Paramount Home Entertainment Targets Sept. 26 For A Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook Presentation Of Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later • Rabbit Hole: Season One Arrives Oct. 17 On DVD

Paramount Home Entertainment has selected Sept. 26 — on the run-up to the Halloween promotional season — as the street date for a Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook presentation of Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later.

Released in 1998 as re-boot of the series, director Steve Miner returned to the original storyline and picked up the Halloween II narrative … Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) goes into hiding — faking her own death — to avoid future attacks by Michael Myers.   It works for a while … but it’s hard to avoid your fate!!

 

In other release news this past week from Paramount, Kiefer Sutherland’s latest spy series, Rabbit Hole: Season One, will be arriving on DVD as a three-disc collection on Oct. 17.

 

All eight episodes in the series are showcased here, and are accompanied by a trio of featurettes as bonus goodies — “Digging the Rabbit Hole,” “The Look of Rabbit Hole” and “Stunts.”

 

 

Director Peter Weir's Witness Gets The 4K Ultra HD Treatment From Arrow Video On Oct. 31

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 4K Ultra HD edition of auteur filmmaker Peter Weir’s Witness ready for release on Oct. 31.

Aussie Peter Weir built his credentials as a filmmaker with small budget, often unseen films in the late 60s and early 70s, and then had a breakout arthouse film, Picnic at Hanging Rock in 1975 (domestic 1979).   This was followed by stateside commercial successes with Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously (’81 and ’82 respectively) … and then comes Witness, which almost didn’t get made.

The head of 20^th Century-Fox at the time, whose name shall not be mentioned here — because he has passed and can’t defend himself … and because he had two chances to get it right and apparently didn’t remember that Star Wars saved the studio in 1977.

Paramount stepped in because they remembered Raiders of the Lost Ark and its star, Harrison Ford.   He made them a lot of money, so a film budgeted for under $12 million was a no-brainer. 

It was, for Weir his first “American” production, and if the truth be known, he did everything absolutely right.   Casting (Kelly McGillis was inspired), pre-production, the shoot itself and the respect for the traditions and privacy of the Amish community in and around Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

A young boy, Samuel (Lukas Haas — Babylon, The Revenant, Alpha Dog, Solarbabies, etc.), witnesses a murder while traveling with his widowed mother, Rachel (McGillis — Top Gun, Made in Heaven, The House on Carroll Street, The Accused), and Philadelphia detective John Book (Ford) catches the case.

Simple, right?   No, it’s an inside job and both Samuel and Rachel are Amish … and are now marked for death!   Book has to defend them … and he’s in no condition to so, and finds himself on the run in Amish country, an alien place.

Witness pulled in over $115 million for Paramount and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Harrison Ford — his only acting nomination) — eight Oscar nomination in all, with wins for Best Original Screenplay and Editing.  

The head of production over at Fox who decided against Witness … he lasted one year.

Bonus features include a newly-minted commentary from film historian Jarret Gahan, video sessions with cinematographer John Seale and film journalist Staci Layne Wilson, a vintage interview with Harrison Ford (circa 1985), the featurette titled “A Conversation with Peter Weir” and the five making-of-documentary titled Between Two World.

 

 

 

 

Mill Creek Entertainment Tabs Sept. 19 For The Blu-ray Release Of Director's Spotlight: Kevin Macdonald Featuring State Of Play And Black Sea

Mill Creek Entertainment has its next “Director’s Spotlight” selection ready for a Blu-ray rollout on Sept. 19.

On July 18 it was the DVD release of Director's Spotlight: Neil LaBute, which featured four of his films — Your Friends and Neighbors, The Shape of Things, Nurse Betty and Possession.

This time around it is Director's Spotlight: Kevin Macdonald, an action-packed double-feature Blu-ray edition.

We get his 2009 thriller, State of Play, starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren and Rachel McAdams.  

Bonus goodies include deleted scenes and the featurette titled “The Making of State.”

Teamed with State of Play is Macdonald’s 2014 shady characters adventure titled Black Sea, starring Jude Law.

Bonus features include commentary by Macdonald and the production featurette titled “A Dive into the Black Sea.”

