New DVD And Blu-ray Releases Coming In May 2019

New DVD And Blu-ray Releases Coming In May 2019

It’s finally May and rather than pelt you with Justin Timberlake memes, we’re bringing you the full list of the best and the brightest home entertainment releases this month. It’s not quite as catchy as a long-running meme, but we promise it’ll be more rewarding.

This month, we’re really finally starting to get into new 2019 movies in earnest. It usually takes about three months for a movie to transition from theaters into our homes, so look for early 2019 hits like How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World to dazzle and What Men Want to make you laugh a lot.

If you are looking for the flicks that came out last month, we have you covered. In the meantime, you can check out what’s coming in May below. Per usual, Digital releases are the same day as the Blu-ray and DVD release, unless otherwise noted in the early Digital column!

New Blu-ray And DVD Releases May 7, 2019

First off this month are a slew of unconnected titles for different fandoms. The comedy What Men Want is finally coming into homes, as is the latest season of the Breaking Bad spinoff and a movie just for families.

What Men Want

Better Call Saul: The Complete Fourth Season

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part

The Prodigy

Bundy and the Green River Killer

Blaze

Everybody Knows

My Scientology Movie

They Shall Not Grow Old

Liar: Season 1

The Head Hunter

Early Digital Releases Week Of May 7, 2019

Liam Neeson's Cold Pursuit didn't make a huge splash at the box office, but if it's something you want to purse, you'll be able to do so very soon.

Cold Pursuit (May 3)

Climax

Peel

New Blu-ray And DVD Releases May 14, 2019

Happy Death Day 2U did decently at the box office, but it didn't attract the notice the first movie in the franchise did, which is a shame, considering it's a fun movie and plans for the third installment may not go through now. Do check this one out on DVD or Digital.

Happy Death Day 2U

Cold Pursuit

Fighting With My Family

Apollo 11

Never Look Away

Power: The Complete Fifth Season

Triple Threat

Ashes In The Snow

Backdraft 2

Never Grow Old

Early Digital Releases Week Of May 14, 2019

The Upside to nabbing a copy of The Upside is that it's a fun, funny and sometimes even uplifting buddy comedy about a paraplegic man and his caretaker. That may not sound like a bundle of joy, but it's worth checking out.

The Upside

Greta

New Blu-ray And DVD Releases May 21, 2019

Like the first week of the month, there are a lot of different and interesting titles out this week in the realm of TV and movie theaters, from indie's to big budget animated titles. Take a look.

The Upside

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

13 Reasons Why: The Complete Second Season

Call The Midwife: Season Eight

Isn’t It Romantic

Drunk Parents

A Dark Place

Trading Paint

Early Digital Releases Week Of May 21, 2019

Madea's final installation -- unless that prequel happens -- is out this week.

A Madea Family Funeral

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

New Blu-ray And DVD Releases May 28, 2019

No droughtlander here! Outlander fans can relive favorite moments while we wait for Seasons 5 and 6 to come together.

Outlander: Season Four

South Park: The Complete Twenty-Second Season

Greta

Climax

Lords of Chaos

A Vigilante

As we head into the busy summer movie season, the number of Blu-ray, DVD and Digital releases should only grow. So, stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more on the latest titles that are coming out. In addition, if you're more interested in what's coming to theaters, take a look at our 2019 movies release schedule.

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Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile Writer Explains Why The Netflix Movie Has No Actual Murder

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile Writer Explains Why The Netflix Movie Has No Actual Murder

Netflix’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is centered on an infamous Ted Bundy who confessed to 30 murders across the United States before being sent to the electric chair for his crimes. If you’ve seen the film starring Zac Efron though, you know it doesn’t classify as the gory slasher one might expect from a movie tracing the serial killer’s life.

This was intentional and there’s a good reason why. Here’s how the film’s writer Michael Werwie explained that creative choice:

I was compelled by all of the mundane domestic details of his life and I thought an interesting way into a serial killer's story would be to show no serial killing at all. I wanted to explore the love story of it all. This is more of a human side of the story. It’s about the people who had an emotional connection to Ted Bundy. This is about seduction, betrayal and it’s also about the truth. The emotional side of the story is what makes the movie different than the documentary.

While many movies of this subject matter have focused on the shocking crimes themselves, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is a study of the killer’s life outside his infamous murders. The film tells the story from the way his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth “Liz” Kloepfer, learned of his dark psyche. They met at a bar in 1969, fell in love and lived out a happy life with her daughter for many years before news of his crimes surfaced. Some have accused the film of glamorizing the killer but it’s telling the story through the eyes of someone who loved him.

