Director Simon Curtis' The Art Of Racing In The Rain On DVD And Blu-ray From 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment On Nov. 5

20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment announced the street date for director Simon Curtis’ film adaptation of Garth Stein’s 2008 feel-good novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain.   DVD and Blu-ray selections will be available on Nov. 5.

The ARR works out to a swift-to-market 88 days … box office receipts came in right at $26 million.

Bonus features include commentary by director Simon Curtis (Woman in Gold, My Week with Marilyn, etc.) and a half-dozen featurettes — “A Journey to Screen,” “Directing the Art,” “Enzo Cam,” “Behind the Wheel,” “The Dog Stays in the Picture” and “Enzo’s First Ride,”

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Looks To Nov. 12 For The Release Of Angry Birds Movie 2

While we wait for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to make an official announcement for the home entertainment rollout of the Best Picture front-runner, Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood, there was other release news of note this past week from Sony.

Director Thurop Van Orman’s animated flick, Angry Birds Movie 2, will be available on Nov. 12 as a three-SKU product offering.   That date yields a quick-to-market ARR of 88 days … multiplex box office receipts currently stand at $40.6 million.

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

As to bonus materials, common to all release SKUs are the new “mini-movie” titled Live Stream, three interactive “how to” features — “Hangry Birds: Popcorn Balls,” “Smarty Birds: Crafty Volcano” and “Crafty Birds: Pig Snot” — the sing-along titled “Jingle Birds: A Holiday Song From The Cast of Angry Birds 2” and five featurettes — “Bird Watching,” “Meet The New Birds & Pigs,” “Hatching the Hatchlings,” “Flocking Together: Making The Angry Birds Movie 2” and “Happy Thanks-pigging.”

The Blu-ray, which is included in both of the Combo Packs, features six “classic” Hatchling mini-movies.

As to Sony Pictures’ Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood, there has been a strong indication that Oct. 29 will be the street date, but nothing official as of yet.   It would not come as a surprise if filmmaker Quentin Tarantino were the hold up (approvals and what-not).   Angry Birds Movie 2 being slotted in on Nov. 12 does not preclude the Oct. 29 street date for Tarantino’s film, but time is drawing short on that option.  

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Bypasses Halloween For Nov. 5 Street Date For Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Lionsgate Home Entertainment is going to bypass the already crowded Halloween promotional season for the home entertainment packaged media launch of director André Øvredal’s film adaptation of the Alvin Schwartz’s series of books, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.   Instead of Oct. 22 or Oct. 29 (street-date Tuesdays), Nov. 5 will be the street date for a three-SKU array of products.

The ARR comes in just 88 days and box office receipts were a nice $65.8 million in the domestic market, which suggests that at least another set of tales could be considered.

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 edition.

As to bonus features, all three SKUs will contain the featuettes titled “Dark Tales” and “Retro Horror.”   Exclusive to the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Combo Packs are four additional featurettes —  “The Bellows Construct,” “Creature from the Shadows,” “Mood Reels” and  “Behind-the-Scenes Trailers: Set Visits.”

For the period ending September 20, 2019 ... New DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD selections added to the DVD & Blu-ray Release Report's database

 

DVD New Additions

 

Cohen Media Group

09/17/19 — Released My Son (French) (ARR of 130 days; box office: $14,450)

09/24/19 — Sets Quartet

David Millett Productions (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Autumn's Fall

DreamScape Media, LLC

09/17/19 — Released Learning with Penguins: Amazing Birds

Giant Interactive (MOD)

08/20/19 — Released Fermented

09/10/19 — Released Distant Harmony: Pavarotti in China

09/17/19 — Released Kid's Table 

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Above the Shadows, Adult Interference (aka: Wild Man), Bodied (ARR of 319 days; box office: $113,956), Horn from the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story (ARR of 333 days; box office: $25,372) and King of Beers

House of Film, LLC (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Dragon Riders (aka: Battle Oasis), Echoes of Time and Inside the Mind of a Psychopath

Icarus Fims

11/12/19 — Sets They Are We

Indican Pictures

10/15/19 — Sets Union

10/22/19 — Sets Perfect Skin

Juno Films, Inc.

