First, our friends at The Warner Archive Collection have now revealed their full June slate of titles, which—in addition to Pennyworth: The Complete First Season (BD) and Head of the Class: The Complete First Season (DVD)—is set to include Strike Up the Band (1940 – BD), Cannery Row (1982 – BD), Romance on the High Seas (1948 – BD), and an old fan favorite... André De Toth’s House of Wax 3D (1953 – BD3D)!
Also today, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has set Supergirl: The Complete Fifth Season for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 9/8 (SRP $44.98 or $39.99). You’ll get all 19 episodes along with The Best of DC TV’s Comic-Con Panels San Diego 2019, deleted scenes, and a gag reel. You’ll also get a bonus Blu-ray will all 5 episodes of the DC Crossover Event Crisis on Infinite Earths, along with 6 featurettes (Crisis Past and Present: Kevin Conroy Bat Legend, Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Architects Return, Crisis Past and Present: Superman vs. Superman, Characters in Crisis: Pariah, Crisis Management, and Character in Crisis: The Anti-Monitor).
In other release news, Lionsgate and The History Channel have just announced Project Blue Book: Season 2 for DVD only release on 6/16 (SRP $24.98). Lionsgate will also release 2 Minutes of Fame on DVD and Digital on 6/16.
Universal will release Trolls World Tour on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on 7/7, with the Digital release expected on 6/23. Extras will include audio commentary with the filmmakers, 7 deleted scenes with intros by the filmmakers, a Dance Party Mode and Trolls Dance Academy, 2 featurettes (Tiny Diamond Goes Back to School and Trolls Perfect Harmony), 6 Trolls World Tourist Maps, and 3 Trolls World Tour Backstage clips.
And for your Australian readers, Via Vision Entertainment has set a number of titles for DVD release in June, including Rosemary & Thyme: The Complete Collection (2003), Brideshead Revisited: The Complete Series (1981), The Darling Buds of May: The Complete Collection (1991), Cadfael: The Complete Collection (1994), and a Confessions of: 3 Film Collection (1971-1977)—it includes Confessions of a Window Cleaner, Confessions of a Pop Performer, and Confessions of a Driving Instructor. All street on June 3.
In other news today, our old friend Simon Brew has posted a nice summary of the current situation with James Cameron’s True Lies and The Abyss on Blu-ray and 4K... or rather the frustrating lack thereof. He gives us a nice shout-out, but we’d sure trade that for a chance to have the films on disc! Anyway, you’ll find that here at Film Stories in the UK.
Finally today, we have some sad news to share: The great Charles Lippincott has died. Many of you will know that name already, but for those of you who don’t, Charles was the marketing genius who almost single-handedly put Star Wars on the map back in 1976, even before the film was ever released in theaters. He had posters of Ralph McQuarrie’s pre-production artwork made, he had George Lucas’ screenplay published in novel form (as Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker) ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, he had T-shirts made. He took all of these down to San Diego Comic-Con in the summer of 1976 and held panels to promote the movie’s release the following year. He’s the person who got Kenner to make the toys (so if you’ve ever owned one, it was become of him), he got Stan Lee’s Marvel to do comic book adaptations of the film. A few years later, he did the same thing for Ridley Scott’s Alien—got Heavy Metal to do a comic adaptation, etc. Charles essentially invented modern genre film merchandising. He was also a great person, someone I’ve admired for many years and many reasons, and in recent years I’m honored to have called him a friend. He died early this week, apparently from complications related to COVID-19, at the age of 80. We’ll sure miss him. Godspeed, Charles. Thanks... and MTFBWU.
All right, that’s all for now. Stay tuned...
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