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Six Landmark Films from the Columbia Pictures Library Debut on 4K

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Debut on 4K Ultra HD For the First Time October 25th 

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT ~ FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

TO SIR, WITH LOVE ~ THE LAST PICTURE SHOW ~ ANNIE

AS GOOD AS IT GETS

Exclusively Available on 4K Disc in this Limited Edition Set,

Includes an 80-Page Hardbound Book on the History & Impact of the Films

and Over 35 Hours of New and Archival Special Features


TORONTO, ONT. (October, 2022) – Continuing the fan-favourite and award-winning series, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is proud to debut six more acclaimed and iconic films from its library on 4K Ultra HD disc for the first time ever, exclusively within the COLUMBIA CLASSICS 4K ULTRA HD COLLECTION VOLUME 3, available October 25. This must-own set includes films that have resonated and endured, with stars and stories that have reverberated through cinema history: IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, TO SIR, WITH LOVE, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, ANNIE and AS GOOD AS IT GETS. Each film is presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range, and four of the films have all-new Dolby Atmos mixes.

The six films in the COLUMBIA CLASSICS 4K ULTRA HD COLLECTION VOLUME 3 are only available on 4K Ultra HD disc within this special limited edition collector’s set. Included with the collection is a gorgeous hardbound 80-page book, featuring in-depth sections about the making of each film within the set via six all-new incisive essays from renowned writers—including a special exclusive essay from award-winning writer/director James L. Brooks on his 1997 classic, AS GOOD AS IT GETS!

The set also includes a variety of rare related features and TV episodes, expanding the worlds of several of the included films—some of which haven’t been available in decades! From a 1932 cinematic incarnation of Annie to a nearly five-hour 1979 TV miniseries adaptation of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY—and much more!—these supplemental additions round out this must-own gift set, perfectly timed for holiday gift-giving.

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT

Synopsis:

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert team up for laughs as mismatched lovers in this 1934 screwball comedy classic. Spoiled Ellie Andrews (Colbert) escapes from her millionaire father (Walter Connolly), who wants to stop her from marrying a worthless playboy. En route to New York, Ellie gets involved with an out-of-work newsman, Peter Warne (Gable). When their bus breaks down, the bickering couple set off on a madcap hitchhiking expedition. Complications fly when the runaway heiress and brash reporter fall in love. Directed by Frank Capra, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was the first movie to be honoured with all five major Oscars®: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Feature:

o  NEW: YOU CAN’T RUN AWAY FROM IT – 1956 remake of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, starring June Allyson and Jack Lemmon. Newly remastered in HD!

§  Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o  Audio Commentary featuring Frank Capra, Jr.

o  Frank Capra, Jr. Remembers It Happened One Night Featurette

o  Screwball Comedy? Featurette

o  Original Live Radio Broadcast

o  Advertising Materials

o  Theatrical Trailer


IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT has a run time of approximately 105 minutes and is rated PG.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

Synopsis:

In this landmark film, passion and tragedy collide on a military base as a fateful day in December 1941 draws near. Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is a soldier and former boxer being manipulated by his superior and peers. His friend Maggio (Frank Sinatra) tries to help him but has his own troubles. Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) and Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) tread on dangerous ground as lovers in an illicit affair. Each of their lives will be changed when their stories culminate in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Winner of eight Oscars®, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting awards for Sinatra in a career-defining role and for Donna Reed as a not-so-wholesome club hostess.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision

·       Dolby Atmos English audio

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o   NEW: Strength and Sacrifice: The Making of From Here to Eternity

o   NEW: Eternal History Revisited Featurettes

o   NEW: FROM HERE TO ETERNITY 1980 TV Pilot – the TV pilot starring William Devane and Barbara Hershey, presented in SD!*

o   Theatrical Trailers

·       Feature Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Dolby Digital Mono

·       Special Features:

o   Eternal History: Graphics-in-Picture Track

o   Audio Commentary featuring Tim Zinnemann and Alvin Sargent

o   Making of From Here to Eternity

o   Excerpt from “Fred Zinnemann – As I See It” 

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY has a run time of approximately 118 minutes and is rated PG.

TO SIR, WITH LOVE

Synopsis:

A novice teacher faces a class of rowdy, undisciplined working-class punks in this classic film that reflected some of the problems and fears of teens in the 60s. Sidney Poitier gives one of his finest performances as Mark Thackeray, an out-of-work engineer who turns to teaching in London’s tough East End. The graduating class, led by Denham (Christian Roberts), Pamela (Judy Geeson) and Barbara (Lulu, who also sings the hit title song), sets out to destroy Thackeray as they did his predecessor by breaking his spirit. But Thackeray, no stranger to hostility, meets the challenge by treating the students as young adults who will soon enter a work force where they must stand or fall on their own. Celebrating its 55th anniversary.

