One of my favorite movies growing up was The Witches, the 1990 adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s 1973 book of the same name. A new adaptation of the book has been in the works for quite a while now, with Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron attached to direct at different points.

Now that new adaptation is back in business. It’s being reported that Back to the Future and Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis is in final negotiations to direct The Witches for Warner Brothers, with a deal expected to be made official soon.

Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book set the bar pretty high not only for future adaptations of Rudyard Kipling‘s novel of the same name but also for filmmakers who will use the same stunning crystal clear visual technology that had audiences awestruck.

So there are a lot of eyes on Andy Serkis‘s Jungle Book: Origins, which uses pretty much the same-level star power and will employ a higher-level of visual effects given that Serkis is the one who is behind the camera. Warner Bros. recently decided to push the release date for the film. While that may have been a worry for some, the director says the new date would help him with perfecting the visuals for this very ambitious project, which he says will be “breaking new ground with realistic non-humanoid animal faces” and “convincingly communicate with human language and emotion via performance capture, and are able to stand up to real scrutiny in richly complex dramatic scenes.”

Now he is also talking about the film’s tone, which he says will be “dark” and explore a few different themes that Disney’s film didn’t. More on the story below.

It wasn’t more than few years ago when Alfonso Cuarón brought us a dazzling look at space with the Academy Award-winning Gravity. Now the filmmaker will be taking his talents to the jungle to help out Andy Serkis. New reports are coming in saying that Cuarón has been brought in to consult with Serkis on Jungle Book: Origins. Just a couple of weeks back, Warner Bros. pushed the film’s release back a full year in an effort to perfect the visual effects. But with a big name filmmaker already on board, it still remains to be seen how much of Cuarón’s involvement will have an impact on the film.

More on the story below.

This week’s edition of The Digital Wire has so much Blu-ray and DVD release info coming out of its news-hole only a dam constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers could contain the flood. Soak it all up folks because I’m taking next week off to cover the home video department of Geeks of Doom’s annual Holiday Geek Gift Guide.

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.

Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, stated that “experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.” This quote lingered within my thoughts for the majority of the 2013 movie year because there is a remarkable number of films that confirm Huxley’s statement with shocking clarity. During 2013 the majority of characters in cinema experienced a relentless assault of either irrepressible physical violence or emotional turmoil, resulting in each character clinging to their lives, praying that they won’t become defeated. Characters had to either sink or swim. No film provided for them a middle ground that would grant them an easy way out or provide a buoy for them. Characters had to act, and act fast.

In Gravity, becoming disconnected from her partner in the infinite void of space, Dr. Stone had to gain composure quickly or endure an onslaught of debris and isolation. In The Place Beyond the Pines, a cop had to rely on his survival instincts and the ramifications of his decision reverberated throughout generations. In Blue is the Warmest Color, a confused teenage woman, utterly love-sick, discovers the throes and pangs of first love and is left even more confused after the indelible experience. In Dallas Buyers Club, an AIDs victim with a guaranteed death-sentence uses his situation to give hope to thousands of other AIDs victims. And in The Counselor, a man’s experience overwhelms him and he is soon exposed to the most unsavory circumstances that are beyond his control and the most heinous individuals.

Without further hesitance, the best 2013 had to offer.