12/17/19 — Sets Ever After (German)

Kino Lorber

09/17/19 — Released Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (2 disc set), Last Dance and Pasolini (ARR of 130 days; box office: $30,104)

Magnolia Pictures

09/17/19 — Released Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (ARR of 88 days; box office: $886,095)

Maupintown Media (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Coachman

PBS Direct

09/17/19 — Released Ancient Skies, Berenstain Bears: Tales from the Tree House, Volume 1 (2 disc set) and Country Music (8 disc set)

PCN Tours (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released PA Books: The Disaffected and PCN Tours: Diamondback Covers

Paramount Home Media

12/03/19 — Sets City on a Hill (3 disc set)

Shout! Factory

10/01/19 — Sets Framing John DeLorean (ARR of 116 days; box office: $145,625)

Sony Pictures Home Ent.

10/01/19 — Sets Maiden (ARR of 95 days; box office: $3,048,644)

Uncork’d Entertainment (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released D-Railed, Mummy Rebirth and Night Sitter

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

11/12/19 — Sets Good Boys (ARR of 88 days; box office: $73,280,610)

VCI Entertainment

11/12/19 — Sets The Mysterious Mr. M (13 chapter serial)

Well Go U.S.A.

09/17/19 — Released Kung Fu League (Mandarin)

10/15/19 — Sets Lingering (Cantonese)

WOWnow Entertainment (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Glitterbugs

Blu-ray New Additions

 

Cohen Media Group

09/17/19 — Released My Son (French)

09/24/19 — Sets Quartet

Criterion Collection

12/03/19 — Sets Story of Temple Drake and Tunes of Glory

12/10/19 — Sets Old Joy and Until the End of the World (2 disc set)

Dark Entity Music, LLC

09/17/19 — Released Brides

Eagle Rock Entertainment

09/10/19 — Released John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky

Epic Pictures Group, Inc.

09/10/19 — Released Artik

09/17/19 — Released Candy Corn

FUNimation

09/10/19 — Released Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu - The Complete Collection (2 disc set), Lord of Vermillion: The Complete Collection (2 disc set) (with Digital Copy) and My First Girlfriend is a Gal (2 disc set)

09/17/19 — Released Classroom of the Elite (2 disc set), Nobunagun: The Complete Series (2 disc set) and Super Lovers: The Complete Series (2 disc set)

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Above the Shadows, Adult Interference (aka: Wild Man), Bodied, Horn from the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story and King of Beers

Indie Rights, Inc. (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Find Me

Juno Films, Inc.

12/17/19 — Sets Ever After (German)

Kino Lorber

09/17/19 — Released Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (2 disc set), Homecoming, Last Dance, Pasolini, Philadelphia, Here I Come, Support Your Local Gunfighter and Support Your Local Sheriff

Lionsgate Home Ent.

09/17/19 — Released Dead Water (with Digital Copy)

Naxos

09/17/19 — Released Europakonzert 2019: Berliner Philharmoniker

PBS Direct

09/17/19 — Released Country Music (8 disc set)

Sentai Filmworks

09/17/19 — Released Di Gi Charet: Ultimate Collection (2 disc set) and Initial D: Theatrical Collection

Shout! Factory

09/17/19 — Released Biloxi Blues, Case of Hanna and Alice, Fright and Straight on Till Morning

10/01/19 — Sets Framing John DeLorean

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released IWA Mid-South: Be Careful What You Wish For - Knoxville, TN, IWA Mid-South: Prelude to Perry - Jeffersonville, IN, IWA Mid-South: Road to Ted Perry - Jeffersonville, IN, IWA Mid-South: Ted Perry Invitational 2019, Night 1 - Jeffersonville, IN, IWA Mid-South: Ted Perry Invitational 2019, Night 2 - Jeffersonville, IN and Underground Empire Wrestling: Assault on 59th Street - Long Beach, CA

Sony Pictures Home Ent.