TO SIR, WITH LOVE Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Dolby Atmos English audio

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o   NEW: A Tribute to Sidney Poitier

o   NEW: TO SIR, WITH LOVE 1974 TV Pilot – Hari Rhodes stars in this rare TV adaptation of the 1967 classic film, presented in HD!

·       Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o   Audio Commentary featuring Actor Judy Geeson and Film Historians Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman

o   Audio Commentary featuring Novelist E.R. Braithwaite and Author / Teacher Salome Thomas-El

o   NEW: TO SIR, WITH LOVE II – the 1992 TV-movie sequel to the 1967 classic, starring Sidney Poitier and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, presented in HD!

o   NEW: To Potter, With Love Featurette

o   NEW: Beginnings of an Acting Career Featurette

o   Those Schoolboy Days Featurette

o   Look and Learn Featurette

o   E.R. Braithwaite: In His Own Words Featurette

o   Lulu and the B-Side Featurette

o   Miniskirts, Blue Jeans and Pop Music! Featurette

o   To Sidney, With Love Featurette

o   Principal El: He Chose to Stay Featurette

o   Theatrical Trailer

TO SIR, WITH LOVE has a run time of approximately 105 minutes and is rated PG.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

Synopsis:

Released in 1971 to critical acclaim and public controversy, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW garnered eight Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture, and was hailed as the most important work by a young American director since Citizen Kane. A surprisingly frank, bittersweet drama of social and sexual mores in small-town Texas, the film features a talent-laden cast led by Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd and Timothy Bottoms. Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson each won Oscars® for their work in supporting roles. Featuring both director Peter Bogdanovich’s preferred 1999 Definitive Director’s Cut and the 1971 Theatrical version on 4K Ultra HD.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW Disc Breakdown

·       Director’s Cut 4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Director’s Cut presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Theatrical Version 4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       1971 Theatrical version presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Original Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Feature Blu-ray Includes:

·       Director’s Cut presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       Mono DTS-HD Master Audio

  • Special Features:

o   Audio Commentary featuring Director Peter Bogdanovich

o   NEW: A Tribute to Peter Bogdanovich

o   The Last Picture Show: A Look Back Documentary 

o   A Discussion with Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich

o   Location Footage

o   Promotional Featurette 

o   Theatrical Trailers

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW has a run time of approximately 118 minutes and is rated 18A. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW: DIRECTOR’S CUT has a run time of approximately 126 minutes and is rated 18A for sexuality, nudity and language.

ANNIE

Synopsis:

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, ANNIE is the story of everyone’s favourite plucky, red-haired orphan! One day Annie (Aileen Quinn) is chosen to stay for a week with the famous billionaire “Daddy” Warbucks (Albert Finney). One week turns into many, and the only person standing in the way of Annie’s fun is Miss Hannigan, the tyrannical ruler of the orphanage (played to hilarious perfection by Carol Burnett). Will Miss Hannigan’s zany attempts to kidnap the irrepressible Annie succeed? Sing along with the unforgettable songs and experience this beloved musical!

ANNIE Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Dolby Atmos English audio

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original 2-Channel Surround DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Feature:

  • NEW: LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE – 1932 feature starring Mitzi Green as Annie, newly restored and presented in HD!

·       Feature Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Original 2-Channel Surround DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

  • NEW: Cast Audio Commentary – featuring all-new reflections from stars Carol Burnett, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry and Roseanne Sorrentino
  • NEW: Aileen Quinn: A Conversation
  • NEW: Behind the Music with Charles Strouse
  • NEW: Looking Back: Behind the Scenes
  • Annie’s Journey to the Screen
  • “Easy Street”
  • “I Don’t Need Anything But You”
  • Making a Finale (no audio)
  • Sing-Along with Annie!
  • My Hollywood Adventure with Aileen Quinn
  • Musical Performance by Play: “It’s the Hard-Knock Life”
  • Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots

ANNIE has a run time of approximately 127 minutes and is rated G.

AS GOOD AS IT GETS

Synopsis:

Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear and Cuba Gooding, Jr., star in James L. Brooks’ hit comedy, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, now celebrating its 25th anniversary. Nicholson gives a show-stopping Academy Award®-winning performance as Melvin Udall, an obsessive-compulsive novelist with Manhattan’s meanest mouth. But when his neighbor Simon is hospitalized, Melvin is forced to babysit Simon’s dog. And that unexpected act of kindness, along with waitress Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt, in an Academy Award®-winning performance), helps put Melvin back in the human race. Nominated for seven Academy Awards®, including Best Picture (1997).

