The quirky comedy The French Dispatch leads a sparse selection of titles heading to Blu-ray, DVD and digital release Dec. 28.
Director Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, an homage to literary journalism, French culture and classic cinema, arrives on Blu-ray Disc and DVD from Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures. The French Dispatch brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published about the fictional 20th-century French city of Ennui-sur-Blasé. The cast includes Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson.
The documentary Clerk., about the life and career of indie film icon and raconteur Kevin Smith, arrives on DVD Dec. 28 after a month of digital availability from 1091 Pictures. Directed by Malcolm Ingram, the film features new interviews with friends, family, filmmaking peers, and icons of the film, comedy and comic book worlds, including Scott Mosier, Jason Mewes, Stan Lee, Justin Long, Penn Jillette, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Smith himself. After growing up in New Jersey, Smith gained a passion for filmmaking and self-funded his debut feature film, Clerks, which was released in 1994. This opened the door to a career in the pop culture entertainment space, with subsequent directorial efforts such as Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, stints writing for popular comic book characters, and frequent speaking engagements at venues such as Comic-Con and his own podcast.
Arrow Video Dec. 28 releases Shawscope Vol. 1, a collection of 12 action films from the Shaw Brothers studio in the 1970s, from kung fu killers to crazy kaiju knockoffs to culture clash comedies. After an undisputed reign at the peak of Hong Kong’s film industry in the 1960s, Shaw Brothers (the studio founded by real-life brothers Run Run and Runme Shaw) found their dominance challenged by up-and-coming rivals in the early 1970s. They swiftly responded by producing hundreds of the most iconic action films ever made, revolutionizing the genre through the hard work of top-shelf talent on both sides of the camera as well as unbeatable widescreen production value, much of it shot at ‘Movietown’, their huge, privately-owned studio on the outskirts of Hong Kong.
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The action film The Gardener will be released on demand, DVD and for digital purchase Dec. 28 from Lionsgate. Gary Daniels and Robert Bronzi star in the home-invasion thriller, which follows an immigrant living a quiet life as a gardener at a manor house in England who has to rely on old skills to save the family he works for from home invaders. The quiet of the English countryside is shattered when a troubled wealthy family gathers in a quaint manor home for the holidays, never suspecting that bloodthirsty, sadistic Volker (Gary Daniels, The Expendables) and his crew linger at the gates, ready to attack, rob and maim them at nightfall. But the invaders don’t count on the estate’s quiet gardener Peter Juhasz (Robert Bronzi, Death Kiss), who must return to the savage ways he learned as a soldier to save the family.
The science-fiction fantasy Bigfoot Creek arrives on DVD Dec. 28 from Wild Eye Releasing. Originally released as The Legacy of Boggy Creek in 2011, Bigfoot Creek is a docudrama that chronicles sightings of the creature that occurred throughout the Midwest. It features interviews and locations from the real encounters. Directed by Dustin Ferguson (Nemesis 5, Apex Predators), the film stars Allison Scott II (Brightburn), Christina Marie Leonard (Riley Rewind) and Karrie Bauman (Black Luck). Special features include alternate scenes, the theatrical premiere video, behind-the-scenes footage and the promotional trailer.