In announcement news, we mentioned yesterday that Paramount was releasing the Grease: 40th Anniversary Edition on 4K Ultra HD on 4/24. No sooner did we post then the studio’s official press release came in. The disc will include the film in full native 4K scanned from the original negative in a process supervised by director Randal Kleisner, including an HDR color grade, and a new Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound mix created from the original 70 mm 6-track audio elements. Both the 4K disc and its enclosed Blu-ray edition will feature this new restoration, along with all the legacy Blu-ray special features. Newly-created for this release will be the Grease: A Chicago Story featurette, new alternate animated main titles and an alternate ending. There will also be a separate Blu-ray release in Digibook packaging and a Grease Collection: Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray that same day that includes the Grease: 40th Anniversary Edition, Grease 2, Grease: Live on BD. This would be the first time that Grease 2 has ever been released on BD. You can see the 4K cover art above left.
Also today, we’ve now gotten confirmation from retailers that Warner is planning to release a new 4K Ultra HD version of The Matrix – at least the original film. Look for that in May or June, after the release of Warner’s 2001: A Space Odyssey 4K UHD release, currently expected in April. We would expect to see official announcements by the studio in the coming weeks.
And in regular Blu-ray news, Kino Lorber has announced the Studio Classics release of more DePatie/Freleng animated titles on Blu-ray and DVD on 4/24, including The Dogfather (1974-75) and Misterjaw (1976-77). The former will be a single disc release with 17 animated shorts, while the latter is a 2-disc set with 34 shorts. Extras will include audio commentaries and new documentary featurettes. You can see the cover artwork below.
Look also for the Paramount western titles Trigger, Jr. (1950) and Singing Guns (1950) on Blu-ray and DVD on 4/17, mastered from new 4K scans. And on 4/24 look for Trapeze (1956), Ruby Gentry (1952), and A Woman’s Devotion (1956) on Blu-ray and DVD from Kino.
Meanwhile, Kino and Code Red have also set The Bone Yard (1991) for Blu-ray release on 4/3.
Here’s a look at the cover artwork for a couple of the titles mentioned above (click on the images to pre-order them on Amazon, if available)…
Stay tuned…
- Bill Hunt
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