The Arrow Thread

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Black Moon Rising

Buckle up for ride in the Black Moon, a sleek, high-tech supercar, powered by hydrogen and capable of speeds of over 300mph!

Tommy Lee Jones (Rolling Thunder, Under Siege) stars as Sam Quint, a master thief working for the government who hides a computer disc loaded with evidence of corporate crime in a prototype supercar, the Black Moon. When a gang of thieves steal the car, Quint seduces their leader, Nina (Linda Hamilton, Terminator), to get to the disc. But in order to reclaim his property, Quint and Nina must break into an impenetrable skyscraper and take down Ed Ryland (Robert Vaughn, The Delta Force), the head of a dangerous stolen car syndicate...

A fast-moving, hydrogen-fueled action thriller written by John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing), Black Moon Rising has earned admiration from cult movie audiences for its thrilling chase sequences, pounding synth score, and slick direction courtesy of Harley Cokeliss (Battle Truck, The Glitterball).

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original 35mm interpositive
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Uncompressed PCM 2.0 stereo audio and alternative 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
New audio commentary by Lee Gambin, author of Show Me: The Making of Christine
Black Moon Ascending, a new interview with director Harley Cokeliss
Thief in The Night: Producing Black Moon Rising, a new interview with producer Douglas Curtis
Sound of Speed: Composing Black Moon Rising, a new interview with composer Lalo Schifrin and film music historian Daniel Schweiger
Carpenter s Craft, a new video essay on co-writer John Carpenter s screenwriting career by author and critic Troy Howarth
Making Black Moon Rising, an archival documentary featuring behind the scenes footage and cast and crew interviews
Alternative Hong Kong version scenes, a presentation of selected scenes from the Hong Kong theatrical version with a different score and sound effects
Theatrical trailer and radio spots
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Haunt Love
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Kieran Fisher

Release date April 15th

Cover

[Susan Foreman]

NEW US/CA TITLE: Keoma (Blu-ray)

Truly epic in scope, Keoma is considered by many to be one of the greatest spaghetti westerns.

Release date: April 2

"A strikingly original spaghetti western with a unique elegiac tone, Keoma truly is a one-of-a-kind classic of its genre…

The legendary Franco Nero (Django, The Fifth Cord) stars in the titular role as a half-breed gunfighter who returns from the killing fields of the civil war to find his hometown riddled with the plague, its inhabitants terrorized (with the help of Keoma’s own estranged half-brothers) by tyrannical gang leader Caldwell (Donald O'Brien, Zombie Holocaust). Keoma’s father (Willian Berger, Sartana in the Valley of Death) welcomes his prodigal son’s return, but when Keoma saves a vulnerable pregnant woman (Olga Karlatos, Zombie Flesh Eaters) from Caldwell's thugs, the stage is set for a violent confrontation. With the help of his father and his friend, the freed slave George (Woody Strode, Spartacus), Keoma prepares to take a savage revenge on Caldwell and his gang.

Directed with immense flair and virtuosity by veteran Enzo G. Castellari (who channels Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone in equal measure), Keoma is an epic film of Shakespearean and biblical allusions, which boasts compelling performances and thrilling violent action. Truly epic in scope, Keoma is considered by many to be one of the greatest spaghetti westerns. The film is presented here in a stunning new restoration with a wealth of informative and entertaining new extras.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• New 2K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Uncompressed mono 1.0 LPCM audio
• Original English and Italian soundtracks, titles and credits
• Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• New audio commentary by spaghetti western experts C. Courtney Joyner and Henry C. Parke
• The Ballad of Keoma, a new interview with the legendary star Franco Nero
• Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, a new interview with director Enzo G. Castellari
• Writing Keoma, a new interview with actor and writer Luigi Montefiori AKA George Eastman
• Parallel Actions, a new interview with editor Gianfranco Amicucci
• The Flying Thug, a new interview with actor Massimo Vanni
• Play as an Actor, a new interview with actor Volfango Soldati
• Keoma and the Twilight of the Spaghetti Western, a newly filmed video appreciation by the academic Austin Fisher
• An Introduction to Keoma by Alex Cox, an archival featurette with the acclaimed director
• Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
• Gallery of original promotional images from the Mike Siegel Archive
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Simon Abrams and Howard Hughes"

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Terra Formars

The ever-prolific Takashi Miike, the director behind the likes of Audition, the Dead or Alive trilogy and Blade of the Immortal, returns with this intergalactic epic in which a team of space explorers find themselves pitched against a horde of oversized anthropomorphic cockroaches.

In the mid-21st century, humankind has been forced to look to colonising other planets as a means of combating overcrowding on Earth their first stop, Mars. With a population of cockroaches having been introduced on Mars some 500 years prior to help prepare the way for human colonization, a manned mission sets out to the red planet with the aim of clearing away the bugs. Upon arrival, however, they discover that the roaches have evolved to huge, vicious creatures capable of wielding weapons.

