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Now then, the big news today is that we’ve just confirmed that a brand new restoration of William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) is going to premiere at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood on Saturday, April 26! Details of the screening are available here. We’ve learned that this is indeed a new scan and restoration from the original 65 mm negative that’s been completed by Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging in collaboration with The Film Foundation.

And given that previous WBDHE film restorations have debuted at the festival, and then followed on physical 4K Ultra HD—think Se7en, The Searchers, North by Northwest, Rio Bravo, and more—it seems very likely that a physical 4K Ultra HD release will follow sometime in the next 12 months. Note that the film’s original theatrical release date was November 18th, so that’s probably the earliest time frame that a physical release would be planned for. In any case, this is certainly very good news for those who love this big screen epic.

In other news today, we wanted to let you all know that Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut (2005) in now available for pre-order on Amazon (and elsewhere) in 4K Ultra HD Steelbook format from 20th Century and Sony! The street date 5/27. Click here or on the image below to pre-order.

By the way, if this title sells out quickly (like Tombstone in 4K) don’t fear: I’ve confirmed with industry sources that Sony IS replicating more copies. So both of these titles should come back in stock at some point sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, our friends at Kino Lorber Studio Classics have announced that Arthur Hiller’s Promise Her Anything (1966) is coming to Blu-ray on 6/17, along with Richard Bartlett’s Rock, Pretty Baby (1956).

Back to Warner Bros. for a moment: The Warner Archive Collection has just announced that they’re going to be doing a disc replacement program for their recent Blu-ray release of Just Friends (2005)—you’ll find the details here. Only a small number of discs were released before the problem was spotted—specifically that the disc was missing special features and proper 5.1 audio—and corrected discs are already being produced. The replacement program will apparently be run through Allied Vaughn’s MovieZyng.com website. We expect a similar program to be launched shortly for WAC’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Blu-ray as well, which featured mono audio instead of the correct stereo. So watch for more details soon.

And finally today, we have word on a new Lionsgate Limited-exclusive 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release that’s coming on 6/3: Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s Freaky Tales (2024)! A wide-release Blu-ray SKU will also be available. Look for the 4K to include HDR10 high dynamic range and 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio on a 100GB disc. Extras will include audio commentary with Fleck and Boden joined by actors Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis, Ji-young Yoo, and Dominique Thorne, 3 featurettes (These are the Tales, the Freaky Tales, Design of a Decade, and Art + Soul: The Tune of the Tales), a gag reel, and the film’s theatrical trailer. Watch for the official announcement next week on the Lionsgate Limited website.

That’s all for now. Back tomorrow with more.

Stay tuned!

- Bill Hunt

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