I just stumbled upon these images on the intertubes and I’m not sure if they are official and final but, my oh my, they’re pretty…

Another Coen brothers movie is making its way to hi-def beauty with Disney’s release of O Brother, Where Art Thou? scheduled for September 13th in the US and Canada. It will, of course, be in glorious 1080p but no word yet on the audio specs. The special features are simply those from the existing DVD release;

• Painting with Pixels featurette on the digital intermediate used to create the look of the film
• Production featurette
• Storyboard-to-Scene comparison
• “Man of Constant Sorrow” music video
• Theatrical trailer

Roger Deakins’s cinematography coupled with the ground-breaking, full-screen colour treatment should make your hi-def TV really sing! Looking forward to this one!

On August 30th, 20th Century Fox are releasing the Coen Brothers Collection Blu-ray boxset comprising Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing and Fargo. Other than Fargo they are Blu-ray debutants. They will all be available separately and will contain the same special features as their DVD equivalents (links below will take you to the Amazon.com pre-order pages)…

Blood Simple: Director’s Cut —

• Commentary with Kenneth Loring of Forever Young Films
• Cast and crew biographies
• Production notes
• Theatrical trailer

Raising Arizona —

• Theatrical trailer
• TV spots

Miller’s Crossing —

• Shooting Miller’s Crossing: A Conversation with Barry Sonnenfeld featurette
• Interview Soundbites with cast members Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden, and John Turturro
• Still gallery
• Theatrical trailers

Fargo —

• Commentary with cinematographer Roger Deakins
• Minnesota Nice featurette
• Trivia track
• Trailer
• Still gallery
• American Cinematographer article on the film

Far out, man! Universal Home Entertainment have let the cat out of the bag regarding the specs and special features of their The Big Lebowski: Limited Edition Blu-ray due for release on 16th August. Most importantly it is a brand new transfer, not merely a re-do of the 2007 HD-DVD release. It’ll be 1080p (of course) presented in it’s original theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack and even a digital copy. It comes in a lovely looking 28 page booklet and has a bunch of new special features on top of those present in the 2008 10th Anniversary Edition DVD;

New Special Features:

• Scene Companion: A picture in picture mode that features cast and crew interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and more during key scenes.
• Mark It Dude: On-screen counter that keeps track of all the “F-Bombs”, “Dudes” and “Dude-isms” in the film. (I particularly like this!)
• The Music of The Big Lebowski: Instantly identifies the songs heard while watching the film, and allows the creation of custom playlists.
• Worthy Adversaries- What’s My Line Trivia: Trivia that tests your Lebowski knowledge by finishing lines of dialogue during the film. Play as Walter or The Dude or in two-player mode against friends.
• U-CONTROL
• pocket BLU
• BD-LIVE
• Mobile-To-Go
• uHEAR

Additional Special Features:

• Jeff Bridges Photo Book: Exclusive shots taken on the set of The Big Lebowski by Jeff Bridges himself.
• The Dude’s Life: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi and John Turturro take a look back at their performances and their delivery of the Coen Brothers’ dialogue that became classic movie lines.
• The Dude Abides- The Big Lebowski Ten Years Later: A conversation with the cast about the film’s cult classic status.
• Flying Carpets and Bowling Pin Dreams- The Dream Sequences of the Dude: Featurette on the making of the surreal sequences in the film.
• The Making of The Big Lebowski
• The Lebowski Fest- An Achiever’s Story: An in-depth look at the popular Lebowski Festival, formed by the legion of fans in honor of the film.
• An Introduction: Featuring Mortimer Young.
• Photo Gallery
• Interactive Map

The disconcerting thing (for me at least- I’m in the UK!), is that it will be a genuine limited edition- being available for only a set time although they haven’t stated how long as yet. However previous Universal releases have been region free so it should work outside of the US/Canada.

Dudes, get your diaries out right now! The Big Lebowski is coming to Blu-ray on August 16th according to the Canadian branch of Universal Home Entertainment! Nothing is know at present except for this tantalising image of the awesome artwork / booklet! I think this will really tie my movie collection together!

Mark the date in your diary people, True Grit is released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on June 13th. The Blu-ray comes in a “triple play” set containing the DVD and a digital copy version of the movie along with the below special features, apparently all in lovely 1080p;

• Mattie’s True Grit
• From Bustles to Buckskin – Dressing for the 1880s
• Colts, Winchesters & Remingtons: The Guns of a Post-Civil War Western
• Re-Creating Fort Smith
• The Cast
• Charles Portis – The Greatest Writer You’ve Never Heard Of…
• The Cinematography of True Grit
• Theatrical Trailer

In addition HMV have an exclusive steelbook version. As far as I can tell, the DVD is devoid of special features!

According to the French branch of 20th Century Fox both Raising Arizona and Miller’s Crossing are coming to Blu-ray in August. Not sure (yet) if this means JUST in France. I will keep an eye on the situation.

It’ll be interesting to see how Raising Arizona cleans up, while Miller’s Crossing should look gorgeous!

Paramount have announced the released of the True Grit DVD and Blu-ray in the US of A- 7th June, in a BD/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack.

Special features include:

• Mattie’s True Grit
• From Bustles to Buckskin—Dressing for the 1880s
• Colts, Winchesters & Remingtons: The Guns of a Post-Civil War Western (BD-exclusive)
• Re-Creating Fort Smith
• The Cast
• Charles Portis—The Greatest Writer You’ve Never Heard Of… (BD-exclusive)
• The Cinematography of True Grit (BD-exclusive)
• Theatrical Trailer (BD-exclusive)

Good news for those of you outside of the US is that most of Paramount’s blu-ray releases so far have been region free. YAY! That’s really all there is to say at the moment. More when I have it.

The Coen brothers’ debut feature, Blood Simple, is coming out on Blu-ray and coming out very soon indeed. I just stumbled upon it really and I have no information other than it comes in a Blu-ray and DVD combo set and is out in the US on August 3rd! It’s not even certain if it’s the original cut of the 2001 Director’s Cut. Also for those of us not in the US, MGM have a 50/50 record on whether they make their discs region free or not so I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know if there is any confirmation one way or the other.

Out in a mere 4 days the Blu-ray release of A Serious Man has received its first (to my knowledge at least) review. Blr-news.com gave it 10/10 for picture quality, saying;

“The level of details is of the highest quality on Blu-ray. Whether it be a close-up or wide shot, everything stands out and looks great. There are many wide shots in particular that are jaw-dropping. Even a grocery store shot from the air captures every little detail, everything pops and everything has dimension.”

The review also confirms the lengths of the three featurettes; ‘Becoming Serious’ is 17:04 long, ‘Creating 1967′ is 13:43 and ‘Hebrew and Yiddish for Goys’ is 2:14. All four are in “HD”.

Check out the full review here.

I can’t wait for mine to arrive!