DVD & Blu-Ray News Round-up

Bava on Blu-Ray?
So the new rumor going around is that Alfredo Leone is working on new HD masters of the Mario Bava titles in his control (which Anchor Bay released a few years ago on DVD).  Evidently this is for Blu-Ray releases.  There is no indication what studio this will be as of yet but there is this press release from Kino about their new distrobution deal with Redemption Films

“He also hinted at another upcoming deal with Jezebel Films, as well as plans to distribute the films of Mario Bava.”

Kino has already announced that they are preparing a Blu-Ray of Hatchet for the Honeymoon but Leone doesn’t control that title.  If Kino is indeed handling these then I’m fucking excited.  They’ve released some great looking titles in the past couple of years.  Of course, I’m just speculating.  There could be no American companies who are interested.  He could be preparing new masters for Arrow or some other foreign distributer.

Speaking of Kino
Kino recently announced both Killer’s Moon and Virgin Witch Blu-Ray releases for the month of March.  I haven’t seen Virgin Witch but I can tell you that Killer’s Moon is out of it’s fucking mind so you know I’m looking forward to that.

 

 

Paramount 100th Anniversary 
So last week it was Universal, this week it’s Paramount.  Paramount are starting to release details for their centennial Blu-Ray releases.  So far they have revealed eight titles:

• Wings (1927) starring Clara Bow comes out next Tuesday, Jan. 24th.


• Love Story (1970) starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal comes out Feb. 7th.


• To Catch A Thief (1955) by Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly gets released March 6th.


• Chinatown (1974) by Roman Polanski and starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway comes out April 3rd.


• Clueless (1995) starring Alicia Silverstone comes out May 1st.


• Hondo (1953) starring John Wayne is slated for release on June 5th


• Barbarella (1968) starring Jane Fonda and John Phillip Law is set to come out on July 3rd.


• Clue (1985) starring a whole bunch of people and Lee Ving from the band Fear comes out on August 7th.

There are a few good titles in there to look forward to.  I could care less about Love Story & Clueless but maybe someone out there is really excited by that news.  I don’t believe anyone’s said if Hondo will be in 3-D or not.  I have no idea why Clue is on this list though.  I’m most excited for Barbarella though.  It’s a bloated mess but I love it.

Bakshi finally on Blu-Ray
Fox is releasing a 35th anniversary edition Blu-Ray of the Ralph Bakshi film Wizards on Blu-Ray in March.  From the press release:

“20th Century Fox will release a remastered edition of the 1977 film Wizards on Blu-Ray. A blend of science fiction and fantasy, Wizards takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth and follows the tale of Avatar, a wizard striving to protect his realm from his evil brother Blackwolf and hordes of mutants created by nuclear fallout. The film was directed, produced and written by creator Ralph Bakshi (Coonskin, Fire and Ice, The Lord of the Rings).

Billed as a commemoration of the movie's 35th anniversary, the release will package the Blu-Ray disc in a twenty-four page "Digi-book" featuring artwork and an introduction written by Mr. Bakshi. The disc itself will include a gallery of three hundred images, TV spots and theatrical trailers, and the documentary Ralph Bakshi: The Wizard of Animation as extras.

The 35th anniversary edition of Wizards is scheduled for release on March 13th, 2012. It will retail for $19.99 MSRP.”

The Hands of Fate
So a lunatic by the name of Ben Solovey has managed to get ahold of the original 16mm reversal film of Manos: The Hands of Fate.  He’s set up a Kickstarter page to raise money for the restoration and Blu-Ray release.  So far he’s raised $29,043 (with a $10,000 goal).  So things seem to be going well.  There hasn’t been any announcement yet when this will get released but I’ll let you know when I find something.

Criterion Collection April titles
Criterion has announced their April Blu-Ray releases
April 9th - A Hollis Frampton Odyssey
April 17th - Late Spring, ¡Alambrista! & Harold and Maude (looks like those rumors were correct)
April 24th - The Organizer
All in all a solid list of releases.

Hammer!
Finally some more Hammer horrors on Blu-Ray!  Studio Canal has announced that they are working on restorations of over 30 Hammer features including Dracula Prince of Darkness, The Reptile, The Plague of the Zombies, The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Devil Rides Out, Rasputin the Mad Monk and The Mummy’s Shroud.  It seems that they are really going all out on these.  They are restoring cut scenes from Dracula, including an extended death scene and a bit that was too ‘sexy’ evidently.  It seems that Warner Brothers, Fox, and Paramount are all helping with the restorations so I would assume that they will be releasing a few of these, at the very least, in America.  There haven’t been any announcement about that yet so I’ve got my fingers crossed.