For the week of March 10th, Oscilloscope Pictures will release Ethan Hawke's Wildcat (2023), starring Maya Hawke, Laura Linney, Philip Ettinger, Rafael Casal, Cooper Hoffman and Vincent D'Onofrio.
Description: Directed and co-written by four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, WILDCAT invites the audience to weave in and out of celebrated Southern Gothic writer Flannery O'Connor's mind as she ponders the great questions of her writing: Can scandalous art still serve God? Does suffering precede all greatness? Can illness be a blessing?
In 1950, Flannery (Maya Hawke) visits her mother Regina (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at twenty-four years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father's life when she was a child and desperate to make her mark as a great writer, this crisis pitches her imagination into a feverish exploration of belief. As she dives deeper into her craft, the lines between reality, imagination, and faith begin to blur, allowing Flannery to ultimately come to peace with her situation and heal a strained relationship with her mother.
Oscilloscope's Blu-ray of Wildcat contains audio commentary with Ethan Hawke and co-writer Shelby Gaines, conversations with Ethan Hawke and author Brandon Taylor and Ethan and Maya Hawke, a behind-the-scenes featurette, additional footage and a theatrical trailer.
New on Blu-ray from Crunchyroll is Noriaki Akitaya's anime series The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: The Complete Season (望まぬ不死の冒険者) (2024), starring Ryouta Suzuki, Mikako Komatsu, Ikumi Hasegawa, Sayumi Suzushiro, Ken'ichirô Matsuda and Hayato Fujii.
Description: For the last 10 years, upstanding Rentt Faina was a low-level adventurer. But when a solo quest leads to a dragon's maw, his death gives him a new life as a skeleton! Maybe he can use this monstrous body to become the adventurer he's always dreamed of.
Crunchyroll's Blu-ray of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: The Complete Season contains 12 episodes with a choice of original Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0 (with English subtitles) or dubbed English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio tracks. Extras include promo videos, commercials and textless opening and ending songs.
Also new on Blu-ray from Crunchyroll is the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero: Season Three (盾の勇者の成り上がり) (2023). Crunchyroll's Blu-ray contains all 12 episodes with a choice of original Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0 (with English subtitles) or dubbed English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio tracks. Extras include promo videos, web previews and textless opening and ending songs. In addition to standard packaging, a Limited Edition, which includes a 64-page Art Book (with Japanese cast and director interviews), six art cards and a fabric poster, will also be available.
New on Blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks is the anime series Ragina Crimson (ラグナクリムゾン) (2023-2024), starring Chiaki Kobayashi, Ayumu Murase, Inori Minase, Fairouz Ai, Hiroki Tôchi and Mamiko Noto.
Description: Few humans have more reason to hate dragons than Ragna, who seems cursed to lose everyone he loves to the ancient monsters. Unfortunately, Ragna's abilities as a dragon hunter are inadequate, so he takes revenge by serving as the junior partner to young hunting prodigy Leonica… until he has a prophetic dream in which Leo is slain and multiple cities are destroyed. Confronted by an apparition from his future, Ragna finds himself wielding new powers that should be far beyond his reach. Have mankind's greatest foes finally met their match? Find out as a new apex predator is born in RAGNA CRIMSON!
Sentai Filmworks' Blu-ray of Ragina Crimson contains 24 episodes with a choice of original Japanese or dubbed English: DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio tracks and English or English SDH subtitles. Extras include Pre-Airing Emergency Broadcast Program: Dawn of the Dragon Hunters, Special Program: The Path to Ultimate Power a production documentary, clean opening and closing animations and four Japanese promos. A 104-page booklet is also included, while collectible packaging includes a Limited Edition SteelBook with a slipcover. For a full release breakdown, read Neil Lumbard's Blu-ray review.
Turning to catalog titles, Kino Lorber have a Blu-ray for Zoltan Korda's Cry, the Beloved Country (1951), starring Canada Lee, Charles Carson, Sidney Poitier, Joyce Carey, Geoffrey Keen and Michael Goodliffe. Sourced from a 2020 4K scan of the original camera negative by StudioCanal, Kino presents Cry, the Beloved Country with audio commentary by film historian Daniel Kremer and the featurette Canada Lee: An Interview with Mona Z. Smith.
Also on Blu-ray from Kino is Robert Day's Two-Way Stretch (1960), starring Peter Sellers, Lionel Jeffries, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Bernard Cribbins, David Lodge and Irene Handl. Kino presents Two-Way Stretch with an audio commentary by authors and comedy historians Gemma Ross and Robert Ross, as well as a theatrical trailer.
Then on Blu-ray from Kino is Willard Huyck's Best Defense (1984), starring Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, Kate Capshaw, George Dzundza, Helen Shaver and Mark Arnott. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, Kino presents Best Defense with a new audio commentary by screenwriter / producer Alan Spencer and author / film historian Justin Humphreys, as well as a theatrical trailer.
