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Vin Diesel’s ‘Pitch Black’ Headed to 4K and Blu-Ray

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Are you afraid of the dark? Vin Diesel’s Furyan-badass definitely isn’t. The ocular augmented, anti-hero is coming to 4K and Blu-Ray from Arrow Video via MVD Entertainment to remind us what Vin looks like kicking nocturnal-alien butt.

The synopsis for Vin Diesel’s Pitch Black goes like this:

A deep space transporter crash-lands on a desolate planet circled by three suns. Among the survivors are pilot Carolyn Fry, mystic Abu `Imam’ al-Walid, cop William J Johns and convicted criminal Richard B Riddick, and their first thoughts are of survival and escape. Then Fry finds out that the planet suffers a total eclipse every 22 years, which is when the hibernating, flesh-eating inhabitants awake and hunt.

Pitch Black eventually lead to, 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick and 2013’s Riddick. Each film expanded on the mythos of David Twohy and Diesel’s world. The franchise also saw, animated features, video games and comic books all based around the titular anti-hero.

I was a huge fan of Pitch Black on release and the video game Escape From Butcher’s Bay was groundbreaking. The other two films in the franchise have been met with both good and bad criticism. ‘Chronicles’ in particular was met with negative outpouring, while ‘Riddick’ saw a close blueprint to that of Pitch Black and was mostly a success.

Pitch Black comes loaded with special features that include:

  • Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films of the Theatrical and Director’s Cuts of the film, approved by director David Twohy
  • 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
  • Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround on both cuts
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on both cuts
  • Archive commentary with director David Twohy and stars Vin Diesel and Cole Hauser
  • Archive commentary with director David Twohy, producer Tom Engelman and visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang
  • Nightfall: The Making of Pitch Black, a newly filmed interview with director/co-writer David Twohy
  • Black Box: Jackie’s Journey, a newly filmed interview with actor Rhiana Griffith
  • Shazza’s Last Stand, a newly filmed interview with actor Claudia Black
  • Bleach Bypassed, a newly filmed interview with cinematographer David Eggby
  • Cryo-Locked, a newly filmed interview with visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang
  • Primal Sounds, a newly filmed interview with composer Graeme Revell
  • The Making of Pitch Black, a short behind-the-scenes featurette
  • Pitch Black Raw, a comparison between early CG tests and the final footage
  • Additional behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the film
  • 2004 archive bonus features, including an introduction by Twohy, A View Into The Dark, and Chronicles of Riddick Visual Encyclopedia
  • Johns’ Chase Log, a short prequel narrated by Cole Hauser detailing the character’s hunt for Riddick
  • The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (in 16:9 widescreen with DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio), an animated short film directed by Peter Chung that acts as a bridgepoint between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, featuring vocal performances by Vin Diesel, Keith David and Rhiana Griffith reprising their roles
  • Dark Fury bonus features including Bridging The Gap, Peter Chung: The Mind of an Animator, A View Into The Light, and a “pre-animation” version of the film
  • Slam City, a motion comic from the film’s official website
  • Into Pitch Black, a TV special offering an alternative non-canon glimpse into what happened before and after the events of the film
  • Raveworld: Pitch Black Event, footage of a dance music event held to promote the film
  • Theatrical trailers, plus trailers for the two sequels and video game
  • Image galleries
  • Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned ‘night’ and ‘day’ artwork by Luke Preece 
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Simon Ward on the film’s creature designs (including a new interview with creature designer Patrick Tatopolous), original production notes and information from the film’s official website, and an archive interview with Vin Diesel from Starlog magazine.
We are pretty danged excited about Vin Diesel and Pitch Black coming to 4K. This was a total sleeper hit that contained just as much pulse-pounding tension as Alien and Aliens. Say what you will about the films sequels, Pitch Black maintains itself as an all-time horror/sci-fi classic.
Vin

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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