AS GOOD AS IT GETS Disc Breakdown

·       4K Ultra HD Includes:

·       Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative

·       Dolby Atmos English audio

·       Original 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Feature Blu-ray Includes:

·       Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master

·       Original 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio

·       Special Features:

o   Audio Commentary featuring Director James L. Brooks, Stars Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear, Editor Richard Marks, Producer Laurence Mark and Composer Hans Zimmer

o   NEW: Deleted Scenes

  • Melvin Stalls Victor with Intro from James L. Brooks
  • “Kiss Her, Man!” Original Ending

o   NEW: Behind the Scenes Footage

o   NEW: The Making of As Good As It Gets Featurette

o   NEW: Archival Theatrical EPK Soundbites

o   Theatrical Trailer

AS GOOD AS IT GETS has a run time of approximately 139 minutes and is rated PG for strong language, thematic elements, nudity and a beating. 

EXCLUSIVE BONUS DISC INCLUDES:

·       FROM HERE TO ETERNITY – the nearly 5-hour 1979 TV miniseries starring Natalie Wood, William Devane and Peter Boyle, presented in high definition*

* Select instances of music have been removed for this presentation.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Reviews

The Social Network Movie Blows My Mind

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Movie expectations are a dangerous bag. We savor anticipation, but envisioning a positive experience before you’ve actually had the experience can warp perception and lead to anti-climax: the proverbial let down.

Hype is another form of expectation, one that is projected from external sources. And how many times have we heard the phrase: “It just doesn’t live up to the hype.” We get suckered by marketing and take solace in acerbic criticism. We love to hate the let down.

I went to my local video store a couple of weeks ago on a mission. It was time, I decided, to watch The Social Network, the much acclaimed film by director David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club) about the founding of Facebook.

Rarely do my trips to Super-A Video feel like such an event. First of all, Columbia Pictures has gone all out on a gorgeous, deluxe box for this film. I felt like I was in a record store again, holding in my hands, for the first time, a new album I had been waiting for. Some of you will remember what that was like…

On the cover, a host of superlatives from the likes of The New York Times, New Yorker, and Rolling Stone Magazine. “Stupendous!” “Exhilarating!” “Absolutely emblematic of its time and place!” The list of ecstatic declamations was exhilarating in itself. But it also made me nervous. Will it live up to the hype[rbole]?

So this was my Friday night. I dimmed the lights and sank into my couch, prepared for what was, in the educated opinion of many, a defining cinematic event. This is my substitute for romance, I guess. And in this case: no anticlimax.

The film starts at a blistering pace with a scene of two people sitting relatively still. The momentum is in the dialogue, in the intellectual animation of two brains on fire. I watched the movie again on Saturday, this time with a friend, and he was literally on the edge of his seat, concentrating to following the rapid-fire repartee which is the opening salvo of Fincher’s film. And then he said, “Wow. What a way to start a movie.” Certainly makes you pay attention.

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, TV’s The West Wing), who is known for his dense, tightly scripted approach to writing, has already won the Golden Globe for this piece of work and the Oscar seems likely. But don’t let my description of the opening scene scare you off. The Social Network is not an exhausting experience. It chronicles a moment of great creative outpouring in the lives of brilliant people who think very quickly, and it finds a way to carry you along, and in, to the tale of their accomplishments and relationships.

The DVD extras illuminate what can happen when a great director, writer and actors work collaboratively on a project like this, providing a rare glimpse into the artistic process of an incredible team. Fincher (Golden Globe, Best Director), comes off as an affable perfectionist, admired in spite of the fact that he will do 99 takes of a scene—ie: that electric opening. And the newly feted Jesse Eisenberg, with a host of Best Actor nominations for his role as principle Facebook architect Mark Zuckerberg, seems almost as smart as the genius he portrays.

The other star of this film is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ original soundtrack. At times haunting, at times propulsive, these long-time musical partners (Nine Inch Nails) have created a techno film score that will make your home theatre sing. Never obtrusive, always complimentary, it adds tone and depth, feeling and movement to this film. And it is cool. This is important. Zuckerberg knew that, with Facebook, he was on to something cool. He also knew that there is no more precious commodity—aside from sex—when it comes to marketing to young adults.

The Social Network, too, is that rare constellation of co-factors: it is a document, and example, of pop-culture that is blisteringly smart, sophisticated, exciting, funny, sexy, and cool. It is also a work of art, and for all of these reasons it is, truly, an emblem and anthem of our time.  For the Silo, Chris Dowber.