10/01/19 — Sets Maiden

Tokyo Shock

09/17/19 — Released Lust of the Dead: Trash Terror Trilogy (Japanese)

Twilight Time

09/17/19 — Released Tall Men and Whirlpool

Universal Pictures Home Ent.

11/12/19 — Sets Good Boys (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

VCI Entertainment

11/12/19 — Sets The Mysterious Mr. M (13 chapter serial)

Well Go U.S.A.

09/17/19 — Released Kung Fu League (Mandarin) (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)

10/15/19 — Sets Lingering (Cantonese) (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)

4K Ultra HD New Additions

 

Lionsgate Home Entertainment

10/15/19 — Sets 3 From Hell (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

10/29/19 — Sets Red Heat (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Indican Pictures Readies Writer/Director Whitney Hamilton’s Union (Oct. 15) And Writer/Director Kevin Chicken’s Perfect Skin (Oct. 22) For DVD

Indican Pictures announced this past week that writer/director Whitney Hamilton’s Civil War saga, Union, will be heading to the DVD marketplace on Oct. 15.

Hamilton’s Union, the result of years of painstaking research, opened at the Birmingham, Alabama Sidewalk Film Festival in August of 2018 (no surprise, the bulk of the filming was in around the Birmingham area) and then worked the festival circuit for a full year before getting a four-theatre showcase run by Indican Pictures in early August of this year.

For the record, the ARR works out to 74 days.

Unless you had the opportunity to catch the film’s brief theatrical jaunt or one of the festival screenings (Sedona International Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, Richmond International Film Festival, etc.), the DVD debut on Oct. 15 will be the first opportunity to learn the secret of Grace and Henry Kieler (played by Whitney Hamilton).

During the Civil War there were over 400 documented stories about women serving as soldiers in both the Union and Confederate armies.   This is the story of one of those combatants, Grace Kieler, whose brother Henry was killed and whom she replaced as a rider with Mosby’s Rangers.   She, like others like her, were able to avoid detection, but once wounded and on the operating table the jig was up … but being discovered was only half of her problems.

She, acting as her brother, also agreed to help a widow in the aftermath of the Civil War, save her farm.  That required a sham marriage.    And, if that wasn’t enough, Henry/Grace Kieler also made a solemn vow to find a young boy named Harrison Walker, whose mother was killed in a Union raid on a Confederate encampment … he became an orphan and was lost. 

Soldier, husband … and “detective” in search of a missing boy in the aftermath of the Civil War, that’s quite the adventure for a young woman in the 1860s!!!

In other release news from Indican Pictures this past week, the Frightfest 2018 surprise, writer/director Kevin Chicken’s (my gosh, is that his real name?) Perfect Skin, will be available on DVD on Oct. 22.

London, an American abroad, a beautiful and naïve Polish woman, sounds like the makings of a lovely romance.   Romance, sure, if you like your romantic encounters dark and sinister with a touch of torture.

Bob (Richard Brake — as “The Night King” on Game of Thrones, plus such films as 3 From Hell, Hannibal Rising, Doom, Water for Elephants, etc.) is a tattoo artist who now lives in London.   He enjoys his work — no, make that he loves his “career” as a tattoo artist, it is his passion; his life.   But our “artist” has a bit of bad news that changes everything … imagine a tattoo artist with Parkinson's!

Into his circle comes the lovely Katia (Natalia Kostrzewa — The Shadows, The Cured), from Poland, living with her roommate Lucy (Jo Woodcock), and it is love at first sight.   It’s not the “love at first sight” that you might be thinking, but the love of her perfect body and moreover, her perfect complexion; skin.

What he could do to her.   It becomes an obsession.   It could be his last chance to take his “art” to a new level before the disease robs him of his skills.   And so, when Lucy goes off to tend her sick mom, Bob does what any great artist would do, he kidnaps Katia and locks her away in a cell — complete with bars — below his “Perfect Skin” studio and then has at her … inch by inch.

Perfect Skin, from first time filmmaker Kevin Chicken (really, Chicken?), is a total creep-out.   A horror film to be sure, but with ink, instead of blood, and yet every bit as terrifying as any serial-killer tale that you might imagine!!   Oct. 22, Perfect Skin on DVD … just in time for a home viewing Halloween scarefest!!