Finally from Kino this week is a 4K UHD upgrade for Rob Cohen's Daylight (1996), starring Sylvester Stallone, Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Jay O. Sanders and Karen Young. Sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, Kino presents Daylight with a choice of lossless 5.1 or 2.0 audio tracks and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include audio commentary by Rob Cohen, a making of featurette, an EPK featurette, a music video for "Whenever There Is Love" by Donna Summer and Bruce Roberts and theatrical trailers.
Coming to Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile are standard editions of the following titles (Please note that some reviews are for the Limited Editions of the titles):
Jiří Weiss' The Golden Fern (Zlaté kapradí) (1963), starring Vít Olmer, Daniela Smutná, Karla Chadimová, Frantisek Smolík, Radoslav Brzobohatý and Zdenek Braunschläger. Sourced from a remaster by the Národní filmový archiv (Czech National Film Archive) in collaboration with Comeback Company, Deaf Crocodile presents The Golden Fern with DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include audio commentary by film historian Peter Hames and Czech film expert Irena Kovarova of Comeback Company, Jiří Weiss' short films The Sun Shines on the River Lužnice (Nad Lužnicí Svítí Slunce) (1936), Song of Ruthenia (Píseň O Podkarpatské Rusi) (1937) and The Rape of Czechoslovakia (Uloupení Československa) (1939), a new video interview with the filmmaker's son Jiří Weiss Jr. and a video essay by film historian Evan Chester. For a full release breakdown, read Neil Lumbard's Blu-ray review.
Oldřich Lipský's The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians (Tajemství hradu v Karpatech) (1981), starring Michal Docolomanský, Rudolf Hrusínský, Vlastimil Brodský, Milos Kopecký and Jan Hartl. Sourced from a remaster by Craig Rogers, Deaf Crocodile presents The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians with LPCM 2.0 Mono audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include audio commentary by Tereza Brdečková (Czech film critic, screenwriter and daughter of screenwriter Jiří Brdečka) and Czech film expert Irena Kovarova of Comeback Company, a new video interview with Brdečková, Jiří Brdečka's short films Love and the Dirigible (Vzducholoď a láska) (1948) and Prince Copperslick (AKA Prince Měděnec's Thirteenth Chamber) (Třináctá komnata prince Měděnce) (1980) and the feature-length documentary Universum Brdečka (2017). For a full release breakdown, read Kenneth Brown's Limited Edition Blu-ray review.
Robert Wynne-Simmons' The Outcasts (1982), starring Mick Lally, Don Foley, Cyril Cusack, Brendan Ellis, Hilary Reynolds and Donal O'Kelly. Sourced from a new remaster by the Irish Film Institute, Deaf Crocodile presents The Outcasts with DTS-HD MA Mono audio and optional English SDH subtitles. Extras include interviews with Robert Wynne-Simmons, composer Steve Cooney, a visual essay by producer and professor Rod Stoneman (former head of the Irish Film Board) and Wynne-Simmons' short films L'Eredita di Diavolo (1962), The Greatest All-Star Advertial of All Time (1963), Bomb Disposal (1963), The Scrolls (1964) and The Judgement of Albion – Prophecies of William Blake (1968). For a full release breakdown, read Neil Lumbard's Blu-ray review.
Georgiy Daneliya's Kin-dza-dza! (Кин-дза-дза!) (1986), starring Stanislav Lyubshin, Evgeniy Leonov, Yuriy Yakovlev and Levan Gabriadze. Sourced from a new 4K remaster by Mosfilm, Deaf Crocodile presents Kin-dza-dza! with LPCM Mono audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include audio commentary by film critic Walter Chaw, new interviews with Leo Gabriadze and artist, author and film historian Stephen R. Bissette, a new visual essay by Ryan Verrill and film professor Dr. Will Dodson and a trailer. For a full release breakdown, read Kenneth Brown's Limited Edition Blu-ray review.
Karen Shakhnazarov's Zerograd (AKA City Zero) (Город Зеро) (1989), starring Leonid Filatov, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Evgeni Evstigneev, Oleg Basilashvili, Vladimir Menshov and Yuriy Sherstnyov. Sourced from a new 2K remaster by Mosfilm, Deaf Crocodile presents Zerograd with DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include new audio commentary by film journalist Samm Deighan and a new video interview with Karen Shakhnazarov. For a full release breakdown, read Svet Atanasov's Limited Edition Blu-ray review.
Coming to Blu-ray from VCI is Waris Hussein's Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970), starring Gene Wilder, Margot Kidder, Eileen Colgan, David Kelly, May Ollis and Tony Doyle. VCI's Blu-ray contains audio commentary by Robert Kelly and an original theatrical trailer.
Finally this week, coming to 4K UHD from the Criterion Collection is Michael Mann's Thief (1981), starring James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, Jim Belushi, Robert Prosky and Tom Signorelli. Sourced from a 4K remaster (supervised and approved by Michael Mann), Criterion presents the director's cut of Thief with DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio and Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc. Extras include archival audio commentary with Michael Mann and James Caan, while the included Blu-ray additionally features interviews with Mann, Caan, and Johannes Schmoelling of the band Tangerine Dream, as well as the film's original theatrical trailer. Also included is an essay by critic Nick James. For a full release breakdown, read Svet Atanasov's 4K UHD review.