Based on the popular Manga series of the same name, Terra Formars is an action-packed space adventure brought to life by one of Japan s most celebrated contemporary filmmakers.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

High-Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original uncompressed Stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD MA options
Newly-translated English subtitles
The Making of Terra Formars - feature-length documentary on the film s production featuring a host of cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
Extended cast interviews
Footage from the 2016 Japanese premiere
Outtakes
Image Gallery
Theatrical and teaser trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring two artwork options
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Fully illustrated collector s booklet with new writing on the film by Tom Mes

NEW UK/US/CA TITLE

Release date April 1st / 2nd

Cover

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Iguana with the Tongue of Fire

One of several animal-in-the-title cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).

Set in Dublin (a rather surprising giallo setting), Iguana opens audaciously with an acid-throwing, razor-wielding maniac brutally slaying a woman in her own home. The victim s mangled corpse is discovered in a limousine owned by Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky (Anton Diffring, Where Eagles Dare) and a police investigation is launched, but when the murdering continues and the ambassador claims diplomatic immunity, tough ex-cop John Norton (Luigi Pistilli, A Bay of Blood) is brought in to find the killer...

Benefitting from a sumptuous score by Stelvio Cipriani (Nightmare City, Death Walks on High Heels) and exuberant supporting performances from Valentina Cortese (The Possessed, Thieves' Highway) and Dagmar Lassander (The Frightened Woman, The Black Cat), The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a luridly over-the-top latter-day entry in the filmography of acclaimed director Riccardo Freda (Caltiki The Immortal Monster, Murder Obsession). An archetypal giallo from the genre s heyday, Freda s film is presented here in a stunning new restoration with a host of newly produced extras.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

New 2K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Uncompressed mono 1.0 LPCM audio
Original English and Italian soundtracks, titles and credits
Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
New audio commentary by giallo connoisseurs Adrian J. Smith and David Flint
Of Chameleons and Iguanas, a newly filmed video appreciation by the cultural critic and academic Richard Dyer
Considering Cipriani, a new appreciation of the composer Stelvio Cipriani and his score to The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire by DJ and soundtrack collector Lovely Jon
The Cutting Game, a new interview with Iguana s assistant editor Bruno Micheli
The Red Queen of Hearts, a career-spanning interview with the actress Dagmar Lassander
Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Andreas Ehrenreich

NEW UK/US/CA TITLE

Release dates: April 8/9

Cover

The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is also coming to Arrow Records in April. Presumably this is the soundtrack recording

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Scared Stiff

TV star Mary Page Keller (Pretty Little Liars) appears alongside Andrew Stevens (10 to Midnight, The Fury) as a couple terrorised by an age-old curse in this much-underrated late-80s offering from director Richard Friedman.

Keller plays Kate Christopher, a singer who moves into an old colonial mansion with her son and psychologist boyfriend David (Stevens). But when they make a strange and gruesome discovery in the boarded-up attic, it soon becomes clear that the mansion carries with it a dark and blood-stained past and one that is about to terrorise them in the present.

The second feature helmed by Richard Friedman, who went on to direct such genre favourites as Doom Asylum and Phantom of the Mall: Eric s Revenge, Scared Stiff (AKA The Masterson Curse) builds to an astonishing practical FX-laden climax sure to please fans of 80s horror.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements
Original uncompressed Stereo audio
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary with director Richard Friedman, producer Dan Bacaner and film historian Robert Ehlinger
Mansion of the Doomed: The Making of Scared Stiff brand new documentary featuring interviews with Richard Friedman, Dan Bacaner, Robert Ehlinger, actors Andrew Stevens and Joshua Segal, special effects supervisor Tyler Smith and special effects assistants Jerry Macaluso and Barry Anderson
Brand new interview with composer Billy Barber
Image Gallery
Original Theatrical Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Fully illustrated collector s booklet with new writing on the film by James Oliver

NEW UK/US/CA TITLE (Exclusive Slipcase Edition)

Release dates: April 22/23

The cover posted by Mr, 42 in post #13872 is being used as the slipcase

Cover

[Justin101]

Some bloody terrible artwork on display this time around!

[Rob4]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Some bloody terrible artwork on display this time around!

the slipcase edition for Scared Stiff is better than the above, but yep, in general pretty poor.

hope HMV comes back as these are mostly 5 for 30 for me - Iguana being the best of the bunch. i guess there's always going to be some holding months between the high value releases.

[Nostalgic]

Notice they're not listed on amazon yet.....not paying £18 a pop from arrow i'm afraid! Might have to wait 6 months & cex all my cult titles, lol!