Icarus Films Looks To Nov. 12 For The DVD Debut Of Documentary Filmmaker Emma Christopher’s They Are We

If you would like a film with an uplifting tone, then look no further than Australian historian and celebrated author-turned-documentary filmmaker Emma Christopher’s They Are We.   

Icarus Films announced this past week that her award-winning film, They Are We, will be making its DVD debut on Nov. 12.

As the author of “Slave Ship Sailors and their Captive Cargoes” and “A Merciless Place,” Emma Christopher had put in the time researching the history of the slave trade and along the way she picked up tantalizing tales and stories that piqued her interest … the threads of one of these “stories” are woven together in her film.   

Which, by the way, when working the festival circuit, captured wins at the Bare Bones International Film & Music Festival, the BronzeLens Film Festival, London Latin American Film Festival, DocMiami International Film Festival, etc. 

As to the subject of They Are We, she put in two years just gathering the details, doing the research, and then began the long and arduous process of connecting the dots.   The payoff is wonderful.    

In Cuba, she recorded the dances and songs of the Gangá-Longobá, black Cubans, who are the descendants of slaves.   The average life expediency of a slave arriving in the Caribbean back in the 1700s and 1800s was just seven years … slaves from here, from there, who had to develop their own language just to communicate between themselves.

Somehow the Gangá-Longobá, in Cuba, were able to hang on to the elements of their African culture and pass along the songs and dances relating to the culture of their lost homeland from generation to generation.   

In Sierra Leone, in the remote village of Mukpangumba, Christopher learned the ways of the people, immersed herself in their daily life, not just as an observer, but as a participant.   It is here that she shared her videos and recordings of the Gangá-Longobá from El Municipio de Perico in the Matanzas region of Cuba.   

To the delight of all, the title of her film was born when the villagers of Mukpangumba responded with the acclaim, “The are We!!”   

It gives you chills.   180 years (and more) of separation and suddenly in a moment of song, distant cousins are connected.   But it gets better, Emma Christopher and her crew went through the process of getting the permits and permission to bring members of the Gangá-Longobá, among them Yandrys Izquierdo and Humberto Casanova, to Sierra Leone to share their music and dance with the Mukpangumba villagers … it was a home coming, a celebration of life, and filmmaker Emma Christopher was there to capture all of it on film.

They Are We, a tale of hope and celebration, on DVD from Icarus Films on Nov. 12.   And, we might add, Yandrys Izquierdo and Humberto Casanova brought with them more than music and dance, but introduced the children of Mukpangumba to another love of theirs, baseball!!!

Bonus features include additional and deleted scenes.   They Are We is presented in English and Spanish, with English subtitles.

It Will Be Dec. 3 For The DVD Debut Of City On A Hill: Season One From Paramount Home Media

Paramount Home Media announced this past week that the Showtime crime series draw from the “Boston Miracle” of the early 1990s, City on a Hill: Season One, will be heading to DVD on Dec. 3.

All ten episodes from the first season (which has been renewed for a second) are featured here.

Boston in early 1990s, the murder rate growing by the year, corrupt law enforcement and gangs emboldened by the easy pickings.   Into this cauldron of crime arrives a Brooklyn-raised Assistant District Attorney Decourcy Ward (Aldis Hodge — Brian Banks, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, A Good Day to Die Hard), a righteous man who is clearly a fish out of water in Boston.   

In something of a surprise, Ward manages to create an uneasy bond with a ethically-challenged FBI agent by the name of Jackie Rohr (Kevin Bacon).   Rohr is at first part of the problem and would like to just keep it calm and go-along, get-along.    But … the violence, it gnaws.

Counter-point to Ward and Rohr are the Ryans, with brothers Frankie (Jonathan Tucker — The Ruins, Pulse) and Jimmy (Mark O'Brien — Bad Times at the El Royale, Arrival) running a crime ring, which is covered up nicely by Frankie’s sinister wife, Cathy (Amanda Clayton), who makes it appear for all the world that her and Frankie are just working-class stiffs.