Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
The big-ticket item this week is the digital home release of The Last Jedi, which drops on Tuesday, March 13. It features 14 deleted scenes, various documentaries and an audio commentary from director Rian Johnson. If you want the Blu-ray, you’re stuck waiting until March 27.
Continue reading “Star Wars out this week: The Last Jedi in digital”
It’s official! The Last Jedi will be available for home release digitally in March 13 and on Blu-ray and other physical formats (including Blu-ray) on March 27. The special features include 14 deleted scenes, a Rian Johnson-centric feature called The Director and the Jedi. Johnson’s commentary will also be a part of the standard release.
The extras also include a look at the Force, and scene breakdowns of the opening space battle, Snoke’s motion capture and Crait.
Continue reading “The Last Jedi home releases – with 14 deleted scenes – coming March 13, 27”
Multiple sightings (Reddit, SWNN) are showing that The Last Jedi digital release may be March 14, nearly two weeks ahead of the (still unannounced) release of the Blu-Ray copies on March 27. The digital and physical releases for both The Force Awakens and Rogue One were only a few days apart. Word is we’ll get an official announcement on the 20th.
→ Oscar Isaac on shooting both The Last Jedi and the upcoming Annihilation at the same studio, and sometimes on the same day. (To make it even weird, he was playing Natalie Portman’s husband. Filmmaking!)
→ Really want tio dig into the nitty-gritty of The Last Jedi sets and filming? Production designer Rick Heinrichs wrote an article for the Art Directors Guild’s official magazine, which anyone can download in PDF form.
→ Domhnall Gleeson on how Peter Rabbit’s Mr. McGregor is like General Hux, and figuring out The Last Jedi’s choking scene.
→ The Last Jedi was named AARP’s Best Film for Grownups. ::sad trombone::
The Digital Bits is reporting that The Last Jedi will likely be out on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on March 27. This is still tentative, and both The Force Awakens and Rogue One had layered releases, so keep that in mind before planning time off for GIFmaking and the like.
Going by the previous releases, we could get official word on the release date in February.
We expect that the release will contain at least 20 minutes of deleted scenes in addition to the usual making-of extras. Hopefully a director’s commentary is included in this one: We had to wait for the 3D home release to get J.J. Abrams’ commentary on The Force Awakens, but we know that Rian Johnson was recording one back in November.
Announced on today’s Star Wars Show are the release dates for Rogue One on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD. Like The Force Awakens, it’ll launch on Digital HD a week before (March 24) the Blu-ray and DVD options (April 4.) This also gets it’s own promo:
The other big news is that a 40th Anniversary tribute panel will kick off Celebration Orlando. Hosted by Warwick Davis and featuring Kathleen Kennedy and “the saga’s brightest stars.” They’re also laying it on a bit heavy about “surprises,” so keep that in mind.
StarWars.com has The Force Awakens home release details, confirming that the Blu-ray and DVD will be out in April 5, with the digital download coming April 1. The special features include a full-length documentary and deleted scenes – including one of Kylo Ren on the Millennium Falcon.
Target, Walmart and Best Buy will have retailer exclusive packaging.
Looks like The Force Awakens may be released for home digital (aka iTunes and the like) as early as March 15th, per Blu-ray.com (via). Interesting, but given that staggered release dates seem to be a big thing with this movie, not at all unprecedented. Signs point to the Blu-ray and DVD coming out April 5.
→ The Force Awakens is up for 15 Saturn Awards, including nods for J.J. Abrams, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Lupita Nyong’o.
→ ANOVOS’ Kylo Ren costume is available for pre-order. So many layers.
→ Here’s one way to make a more appetizing version of Rey’s green bread.
Some Star Wars Rebels fans are less than impressed with Disney/Lucasfilm right now. Last week, fans who have been purchasing the show digitally found that ‘The Protector of Concord Dawn’ wasn’t included as part of their season pass for the cartoon’s second season. Instead, it’s part of a third volume – requiring a second ‘season’ pass.
Some initially thought it could be a mistake, but Lucasfilm (via Full of Sith) says it’s a deliberate choice:
Because Season 2 of Star Wars Rebels contains seven episodes more than Season 1 (20 versus 13), it has been broken down into lower priced volumes to make it more accessible. Unfortunately, this was not made clear for those buying a “season pass.” We regret the confusion and are happy to report that, in response, iTunes, Amazon and Google Play have reduced the price for the second half of Season 2 to $19.99.
Jason Ward at Making Star Wars is also among those decrying the “bait and switch.” Fans are angry, flooding ‘Volume 3’ on Amazon and iTunes with angry reviews and one-star ratings.
The Force Awakens will be having its pay-cable debut on Starz. It’s the last film in the premium cable network’s deal with Disney, which will be taking their future films to Netflix.
There were earlier rumors that Netflix may have tried to buy out Starz in order to debut all seven Star Wars at once, but they came to nothing. (Unless you happen to be in Canada, where Netflix will stream The Force Awakens – but no word on the rest of Star Wars, which is currently only available digitally for purchase.)
We still await word on when the older Star Wars films will return to basic cable – Spike TV’s previous deal is either already up or expires very soon, and in any case they haven’t aired the movies in a couple of years. My money is on Disney taking them to ABC Family/Freeform, which loves them a Harry Potter or Hunger Games marathon, but time will tell.
The U.S. can now get the Star Wars films in digital formats, and while Han doesn’t shoot first, there is one noticeable change… A new Lucasfilm fanfare replaces the 20th Century Fox one on all the movies save A New Hope. (Which, as we all know, Fox has distribution rights to in perpetuity.) Is this what we can expect on The Force Awakens? Almost certainly.