Lily Collins, who plays Liz in the film and director Joe Berlinger visited Kloepfer prior to shooting the film. Berlinger said looking through the photo albums of skiing trips, camping and birthday parties that reminded him of his own memorabilia cemented the film’s direction to be from the perspective of Bundy’s home life with Liz.

The director had recently explored all the gruesome details of Bundy’s crimes in his documentary Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and wanted to go in another direction for the feature film. In his words to THR:

Conversations is much more of a clinical dissection of the terrible things he did. This movie is an emotional unwrapping of the level to which he was able to deceive, not just Elizabeth Kloepfer, but the American media that kind of made him into a perverse folk hero and the American judicious system.

The film also shows how the courts where Ted Bundy was being tried was lenient with him because of his clean-cut look and charisma. Bundy was allowed to represent himself as a defense attorney. He escaped from prison twice because of how careless the security was about him. Berlinger noted that if he’d been a person of color he wouldn’t have been able to get away with so much with the justice system that he did.

If the perspective was shifted to one full of violence and slaughters, the audience wouldn’t get the view of Ted Bundy everyone around him had. It’s not until the end when Liz accepts his crimes and confronts him in prison to confess to him do we see a moment of Bundy being capable of brutality on screen.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile is available to stream on Netflix now, along with these new titles coming to the platform this month.

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Jumanji 3 Evolves Karen Gillan's Character In A Kickass Way, Jack Black Teases

Jumanji 3 Evolves Karen Gillan's Character In A Kickass Way, Jack Black Teases

Jumanji 3, or the direct sequel to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle -- whatever you prefer to call it -- is now filming for its December 2019 release. The 2017 stars are back for the new as-yet-untitled movie. During a break from filming, and still in their characters' avatar outfits, Jack Black (Professor Sheldon Oberon) had co-star Karen Gillan (Ruby Roundhouse) on his Jablinski Games YouTube channel. Gillan played Crash Bandicoot while Black failed to get her to spill Avengers: Endgame spoilers. After she mentioned the game she was playing felt a little like Jumanji, Black offered some praise for Gillan's role in the new movie:

Also, I should say that Karen is kicking ass in the new Jumanji. Your character has evolved and now you've got more stuff and rad stuff to do this time. I can't say what, because that would be spoiler alerts.

Karen Gillan was flattered by the praise, and did some Britney Spears singing -- which you should watch in the video -- but she wasn't so flattered that she was willing to share Avengers: Endgame spoilers on what Nebula does next.

It's good to hear Karen Gillan's game avatar Ruby Roundhouse will have more to do in Jumanji 3. How does she evolve? Is there like a game upgrade that gives her more powers? Does she take over as leader of the group? It doesn't look like she gets a new outfit. Both Gillan and Jack Black were in the clothes we're used to seeing from their first movie. Kevin Hart also showed off a look from set showing his usual attire:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has also been keeping fans updated on the Jumanji shoot, sharing set photos from the end of a week's filming:

We don't know the plot of Jumanji 3 at this point, but it's bringing back most of the cast from Welcome to the Jungle. That includes Nick Jonas, plus the actors who played the high school kids. This sequel has also added Awkwafina, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, and Dania Ramirez (so far) in mystery roles.

This is considered the third Jumanji movie because it continues the thread started with the Robin Williams Jumanji movie in 1995. His character was referenced in Welcome to the Jungle. The third movie is meant to be more tied to the second movie than the original, but they are all part of the same universe.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle took on Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017 and made some major money in the process. So Jumanji 3 appears to be trying for the same trick -- it's currently scheduled to open December 19, just a few days before Star Wars: Episode IX. Here's what else is headed to theaters in busy 2019.

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After Disney Acquisition, Fox Has Already Started Layoffs

After Disney Acquisition, Fox Has Already Started Layoffs

The merger between The Walt Disney Company and Fox was only completed after midnight on Wednesday morning, but the new owners have wasted no time in beginning to streamline the new company. A lot of layoffs were expected, and the first of them came to pass yesterday.

Many of the layoffs came at the top of the food chain. Chris Aronson, the president of Fox's domestic distribution was informed yesterday that he will not be moving forward with Disney, though he was apparently given 60 days notice. Fox's international distribution president was also given notice, as well as the president of worldwide marketing.

