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Friday, November 6, 2009

Upcoming BDs from exotic lands

1:11 PM / Blu-ray / 11 Comments

Broadly speaking, Blu-ray Disc releases from outside the US have a tendency to slip under the radar... which is rather unfortunate, as it means that a number of gems end up being unfairly overlooked by the masses. I do my best to keep up with news relating to international BD releases, and living in the UK it's not too difficult to keep an eye on what's happening under my very nose, since it's easy enough to browse through HMV or Borders and see what's on the shelf. Even then, though, I often end up missing out on some of the slightly more obscure goodies, to say nothing of titles released in mainland Europe or further afield.

Here's some advance warning, therefore, of titles coming out in the UK early in the new year from Optimum (titles I'll be picking up myself are in bold):

January 11:

• Feast II: Sloppy Seconds (John Gulager, 2008)

January 18:

• Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God (Gerry Lively, 2005)

January 25:

• The Army of Crime [L'armée du crime] (Robert Guédiguian, 2009)
• Whiteout (Dominic Sena, 2009)

February 1:

• Tekken (Dwight H. Little, 2009)

February 8:

• Interceptor (Michael Cohn, 1992)

February 15:

• Breathless [Á bout de souffle] (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
• The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955)
• Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)

February 22:

• Stargate (Roland Emmerich, 1994)
• Survival of the Dead (George A. Romero, 2009)

March 1:

• The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
• Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne, 1990)
• Emmanuelle (Just Jaeckin, 1974)
• Brotherhood of the Wolf [Le Pacte des loups] (Christophe Gans, 2001)

March 29:

• Cracks (Jordan Scott, 2009)

(Source: Blu-ray.com)

Meanwhile, over at the AV Science Forum, user DigitalfreakNYC has put together a helpful list of all titles known to be scheduled for release by Warner during 2010 outside the US. In most cases, specific countries aren't listed, but given that this is Warner, who hold the rights to the films in question throughout Europe, it seems pretty reasonable to assume that they will be available in most territories. The list is too long to regurgitate here, but I'm interested in picking up the following:

• Mystic River (April 2010)
• Where Eagles Dare (April 2010)
• Dial M for Murder (July 2010)
• The Exorcist (October 2010)
• The Maltese Falcon (November 2010)
• The Last of the Mohicans (December 2010)
• Frantic (no release date yet)
• The Lord of the Rings (Ralph Bakshi version) (no release date yet)

Oh, and the good people at Icon Home Entertainment have just released Scream in Australia, with Amelie to follow on November 10. Of course, I've ordered copies of both.

11 Comments

 
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