In release news today, Kino Lorber has set a nice slate of classic catalog titles for release in September, including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Juggernaut for Blu-ray release on 9/9, followed by Avalanche, Burt’s Buzz, The Great Train Robbery, Meteor, and Sikovsky’s Faust on 9/16.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has set Make Your Move for Blu-ray and DVD release on 7/22.
Severin Films has set the classic horror titles Bloody Birthday, Bloody Moon and The Baby for Blu-ray release on 7/8.
And Universal is releasing all of its primary Classic Monsters titles – the ones that were in the Blu-ray box set (so Dracula, Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, Phantom of the Opera (1943), and The Wolf Man) – as BD/DVD singles on 9/2. They also have Dracula (1979) coming on 9/2.
In other news, on the topic of Shout! Factory, the Indiewire website has a good story on how the company has managed to carve out a nice niche for itself and thrive in this, the digital age. Do give it a look.
Also today, more media outlets have begun to cover MGM vs. The Alamo restoration story including The Northwest Chicago Film Society, Chris Hamby’s At the Matinee (see here and here), the website for TV station KENS 5 in San Antonio, Time Warner Cable News – Austin, and Breitbart.com. Plus Jeffrey Welles at Hollywood Elsewhere has weighed in again on the topic and his post is a doozy. But here’s the kicker: Welles has further drafted a letter to MGM CEO Gary Barber in support of the film’s restoration and a number of prominent directors have already signed onto it including JJ Abrams (director of Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars: Episode VII), Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Rian Johnson (Star Wars: Episode VIII), Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim), Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity) and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman). More are being added all the time. Rest assured we’re going to have another column on this very topic next week. The point is, if you’re a fan of classic film or this film in particular, keep the pressure on MGM on Facebook and Twitter (@MGM_Studios). It’s certainly mounting.
Here’s a look at the cover artwork for Anchor Bay and Scream Factory’s Halloween: The Complete Collection which is also now available for pre-order on Amazon (just click the cover)…
And we’ll leave you with the Blu-ray cover artwork for Star Trek: The Compendium, Dracula (1979) and Fox’s Belle (due 8/26), also available for pre-order on Amazon by clicking on the covers…
Lots of stuff coming here at The Bits next week, so have a great weekend for now and we’ll see you then!
Stay tuned…
- Bill Hunt