 

 

 

Random Media Targets Aug. 8 For The DVD Debut Of Documentary Filmmaker Leslie Streit's An American Ballet Story

For fans of dance; ballet and “inside” the game stories, look no further than Random Media’s Aug. 8 DVD release of documentary filmmaker Leslie Streit’s An American Ballet Story.

This is the story of Rebekah “Betty” Harkness, a woman of eminence wealth and influence, who was not shy about using her vast resources to finance her love for dance, including a love-and-break relationship with Robert Joffrey of the famed Joffrey Ballet.  

She backed him, his rise in prominence and then they had a falling out over, well, let’s call it “creative” differences (ego) and she pulled her funding … and lured away many of his dance troupe to her own Harness Ballet company.  

This break turned the established dance critics against her, who never missed an opportunity to bash her productions.  The company had its moments, folded in 1975 after about a decade and Harkness died in 1982 … the moment fades.

This is a fascinating look at the world of dance, especially ballet, and how the business works.

 

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment Has A New 4K Ultra HD Edition Of Director William Friedkin's The Exorcist Set For Release On Sept. 19

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment enters the Halloween-season promotional sweepstakes — an annual genre-fan delight — with an entry of its own on Sept. 19.   This would be none other than a 50th anniversary 4K Ultra HD presentation of director William Friedkin’s horror classic, The Exorcist, which was nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture.

This double-disc set is actually something of a double-feature.   Included here (on separate 4K discs) are the original theatrical cut of the film, as well as the 2000 “Extended Director’s Cut,” which clocks in at an additional ten minutes.

Breaking the bonus features down by presentation, the theatrical cut features an introduction by Friedkin and two commentary options — one with director William Friedkin and the second with author and screenwriter William Peter Blatty (he won the Oscar for his screen adaptation of his own book).

The “Extended Director’s Cut” features commentary by Friedkin.

 

Shout! Studios Has A Newly-Minted 4K Ultra HD Collector's Edition Of Director Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers Ready To Rock On Sept. 26

Shout! Studios has picked Sept. 26 as the street date for a newly-minted 4K Ultra HD/2 Blu-ray Combo Pack Collector’s Edition of director Oliver Stone’s 1994 stunner, Natural Born Killers, starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis and Robert Downey, Jr.

This 4K “Director-approved” restoration from the original camera negative is the 1996 “Director’s Cut” of the film.  One of the companion Blu-ray discs contains the original theatrical cut (to get the film to the desired R-rating — down from NC-17 — Stone cut roughly four minutes of footage).

Bonus goodies include commentary by Oliver Stone on the 4K Ultra HD presentation.   The companion “Director’s Cut” Blu-ray disc contains the extras (also commentary by Stone), which include an introduction by Oliver Stone and four newly-prepared featurettes — “On Dawn's Highway Bleeding,” ”A Bloody Pail of Nitro,” “Wilderness of Pain” and “The Scream of the Butterfly.”

The original theatrical release companion Blu-ray disc features vintage material, including deleted scenes, an alternate ending, two short documentaries — filmmaker Charles Kiselyak’s 2001 release of Chaos Rising: The Storm Around Natural Born Killers and Mathew Baxt’s 2009 short film titled Natural Born Killers Evolution: How Would It All Go Down Now? … and the featurette titled “Natural Born Killers: Method in the Madness.”

 

 

 

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Tabs Sept. 26 For The Home Entertainment Packaged Media Launch Of Director Peter Sohn's Elemental

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has selected Sept. 26 as the street date for a full spread of home entertainment packaged media product offerings for director Peter Sohn’s animation hit, Elemental.

The domestic box office tally currently stands at $145.1 million.   The ARR for the Sept. 26 release window works out to 102 days.

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 SKU.

Disney has inserted an Aug. 15 VOD window, which will put “helpers” to work with physical media (likely Blu-ray) selections for unsuspecting consumers to snap up six weeks prior to the legitimate ones.   It seems counter-productive, but the studios have their “metrics” and that’s that.

Bonus features are toplined by commentary from director Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur), who is joined by production crew members Sanjay Bakshi, Mike Venturini and Gwendelyn Enderoglu.

Also counted among the bonus goodies is the short animated-film titled Carl’s Date.  And, there are five deleted scenes and a trio of featurettes — “Ember and Wade,” “Next Stop: Element City” and “Paths to Pixar: The Immigrant Experience.”