[Susan Foreman]

Interesting article about the 'Waterworld Ulysses' cut

Waterworld ‘Fan-Edit’ Gets Official Blu-ray Release, a Decade After Pirate Bay Premiere | TorrentFreak .com

"A fan-edit cut of the 1995 movie Waterworld is now available as an official Blu-ray release. The original "Ulysses" cut was crowdsourced using extra scenes from various TV broadcasts and publicly shared on The Pirate Bay more than a decade ago. The Blu-ray has been released by Arrow Film, but whether the original 'editor' is aware of it is unknown.

While it’s not one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the recent decades, Waterworld has reached cult status among a subgroup of film fans.

The post-apocalyptic film, featuring Kevin Costner in a lead role, first premiered in 1995. Since then, it’s been shown on TV repeatedly and released on various other media including VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray.

The latest Blu-ray version, created by Arrow Films, was actually sent out just this week. Despite Waterworld being more than two decades old, many fans were eager to get their hands on the copy.

The release includes three Waterworld cuts which were newly restored from the original material. That by itself would be enough to get proper fans excited, but it’s the inclusion of the infamous “Ulysses Cut” that was most anticipated.

Waterworld is known for its many different versions, but this one never officially aired anywhere. It was created by a fan who, together with others, set out to make the longest uncensored edit of Waterworld possible.

The origin of this fan-edit, well documented by the Unheard Nerd, started in 2005.

At the time, a user of the Original Trilogy forum asked if anyone had access to the 40 minutes of Waterworld material that appeared in an ABC broadcast. This generated a long thread where users shared and compared different versions of the film.

In 2006, a user named “Mcfly89,” showed his interest in the project.

“This project sounds great! Is this from a VHS or better? Could anyone post some screenshots? I can’t wait to see this on myspleen or another torrent site,” he wrote.

Mcfly89 later took the lead and after crowdsourcing copies of different broadcasts, he set out to combine these into a long uncensored edit of Waterworld.

The project progressed slowly and by November 2007 the name “Ulysses was first mentioned.

This title refers to the unnamed mariner played by Kevin Costner. He’s given this name toward the end of the film in a scene that was taken out of the theatrical version.

With a name for the project, Mcfly89 continued his work. Helped by other members, who also assisted with an appropriate DVD-cover, the fan-made DVD was ready by the summer of 2008.

Despite a temporary outage on The Pirate Bay, Mcfly89 managed to upload a torrent for the “Ulysses” cut to the site on July 28th, exactly thirteen years after the original premiere.

Today, ten years on, it’s still available on TPB, albeit with no seeders on the official torrent. In the description, Mcfly89 explains the project while thanking the many others who contributed.

“Waterworld: The Ulysses Cut is a fan-made preservation of the extended cut of Waterworld which has been aired on television but never released on home video,” it reads.

“Waterworld is a film notoriously re-cut by the studio after locking the director out of the editing room, and this preservation is an attempt to show some 40 minutes worth of material that was exised.”

Many Waterworld fans welcomed the “Ulysses” release and it was even extended by ‘Zaaacharias’ a few years later. It’s not clear whether the original makers were happy with it. Film fans generally see fan-edits as important preservation projects, but copyright holders have gone after such releases as well.

Fast forward another decade and now the Ulysses cut has been released legitimately on a Blu-Ray disc put together by Arrow Films. The movie company used the name of the cut, but it was obviously reconstructed from original footage, not the broadcasts that were used in the fan-edit.

We reached out to Arrow Films to ask what its motivation was and whether it consulted Mcfly89, but the company didn’t respond. We had no luck tracking down Mcfly89 either, who is not mentioned in any of the official Blu-ray release details.

“High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the extended European Ulysses cut, which include previously censored shots and dialogue,” is how Arrow Films describes the version.

Waterworld fans surely haven’t forgotten about the cut’s origins. Mcfly89 is mentioned in several reviews, including this on Amazon, from “Lego Trooper” who’s eager to know more about how this official release came about.

“On this lovely 3 disc edition is finally the Ulysses cut which was fan made from a number of different recordings from different cuts of the film shown on TV. The fan in question ‘Mcfly89’ surely deserves a shout out for his efforts.

“It would probably be an interesting read or feature to know how between Universal, Arrow and Mcfly89 The Ulysses Cut has eventually arrived as a 1080p edition,” Lego Trooper adds.

The story is quite remarkable already but we believe that Arrow Films missed a major opportunity here. But perhaps the full story will come out one day, in another decade or so."

[JAMIOUSE]

Has anyone had an email from Amazon reporting that The Fifth Cord and The Possessed have been dispatched yet? With HMV in limbo Amazon seem to have whacky dispatch times now.