OSCAR
EXCLUSIVE!
04
JUNE 2015
JB Hi-Fi
www.jbhifi.co.nzvisit
www.stack.net.nzNEWS
EXTRAS
A
lejandro Iñárritu’s dark comedy
Birdman
was the big winner at this year’s
Oscars, taking home four major awards,
and arrives on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultraviolet on
June 11.
As well as the best director statuette for the
Mexican filmmaker, the film was named best
picture and also won Academy Awards for best
original screenplay and best cinematography.
And to mark its release JB Hi-Fi has lined up
a very special exclusive Blu-ray edition, which
includes alternative cover art and a series of
striking art cards.
This month also sees
the release of the two
films that bagged this
year’s top acting Oscars.
Still Alice,
which saw
Julianne Moore pick up th
ebest actress statuette for
her moving performance a
sa professor suffering from
early-onset Alzheimer’s
Disease, is out on
Complete this year’s Oscar winners collection at JB Hi-Fi this month.
With no official announcements of late about
Alien
5
, the rumour mill is in overdrive at the moment.
The new installment of the blockbuster saga is to
be directed by Neill Blomkamp – pictured above on
the set of his latest sci-fi hit
Chappie,
which is out
on DVD and Blu-ray this month – has hinted that the
movie may now be more closely aligned with the
upcoming
Prometheus
sequel and may not even be
called
Alien.
Other scuttlebut suggests Sigourney
Weaver won’t be taking a lead
role in the new film, although Bill
Paxton – who appeared in
Aliens
–
has apparently put his hand up to
reprise his character. We’re sure
it will all become clear shortly;
in the meantime, make sure you
check out JB Hi-Fi’s exclusive
two disc Blu-ray edition of
Chappie
, available from June 17.
A live action version of the anime smash
Attack on Titan
is due in cinemas later
this year.
Release dates are still to be announced
but the film is set in world where the
remnants of humanity live inside a series
of giant walled cities, built to keep out the
ferocious, flesh-eating Titans.
The director is Shinji Higuchi, whose
anime credits include the
Neon Genesis
Evangelion
re-boots and who is also attached
to the big budget Japanese reboot of
Godzilla
. For more on Japanese animation,
check out our regular Anime round-up on
page 40.
LIVE ACTION MAKEOVER FOR ATTACK ON TITAN
COLUMBO HAS NEVER LOOKED SHARPER
Television’s shabbiest detective Columbo
has been spruced up for release on Blu-ray.
The first three seasons of the cult ‘70s
TV show are due out on BD on June 11,
with each of the movie length episodes
restored from the original 35mm negatives.
Audiences were first introduced to the
seemingly shambolic but razor-sharp LA
lawman Lieutenant Columbo – memorably
played by Peter Falk – in 1971, with the show
going through a number of re-boots over the
decades before concluding in 2003.
What made
Columbo
unique was that the
murderer was revealed at the very beginning
of each show; instead the series was all about
how the wily detective would trick the killer
into incriminating themselves.
Cauterize
is the eagerly awaited
sophomore album from former Creed
man Mark Tremonti’s eponymous
group. Co-produced by the band and
his old pal Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette
(Falling In Reverse, Amity Affliction),
Cauterize
is the follow-up to 2012 debut
All I Was
and sees the man himself
backed up by Eric Friedman (guitar),
Wolfgang van Halen (bass) and Garrett
Whitlock (drums). “We feel it is our
best work to date,” reckons Tremonti.
In fact, the recording sessions were so
productive,Tremonti plan to quickly
follow
Cauterize
with a new record,
provisionally entitled
Dust
.
Cauterize
is due out on June 6
June 3, as is
The Theory Of Everything
, the
moving biopic that earned rising British star Eddie
Redmayne the best actor award for his portrayal
of the motor neuron disease-stricken Stephen
Hawkings. Incidentally, if that sounds a little too
heavy, note that you can also catch Redmayne
in a somewhat campier mode as the villain in
Jupiter Ascending
, which is out on June 24.
Also due in June are a number of other films
that featured prominently in the 2015 Oscars,
including the true stories
Foxcatcher
– which was
nominated in five categories but went home
empty handed – the Martin Luther King drama
Selma (up for best picturebut in the end had
to settle for best song) and
Wild
(a best actress
nod for ReeceWitherspoon).
The latter is available in an exclusive
JB Hi-Fi edition, which features a
collectable ‘Life After Wild’ story
extension from author Cheryl
Strayed.
Guest stars in the first
three seasons include
Johnny Cash, Vincent
Price, Leonard Nimoy,
Martin Landau and
Roddy McDowell,
while the pilot episode
was directed by a young
Steven Spielberg.
Another key figure
behind the scenes
was Steve Bochco
(
Hill Street Blues
,
NYPD Blue
), who
served as story
editor on the first
two seasons.