My Two Cents
Well, yesterday was kind of a big day in terms of industry news, but as it happens, there have been quite a lot of interesting 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray announcements in the last 24 hours too!
But before we get to those, we have a few more new disc reviews for you...
I’ve just taken a look at John Sturges’ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) in 4K Ultra HD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, as well as Ron Maxwell’s cult classic Little Darlings (1980) in 4K UHD from Vinegar Syndrome’s new Cinématographe Films label.
Stephen has turned in his thoughts on Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels (2023) in 4K Ultra HD from Marvel and Disney, along with Yoshimitsu Banno’s Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) on 4K UHD (sans English subs) from Toho Studios in Japan.
Dennis has given Ted Kotcheff’s Split Image (1982) a look on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, along with Vincente Minnelli’s Madame Bovary (1949) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.
And Stuart has reviewed Andrew V. McLaglen’s The Devil’s Brigade (1968) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics and Steve Zaillian’s Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) on Blu-ray from Imprint Films.
Many more reviews are forthcoming, including Footloose, Conan the Destroyer, and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One in 4K, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them.
Now then... in terns of title announcements, Paramount’s just dropped a couple of big ones starting with confirmation of a title we’ve mentioned here at The Bits recently: Alex Proyas’ The Crow (1994) officially streets on 4K Ultra HD and 4K Steelbook on 5/7. The 4K disc will include Dolby Vision and HDR10 high dynamic range. [Read on here...]
Regarding the Disney/Sony physical media news that we broke this morning on The Digital Bits (link here), we’ve learned the following additional information from our industry sources:
- Once again, we’ve confirmed that Disney is indeed in the process of transitioning to a licensed physical media distribution model via an agreement with Sony Entertainment.
- As part of this deal, Sony will market, sell, and distribute new Disney releases plus catalog titles on physical media (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, etc.) to consumers through retailers and distributors in the U.S. and Canada.
- This shift is consistent with other strategies that Disney is working to implement company-wide, as exemplified by the company’s recent transitions in other markets.
- Per usual, Disney regularly evaluates their approach to the physical media market as the home entertainment business and industry at large continue to rapidly evolve alongside consumer behavior.
This update is continued below the break... [Read on here...]
There are some significant developments happening within the home video industry of late, developments that I’ve been spending a lot of time investigating and really digging into these past few weeks here at The Digital Bits.
And I can now confidently report that one of them is this:
Disney and Sony have just inked a major deal for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to take over all of Disney’s physical media production going forward.
This means that Sony will handle and oversee the actual authoring and compression of discs, that they’ll work with the replicators and packaging vendors, and that they’ll oversee the titles as they go out to the distributors and on to retailers.
I first received word of this deal about two weeks ago, apparently within twenty-four hours of the ink drying, and I’ve now confirmed it with multiple independent sources within the industry—people that I trust and have known and worked with for many years.
This deal makes sense for Disney for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Sony is far more efficient and cost effective at producing their discs, whereas Disney’s physical media operation has been subject to no small amount of internal/organizational turmoil recently. [Read on here...]
We have two more new disc reviews for you here at The Bits today, including…
Stephen’s thoughts on Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort (1981) in 4K Ultra HD from Vinegar Syndrome, as well as his take on another of Toho’s recent Godzilla 4K UHD releases, in this case Ishirō Honda’s Destroy All Monsters (1968). Once again, this is a region-free Japanese import release, but with no English subtitles.
The big announcement news today is that our friends at the Criterion Collection have officially unveiled their May release slate, which is set to include an upgrade of A Story of Floating Weeds/Floating Weeds: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu (1934/1959) (Spine #232 – Blu-ray and DVD) on 5/7, followed by an upgrade of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960) (Spine #58 – 4K UHD + Blu-ray and Blu-ray) on 5/14, Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène (Spine #1217 – Blu-ray and DVD)—which includes Emitaï (1971), Xala (1975), and Ceddo (1977)—on 5/21, and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall (2023) (Spine #1218 – Blu-ray and DVD) and Karyn Kusama’s Girlfight (2000) (Spine #1219 – Blu-ray) on 5/28.
You can see the cover art for Peeping Tom at left, and all of them below the break. We’ve updated our Criterion Spines Project listing here at The Bits accordingly. [Read on here...]
We’ve got four more new disc reviews for you today, including...
Stuart’s take on Douglas Sirk’s Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952) on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
Dennis’ look at Harry Beaumont’s Faithless (1932) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, as well as Giuseppe Fiorello’s Fireworks (2023) on DVD from Cinephobia Releasing.
And Stephen’s review of Ishirō Honda’s Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) in 4K Ultra HD from Toho Studios in Japan (note that this release has no English subtitles).
Also this afternoon, we’ve asked our supporters on The Bits’ new Patreon page to share their Ten Favorite TV Series, and we’ve updated our 4K Ultra HD Release List here at The Bits with new titles as well.
In announcement news today, Kino Lorber Studio Classics has just officially set Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1942) for release on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on 4/16. The film will include a collection of legacy special features (from previous Blu-ray and DVD releases) along with a pair of new audio commentary track by film historians, one by Alan K. Rode and another by Julie Kirgo. You can see the cover artwork above left and also below. Look for Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K disc. [Read on here...]