According to THR, many employees have not been officially let go yet, but they have been informed that they'll only be kept on for a transitional period, three to six months depending on the situation. Fox employees being let go are apparently being given two weeks of severance pay for every year they spent with the company, with a maximum pay out of two years salary. For those few that have spent decades working for Fox, and there will be those that have, they'll at least get a solid severance deal.

These layoffs were not necessarily unexpected. Disney and Fox were two companies in exactly the same business, which means there was a lot of overlap of job responsibilities between the two companies. Even with the addition of the various Fox divisions, the new company doesn't necessarily need twice as many people in areas like marketing or distribution.

One decision that has been a surprise, however, is the decision to completely shutter Fox 2000. The label was run by Elizabeth Gabler and was responsible for producing mid-budget dramas and comedies, including such popular movies as Love, Simon, Hidden Figures, and The Devil Wears Prada. It had been believed that Gabler and Fox 2000 would be folded into the new company and remain largely unaltered, so the news from Deadline that the label is being shut down has come as a shock to many.

While the layoffs were certainly expected, Disney has been, and is apparently remaining, tight lipped about what the exact plan is for the future. THR reports that some employees on both sides of the new merger are now very cautious because none of them know how secure their positions are. It's one thing to know that layoffs are going to happen, but not knowing how they will happen makes everybody nervous.

The total number of layoffs are expected to be in the thousands before things settle down, so this is clearly only the beginning. And of course, because of the merger itself, job prospects for those that find themselves without work will have that much more trouble finding a new job. If you're looking to find work with a major movie studio, there are now fewer of them around that are hiring.

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Spider-Man: Far From Home Director Has A Hilarious Explanation For Peter's Stealth Suit

Spider-Man: Far From Home Director Has A Hilarious Explanation For Peter's Stealth Suit

One of the things revealed in the first trailer for this summer’s Spider-Man: Far From Home is that everybody’s favorite Web-Slinger will be getting some new duds for his European vacation. But instead of getting the hottest and flashiest fashions from Parisian runways, Spidey will be getting a practical and understated black stealth suit. The film’s director Jon Watts, has a hilarious explanation for the stealth suit, saying:

It kind of looks like Black Widow, maybe it was one of her suits and they just tailored it.

Man, from a custom Stark suit with built-in A.I. and the Iron Spider suit, both of which likely cost millions, to one of Black Widow’s hand-me-downs; the youngest Avenger needs to file a complaint with Avengers HR or something because his contributions warrant him at least getting his own custom suit. Maybe they’re trying to come in under budget on the fiscal year and Black Widow had a spare suit just lying around they could repurpose cheaply.

Not that there is anything wrong with Black Widow’s suits; she is a literal spy and the stealthiest of the Avengers, so if it’s good enough for her, it's certainly good enough for him. And sorry, but Pete my guy, you’re a lot closer to Black Widow’s size than you are to most of the other team members.

In reality, Peter Parker would probably be honored and fanboy out over getting to use something Black Widow once had. After all, before Tony Stark upgraded him, his own suit manufacturing efforts were, let’s say, less than stellar. While we don’t know if Jon Watt’s hilarious conjecture about the stealth suit’s origin to Entertainment Weekly is strictly true, we do know a little bit about why Peter Parker is given the suit.

Following his exhausting adventures being a Friendly Universe Spider-Man in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is in need of a well-deserved vacation. He tries to take one in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but it wouldn’t be a movie if things didn’t go awry.

Nick Fury shows up (never a good sign) and recruits Spidey to take on the Elementals. It might seem odd for New York’s Spider-Man to suddenly show up in Europe at the same time Peter Parker is there, so in order to preserve his secret identity, Fury lends him the stealth suit. That said, if he’s still swinging around like Spider-Man, isn’t a black suit like putting glasses on Clark Kent? Maybe Peter’s efforts in Far From Home will be more ground-based.

Spider-Man: Far From Home, which is now the concluding film of Phase 3, has moved up a few days and swings in to theaters on July 2. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see all the big movies headed your way in the packed summer season, and for all the latest in superhero fashions, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.

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How Much Money Dumbo Could Make During Its Opening Weekend

How Much Money Dumbo Could Make During Its Opening Weekend

Disney has several live action reimaginings heading into theaters in 2019. Ahead of Aladdin, The Lion King and Maleficent 2, the studio will be putting out Tim Burton’s live action take on Dumbo. Now, tracking is in for the late March release and it looks like Dumbo should do well on opening weekend, although it may not be a record breaker for the House of Mouse.

