My Two Cents
Thursday, 08 October 2020 18:24

The New Mutants, TENET, LOTR/Hobbit 4K Steelbooks, ClassicFlix’s Our Gang restoration, Kaleidescape recommendations & more

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All right, today’s update on The Bits is going to be a quick one, as yesterday’s post obviously made a big splash on the Interwebs. Yesterday was also my birthday, and I ended up spending most of the day working, so I’m going to take a little bit of a break this afternoon.

BUT... we do have a few things for you...

First, on Tuesday night we posted Tim’s mammoth 2-part and in-depth review of Scream Factory’s outstanding new 12-film/16-disc Friday the 13th Collection: Deluxe Edition Blu-ray box set, which streets next Tuesday (10/13). And it is every bit as awesome as you’re hoping it is. Our hats off to everyone at Scream and elsewhere who were involved in this set. That includes our old friend Peter Bracke, as well as our very own Tim Salmons, who is thanked in the set’s liner notes booklet for contributing rare trailers and TV spots. He’s too modest to mention it, but there you go. The set is amazing, the review is here, and we hope you enjoy both!

Also today, we’ve posted the latest update of our Release Dates & Artwork section here at The Bits, featuring all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. And just to let you know, the whole section—which had been rather buggy lately—should now be working fully. As always, any time you order literally anything from Amazon by clicking on our links, you’re helping to support our work here at The Bits and we really do appreciate it. [Read on here...]

It’s also worth noting today that our entire original Digital Bits website archive should be functioning better as well. There may still be a few broken links and missing images, but you should be able to move through it all a lot more easily now. So if you’d like to see what we were up to here at The Bits way back starting in 1997, check that out here.

In announcement news today, Walt Disney Home Entertainment and Twentieth Century Studios have set Josh Boone’s The New Mutants for release on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 11/17. The 4K disc will include HDR10 high dynamic range and Dolby Atmos audio. You can see the cover artwork above left.

Also, RLJ Entertainment has set the genre titles 2067 and Monstrum for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 11/17.

Meanwhile, we’re hearing rumors that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is getting ready to release Christopher Nolan’s TENET on Blu-ray, DVD, 4K Ultra HD, and Digital soon, probably in December. We’ll post details as soon as they’re official.

Now then... all SKUs of Warner’s newly announced The Lord of the Rings: Motion Picture Trilogy and The Hobbit: Motion Picture Trilogy in 4K are open for pre-orders on Amazon.com and elsewhere. It appears that in addition to the trilogy sets and the Best Buy Steelbooks, there is also a wide release gift set version of The Lord of the Rings: Motion Picture Trilogy that comes packaged with a replica of The One Ring. We suspect there will be a Hobbit gift set too at some point, but it seems not until next year.

For those of you looking for another retail source for these Steelbook Trilogy sets, you MIGHT want to visit the following links at Zavvi (LOTR—click here for Zavvi US and here for Zavvi UK, Hobbit—click here for Zavvi US and here for Zavvi UK). Or click then on the images below (for Zavvi US links). We recommend checking those links early and often to make sure you get a shot at them. Just FYI...

The Lord of the Rings Best Buy Steelbook (4K Ultra HD)

The Hobbit Best Buy Steelbook (4K Ultra HD)

In other news today, our friends at ClassicFlix have launched a new IndieGoGo campaign to help fund the restoration of the classic Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts. The company has licensed all 80 of the original Hal Roach sound shorts, but they’re in need of restoration. So the goal is to do that and release them uncut and fully restored and remastered on Blu-ray and DVD. Click here to support their effort if you’re interested and be sure to share the word far and wide with anyone you think might be interested.

Also, we’re pleased to announce that The Digital Bits has teamed up with Kaleidescape to offer curated movie recommendations to customers of the high-end home cinema service. So if you receive their notifications, be sure to watch for our picks in the weeks and months ahead. Today’s selection is none other than Ryan Coogler’s Creed, not only a great sequel but perhaps the second best film in the Rocky series after John Avildsen’s original 1976 classic. Enjoy!

Finally today, given 2020’s current difficult economic times (which have unfortunately crushed online advertising and affiliate sales income), we ask that if you believe in and appreciate the work we do here at The Digital Bits, please consider making a donation to the site via PayPal (click here or the button below). Every little bit makes a difference in terms of helping us to keep the site going strong, and we really do appreciate it very much. We’re grateful to have all of you as readers, no matter what. So thank you!

CLICK HERE to BACK THE BITS in our fight to preserve Physical Media

Back tomorrow with more. As always, stay tuned...

(You can follow Bill on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)

 

 

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