SDCC 2017: NECA ANNOUNCES LAIKA MERCHANDISE
The National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA), an entertainment conglomerate and global leader in licensed consumer goods, has signed a deal to produce a multi-category lineup of merchandise with Oscar®-winning animation studio LAIKA. NECA will arrive in San Diego with an exclusive action figure for sale at Comic-Con®, a Coraline in a Deluxe Display Box, and will be promoting the high end bespoke replicas of LAIKA’S hero puppets from its four Oscar®-nominated films: Coraline (2009),ParaNorman (2012), The Boxtrolls (2014) and Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). The deal was brokered by licensing agency Striker Entertainment, which represents the rights to the LAIKA library of legacy and future films.
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Sweetness! I cannot wait for this Hall H panel this weekend! Kingsman and Statesman are kicking off ComicCon 2017. On behalf of 20th Century Fox, check out who will be attending San Diego Comic Con for KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE with the BRAND NEW Character Posters! Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges and Pedro Pascal will be joined by screenwriter Jane Goldman and Kingsman co-creator and ComicCon legend Dave Gibbons for the KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE Panel in Hall H on Thursday July 20th starting at 11am PT. 
Terrence Malick has been on a tear in this current decade (Do we call it “the tens” or whatever?). It once took the man thirty eight years to put out five films, now he’s put out five works in the last six or seven years (One of said films is a documentary). I actually still haven’t seen Knight of Cups, which this reminded me of that gap. His latest is a look on the Austin, Texas music scene called Song To Song. The main players in the film are quite an elite bunch, featuring three (each multiple) Academy Award nominees and one Oscar winner. That would be Natalie Portman, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender and Ryan Gosling. So, ideally you’re getting some of the finest voice over inner monologues you can get, right? Song To Song is coming to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray (Malick’s first film to land on the format) on July 4th. 
Disney announced today at D23 Expo that in August, one of the biggest animated films in history, The Lion King, the coming-of-age masterpiece, filled with humor and heart, breathtaking animation and soul-stirring Academy Award®–winning music (1994: Best Original Score and Best Original Song, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”), joins the highly celebrated Walt Disney Signature Collection. The Lion King roars to Its rightful place in the Walt Disney Signature Collection on Digital Aug. 15th and on Blu-ray™ Aug. 29th. Audiences will fall in love all over again with the treasured classic, and a new generation of fans will laugh with Timon and Pumbaa, cry with Simba and Mufasa, burst into song, and find their place in the “Circle of Life.” The Walt Disney Signature Collection release includes over three hours of classic bonus material and exclusive, brand new features inviting viewers to sing along with the film’s award-winning music, observe recording sessions, step inside the story room, witness the evolution of a villain, and join Nathan Lane (voice of Timon) and Matthew Broderick (voice of Adult Simba) for an extended conversation regarding the legacy of “The Lion King.”
I have to get the following off my chest first before we move along. I have never seen nor do I have any interest in ever seeing the classic anime film Ghost in the Shell. It doesn’t even intrigue me in the slightest. I was such a big fan of 
“Out of the darkness and into light, comes your Horrorscope on this dark and stormy night.” Director Robert “Freddy Krueger” Englund dials up a gothic tale of high-tech horror in 976-EVIL, debuting on Blu-ray™ for the first time October 3 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Presented in its original aspect ratio and remastered for high definition, 976-EVIL includes an all-new commentary track for the film by Robert Englund, along with his wife, Nancy Booth Englund, who was the set decorator on the film. In addition, bonus materials on the release include an alternate home video version of the film featuring 12 extra minutes of footage. Starring Stephen Geoffreys (Fright Night), Jim Metzler (L.A. Confidential), Pat O’Bryan (No Holds Barred) and Academy Award® winner Sandy Dennis (Best Supporting Actress, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966), 976-EVIL is the number to dial to receive supernatural powers and turn into satanic killers. Hoax (Geoffreys) uses the powers the number gives him to exact revenge against everyone who has wronged him, inadvertently allowing his soul to be slowly taken over by Satan. 
BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, the Academy Award® winning* sensual horror classic, celebrates its 25th anniversary by debuting on next-generation 4K Ultra HD for the first time on October 3 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The release also includes the existing Blu-ray™ with hours of thrilling and insightful special features. Fully restored in 4K resolution and presented with High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Dolby Atmos audio, BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA follows the devastatingly seductive Transylvanian prince, Dracula (Gary Oldman) who travels from Eastern Europe to 19th century London in search of human love. After centuries alone, the charismatic Dracula meets Mina (Winona Ryder), a young woman who appears as the reincarnation of his lost love and the two embark on a journey of romantic passion and horror. 
I’m sorry but try as I might I’m just not a fan at all of 2014’s 
King of his own wild and wacky cinematic castle, David Cronenberg and a dissection of all the eerie early gems he embodies continues this week with an oddity about family that’s finger licking good – welcome to Forgotten Friday Flick! Today it’s all about the importance of kin (creepy or not!) as we explore an outing that’s thick on dread – both in tone and story. Seems a family is being torn apart by both an unsettling doctor and some small hidden menaces in a cult driven ditty guaranteed to give you a didn’t-see-that-coming gut punch. They may be part of your ancestral clan, but watch out for…The Brood!
Teen Wolf today is not really at all what Teen Wolf was to the 1980s. The MTV relaunch of the show was the grimdark reinvention of the original hit movie from the 80s. It originated as a coming of age teen comedy of a guy in search of being elite in high school only to find that’s not really who he is. Michael J. Fox bounced from Family Ties to this to Back to the Future right here to catapult him into superstardom. In fact, he was shooting all three at the same time, believe it or not. Scream Factory is revisiting the film with a brand new 2K transfer and attached a near two and a half hour documentary on the making of this popular little horror-comedy (Sadly, Fox is not a participant for an interview). You can get your pre-order in now, Prime members, to ensure your copy is on the doorstep when it releases on Augusts 8th on Blu-ray. 
Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is a rollicking new tale of the high seas, infused with all the elements of fantasy, humor and action that have resulted in an international phenomenon for the past 13 years. Johnny Depp returns to his Academy Award®-nominated role as the outrageous, swashbuckling scoundrel Captain Jack Sparrow, and is joined by Oscar winners Javier Bardem and Geoffrey Rush. It was announced today at D23 Expo, that “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”—the fifth film in the now-iconic “Pirates of the Caribbean” film franchise—will sail home on Digital in HD and 4K Ultra HD™ on September 19, and on 4K Ultra HD™/Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, DVD and On-Demand on October 3. 
Join Insight Editions at San Diego Comic-Con in Booth #3721 for exciting events and exclusive opportunities, including the chance to win a limited ticket to attend a private Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
