with her, since her only real mega-budget films have been as a voice talent in Inside Out and the sequel Inside Out 2 (which, by the way, has grossed something like $1.7 billion worldwide and is nominated for Best Animated Feature in this year’s Oscar derby)!
Here she plays the famed writer Flannery O’Connor. A somewhat plain woman from the south, O’Connor was blessed with a vivid imagination and gift for writing, which got her invited into the New York City intellectual scene.
She fills her time writing … writing … tick tock, time is running out. Write!
Ethan Hawke directed and co-wrote the screenplay (he’s received two Oscar nominations for his writing — Before Sunset, Before Midnight) and was able to attract A-List talent well beyond the film’s modest budget because real actors (not just “Hollywood” pretty faces) want to be in his films.
Bonus features include commentary from filmmaker Ethan Hawke, who is joined by co-writer Shelby Gaines, “additional” footage (deleted scenes?), a behind-the-scenes featurette and the featurette titled “Flannery O’Connor and Wildcat.”
