Home Entertainment News: October 14, 2013: RUSH, BADGES OF FURY

StudioCanal has officially announced it will release Ron Howard’s smash hit Rush (2012) on January 27, 2014. The biography stars Olivia Wilde, Daniel Brühl, Chris Hemsworth, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Pierfrancesco Favino. Brühl and Hemsworth star as James Hunt and Niki Lauda, rival Formula 1 racers with completely different personalities and opposite approaches to racing. Both are vying to be the top driver of 1976 when Lauda has a devastating crash on the racetrack that leaves him burned and disfigured. When he returns to the track just six weeks later, Hunt is forced to acknowledge his courage leading to a climactic end to the World Championship race of the year. While StudioCanal has yet to detail the special features on this film, it will release a Limited Edition SteelBook.

Well Go USA has announced it will distribute Wang Zi Ming’s action flick Badges of Fury on January 7, 2014. Badges stars some of the finest martial arts film actors today including Jet Li, Collin Chou (The Matrix Reloaded, Flashpoint), Wu Jing (SPL/Kill Zone), Wen Zhang (The Guillotines), and Liu Shi Shi, and is produced by Kung Fu Hustle co-producer Chui Po-Chu. Odd couple cop partners are assigned to investigate a series of murders across Hong Kong. When the mismatched partners connect the dots to learn all the victims were lovers of an aspiring young star, one of the partners must risk his life by going undercover as her lover to flush out the killer.

Futurama: Volume 8 will hit the shelves on December 10, 2013, just in time for the holidays. The animated sci-fi comedy from Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, features robots, Hypnotoad, and gadgets not seen on The Jetsons. The set includes 13 raucous episodes, all with optional audio commentary, Futurama University, Inside Futurama: The Writer’s Room of Tomorrow, and Precious Trimmings: A Compendium of Deleted Scenes.

Director Michael Landon, Jr.’s The Ultimate Life (2013) is the follow up to the beloved book The Ultimate Gift. The story of love, hope, and self-realization takes place three years after the events of the book. Jason Stevens finds himself at a crossroads once again now that his fiancée has jetted off to a mission in Haiti and his grandfather’s legacy—the foundation he left to him—is facing a touch court challenge. He must once again dig deep within himself to examine those life lessons taught by the family patriarch. The Ultimate Life will be available beginning December 10, 2013 and has several special features: video interviews, the original trailer, deleted scenes, One Life music video, and The Heart of The Ultimate Life.

IFC Films and MPI Home Entertainment will bring Chilean director Sebastián Silva’s award winning film, Crystal Fairy (2013) to home video November 19, 2013. The film won the Directing Award for World Cinema-Dramatic at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and stars Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffman, and Juan Andrés Silva. An American expat and three Chilean brothers embark on a road trip in search of a hallucinogenic cactus. They pick up a female American expat free spirit who puts a swerve in their planned road trip providing for even more adventure and a crazier trip than they could have imagined.

Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-winning drama Million Dollar Baby will be released on a special 10^th anniversary Blu-ray February 4, 2014. The film stars Eastwood as well as Hillary Swank and Morgan Freeman. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has yet to detail the release.

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