This week’s edition of The Digital Wire is a tad on the slim side and for that I blame that 50 Shades of Grey mania that has gripped the nation harder than…..never mind. There’s also heavy snowfall in some areas and that usually slows the march of progress down. Okay, enough of the blame game.
Below you’ll find info on several future home video releases complete with technical specs, release dates, and links to pre-order at Amazon, as well as the DVD/Blu-rays that will be available this week. 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.
Four of Steven Spielberg‘s lesser-known features will soon be made available on separate Blu-ray releases after first making their debut on the format in last October’s Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection box set: the ultra-tense 1971 made-for-television thriller Duel; Spielberg’s feature directorial debut The Sugarland Express, which along with Duel helped land him the job of bringing Jaws to the screen; the calamitous World War II comedy epic 1941 with a mile-long ensemble cast headed by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd; and one of the director’s least-loved films, the 1989 reincarnation romance Always that reunited him with his Jaws/Close Encounters of the Third Kind star Richard Dreyfuss.
The Sugarland Express and Always will only have theatrical trailers as bonus features. Duel‘s extras selection includes the retrospective interview featurettes “A Conversation with Director Steven Spielberg,” “Steven Spielberg and the Small Screen,” and “Richard Matheson: The Writing of Duel,” a poster and still gallery, and the original trailer. But it’s 1941 that will have the most extras with both theatrical and extended cuts of the film, a feature-length making-of documentary produced originally for its laserdisc release, deleted scenes, production photographs, and theatrical trailers. All four titles will be released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on May 5, 2015.
Another icon of American filmmaking will be getting his own high-definition box set when Clint Eastwood: The Universal Pictures 7-Movie Collection is released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on May 5, 2015. The Blu-ray set will include the previously-released Two Mules for Sister Sara, Joe Kidd, and High Plains Drifter as well as four films new to the format: Coogan’s Bluff, The Beguiled, The Eiger Sanction, and Eastwood’s directorial debut Play Misty for Me. Technical specifications and extra features have yet to be finalized.
Last year’s controversial action-comedy The Interview was deprived of a proper theatrical release for reasons you would have to be living under a rock to not be aware of, but it smashed VOD viewing records and will premiere this Tuesday February 17, 2015 on Blu-ray and DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. If you’re considering a purchase, then it is my duty to inform you that the “Freedom Edition” Blu-ray will come loaded with enough extras to fill one of Kim Jong-un’s tanks, including a directors’ audio commentary with Seth Rogen (who also starred) and Evan Goldberg, deleted, extended, and alternate scenes, a gag reel, several “Line-O-Rama” compilations, Randall Park‘s audition tape, and various behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Out This Week
Game of Thrones: The Complete Fourth Season: Blu-ray|DVD
Birdman: Blu-ray|DVD
The Theory of Everything: Blu-ray|DVD
Dumb & Dumber To: Blu-ray|DVD
The Interview: Blu-ray|DVD
St. Vincent: Blu-ray|DVD
V/H/S: Viral: Blu-ray|DVD
Doctor Who: Last Christmas: Blu-ray|DVD
Life Itself: 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.
1 Comment »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment