Welcome to another edition of The Digital Wire, and so glad you could stop by because this week is chock full of major home video announcements to make up for the first slow weeks of 2015. The studios aren’t wasting any time getting some of their major holiday releases on Blu-ray and DVD now that they’re played out on the big screen, but the smaller video labels are stepping up as well to bring consumers select titles that have been in demand for many years. Needless to say, the next few months are going to be very interesting.

Below you’ll find info on several future home video releases complete with technical specs, release dates, and links to pre-order at Amazon. We would greatly appreciate it if you use those links to order because a small percentage of each order helps keep this website running at max power. The cover art for certain titles has yet to be finalized.

Despite being a fan of the franchise I have yet to see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be permitted to since it just surpassed Guardians of the Galaxy to claim the title of the highest-grossing film of 2014 and the sacred geek law dictates that there can be none greater than Guardians. Oh well, I’ll probably catch the first half of the epic concluding chapter of the dystopian sci-fi adventure saga that made a bonafide star of the moving pictures out of Jennifer Lawrence when Mockingjay Part 1 is released on Blu-ray and DVD by Lionsgate Home Entertainment on March 6, 2015. As with the previous two installments in the series the Blu-ray will come loaded with bonus features:

My first viewing of Interstellar, Christopher Nolan‘s hotly anticipated space exploration blockbuster, left me cold and indifferent though the effects work, Hans Zimmer‘s glorious soundtrack, and some of the performances were quite worthy of the praise they received. I know I’m not alone there but those who did enjoy it as well as some who might want to give this occasionally extraordinary (and often extraordinarily frustrating) film a second chance will rejoice at the news that Interstellar is coming to three-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack from Paramount Home Media Distribution on March 31, 2015 with enough supplements to pack a spacecraft from wall to wall:

An all-time classic of gangster cinema that could have taken home more Oscars were it not for a squeamish Academy, Martin Scorsese‘s intoxicating underworld masterpiece Goodfellas is returning to Blu-ray from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in a two-disc 25th Anniversary Edition. The set will include bonus features from previous DVD and Blu-ray editions – commentary, documentaries, etc. – as well as a new documentary centered around Scorsese’s legacy as the greatest modern director of viscerally thrilling crime dramas featuring interviews with Goodfellas stars Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci among others. Best of all the film itself has been remastered for this edition from a 4K high-definition scan of the original camera negative, a process Scorsese supervised. A 36-page photo book that includes a letter from the filmmaker is also included. The Blu-ray will be released on May 5, 2015.

Shout! Factory has been releasing classic (and not-so-classic) episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on home video with new bonus features on a regular basis since 2008 when they took over the license from Rhino Home Video. Their latest effort, Mystery Science Theater 3000 XXXII, comes to DVD on March 24, 2015 in a four-disc box set that will include the episodes Space Travelers (a re-titled version of the 1969 film Marooned), Hercules, San Francisco International, and Radar Secret Service as well as the following newly produced extras:

Fans of the original 1960s Lost in Space television series will be excited to hear that every episode has reportedly been remastered in high-definition from the original negatives and could be heading to Blu-ray this September from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, according to co-star Bill Mumy. This show has a pretty substantial cult following so a complete series Blu-ray release could arrive with the level of anticipation that greeted last year’s unveiling of the complete ’60s Batman in HD. Hopefully this story will turn out to be true and an official announcement is made within the next few months. We’ll keep you posted.

After releasing stellar Blu-ray editions of the cult classic slasher flicks Prom Night and Curtains late last year Synapse Films looks to top those standout achievements with a 2015 line-up that includes new Blu-ray editions of Dario Argento‘s 1980s horror classics Tenebre and Phenomena, the pornographic comedy-thriller Thundercrack!, longtime late night Cinemax staple Sorceress (starring Linda Blair and Tusk‘s Michael Parks), the Bigfoot feature Creature from Black Lake, and the infamous MST3K favorite Manos: The Hands of Fate.

Long regarded as the worst movie ever made, Manos has undergone an extensive and meticulous crowdfunded HD restoration (watch a sample clip from the restoration here below) and the Blu-ray will feature new extras created in conjunction with Ballyhoo Motion Pictures. The plan right now for the Phenomena Blu is to include three different cuts of the film, which starred a young Jennifer Connelly in one of her earliest roles: a 116-minute version, a 110-minute version, and a heavily truncated 82-minute version that was released in the U.S. in theaters and on home video under the title Creepers. Both Phenomena and Tenebre will feature new bonus materials. The indescribable Thundercrack! Blu has been in the works for years and 2015 is the perfect for this peculiar title to finally be released as this year marks its 40th anniversary.

Based on stories published in the adult-oriented comic magazine Heavy Metal, Metal Hurlant Chronicles: The Complete Series will be released on Blu-ray and DVD from Shout! Factory on April 14, 2015. The genre favorite cast includes Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), Michael Biehn (Aliens), John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings), James Marsters (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Michael Jai White (Black Dynamite), Scott Adkins (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning), Michelle Ryan (Doctor Who), and Dominique Pinon (Amélie). Special features are set to include the following:

Out This Week

Fury: Blu-ray|DVD

Downton Abbey: Season Five: Blu-ray|DVD

The Book of Life: Blu-ray|Blu-ray 3D|DVD

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis: Blu-ray|DVD

The Judge: Blu-ray|DVD

Why Don’t You Play in Hell?: Blu-ray|DVD

Those are the highlights of this week. Come back same time next week for more of the coolest home video news tidbits on the web.