There will be retail-exclusive SKUs, including an Amazon-only 4K Steelbook as well as a Walmart-only Pop-up Blu-ray. Extras on all will include: Audio commentary with Shakman and production designer Kasra Farahani, 5 Deleted Scenes (Thanksgiving Soup Kitchen, Fantastic Four Day, Subterranea, Birthday Sweater, and Taking Turns), a Gag Reel, and 3 featurettes (including Meet the First Family, Fantastic Futurism, and From Beyond and Below). You can see the wide-release 4K Steelbook artwork here…

Speaking of Disney, many of you have asked about the status of their TRON and TRON: Legacy 4K Ultra HD Steelbook releases, which are sold out virtually everywhere. I’ve confirmed that the studio is replication more product to meet demand, but it will probably not be until the end of the month or early October that retailers will start having units available again. So stay tuned on that front.

Also today, our friends at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have officially announced a brand new box set release due on 11/11: The Luc Besson 9-Movie Collection (1983-2005)! This will include all 9 films on Blu-ray: Le Dernier Combat (1983), Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), La Femme Nikita (1990), Atlantis (1991), Léon: The Professional (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), and Angel-A (2005). Six of those—Subway, The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc—will also be included in 4K Ultra HD, several on the format for the first time! (Some of the Blu-rays are new to the US as well.) The 4K titles will all include Dolby Vision HDR. Léon, The Fifth Element, and The Messenger will also include Dolby Atmos mixes. All of the titles will also include DTS-HD Master Audio. And it appears that special features will include an extensive collection of legacy material. The discs come packaged in an outer box that opens to showcase the films inside. Here’s a look at the packaging…

Very nice indeed!

Also today, StudioCanal has set a new 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray restoration of directors Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer’s Ealing Studios “portmanteau” horror classic Dead of Night (1945) for release on 10/20 as part of its Vintage Classics line. Extensive extras will be included on the 2-disc set, which has been produced in honor of the film’s 80th anniversary.

Lionsgate Limited has officially announced pre-orders on the 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release of Adrian Lyne’s Jacob’s Ladder (1990), the 4K Ultra HD (non-Steelbook) release of Eli Roth’s Knock Knock (2015), and the Vestron Video Blu-ray release of Matthew Patrick’s Hider in the House (1989), the news of which we broke exclusively on our social media last night! Street date for all three is 10/1. You can pre-order them here.

BTW, Lionsgate has also set Tony Tost’s Americana (2023) for Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital release on 10/28. They also have Dallas Jenkins’ The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024) coming on all both physical formats that same day (it’s already available digitally).

Not done yet… our friends at Via Vision’s Imprint Films have unveiled their next two Imprint Asia titles for release on 11/16: The Shaw-Shock: Shaw Brothers Horror Collection – Volume Two (1960-1974)—which includes The Enchanting Shadow (1960), The Bride from Hell (1971), and The Ghost Lovers (1974)—and a two-film box of Chor Yuen’s Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972) and Lust for Love of a Chinese Courtesan (1984). And don’t forget that the company has also announced a new Imprint Television title as well: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Stingray: The Complete Series (1964).

Finally today, that sad news: We regret to have to report that the legendary Hollywood actor Robert Redford has died. His works are numerous and remarkable, including such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Sting (1973), The Way We Were (1973), All the President’s Men (1976), The Natural (1984), Out of Africa (1985), and many more. He also directed ten films, including Ordinary People (1980), A River Runs Through It (1992), and Quiz Show (1994). And of course he was a champion of independent film though the Sundance Film Festival, which he founded, not to mention a passionate environmentalist and an advocate of many other causes. Redford passed away at his home in Utah, surrounded by family and friends. He was 89. You can read more about him here, here, and here.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned…

- Bill Hunt

(You can follow Bill on social media on Twitter, BlueSky, and Facebook, and also here on Patreon)