Early estimates have Dumbo making around $50 million on opening weekend. That’s domestically, of course, and numbers from theaters worldwide should beef up that number. THR also notes the new live action flick could make as much as $60 million if all goes well. This is close to the long-range forecasting, which previously had Dumbo in a range of $45-$65 million.

If the numbers hold, that would not be a gigantic opening for this type of movie. So far, the highest opening weekend for a live action Disney film went to Beauty and the Beast, which came out back in 2017 and made roughly $170 million domestically opening weekend. The Jungle Book also had a large opening total, surprising with a little over $103 million domestically when it hit theaters in 2016.

If Dumbo opens in the range it is expected to, it will land ahead of movies like Alice Through The Looking Glass ($26.8 million opening) and Pete’s Dragon ($21.5 million opening), but behind other live action remake earners like Maleficent ($69 million opening) and Cinderella ($67.9 million opening).

Most of Disney’s live action movies have had budgets in the $100 million+ range and movies like Maleficent have been closer to $180 million (although Pete’s Dragon was reportedly made for much less than $100 million). Ultimately, whether a $50 or $60 million opener will be enough to propel Dumbo to a box office win depends on a lot of factors: How much was the budget? Are people seeing the movie elsewhere in the world? Can it stay competitive for several weeks as April releases start coming out?

Of course, box office estimates aren’t an exact science, either. We’re always hopeful for surprises of the positive variety at CinemaBlend and if Dumbo ends up doing more than $60 million it could be a great start for live action remakes this year. Likewise, if the flick doesn’t strike gold, Disney has three more shots at huge moneymakers in that category alone this year.

That may not be why the studio has so many movies primed to come out in 2019, however. Previously, it looked as if Disney could beat its own domestic box office record this year and now that Maleficent 2 has been thrown in, it’s looking even more likely.

Ultimately, Disney has a lot of live action reimaginings of classics coming out in the next nine months, specifically now that the studio has swapped Maleficent 2’s date from 2020 to 2019. It will be interesting to see whether or not there’s an appetite for that many remakes in one year, or if we’ll have a Solo type of story on our hands with one or two of them.

Of course, stay tuned to Weekend Box Office to see how Dumbo and other big spring movies do.

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Dumbo’s Original Source Material Remains A Mystery To This Day

Dumbo’s Original Source Material Remains A Mystery To This Day

In the discussion about Tim Burton’s Dumbo, most speak to its original source material as the 1941 Walt Disney Animated film of the same name – but while that’s not entirely wrong, it’s also not entirely right. While there is absolutely no questioning that the new film was heavily inspired by the classic cartoon, calling it the original source material ignores the fact that the first Dumbo movie was itself an adaptation. This by itself isn’t all that interesting, but what adds a few wrinkles to the situation is the fact that the first ever version of the story no longer appears to exist.

While the Disney film obviously popularized the tale of Dumbo, it was actually first envisioned by writers Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl and illustrator Helen Durney for a toy called a Roll-a-Book. It’s believed that a prototype was created, and there is some limited artwork still floating around, but apparently it’s impossible to actually find it.

This is not due to a lack of trying, however, as I learned earlier this month during the Los Angeles press day for the new live-action Dumbo. Having learned about this strange circumstance prior to seeing the Tim Burton film and become curious about it, I decided to inquire about the mystery of the Roll-a-Book during interviews with the movie’s producers. What I discovered was that efforts were definitely made to track down the original version of Dumbo, but nobody wound up having any luck.

I first sat down with producer Justin Springer and screenwriter Ehren Kruger, and right off the bat asked if they had any luck finding the mysterious invention. What I learned was that they did a full archive sweep shortly after development on the project started, and while they were able to find some incredible treasures that have been beautifully preserved by the Walt Disney Company, one item that wasn’t included with the wide variety of materials was the Roll-a-Book prototype. Springer explained,

It doesn't exist. Disney doesn't have it. As soon as Ehren and I started talking about it, we did go to the Disney archives and we were able to go to the animation archives and they pulled like 20 boxes of Dumbo stuff for us. And there were old treatments, and screenplays, and artwork, cell animation, early drawings, and model sheets. One of the opportunities at Disney is that you can go back to that source material and see what some of the original thinking was… But the Roll-a-Book itself was something that we found out about because we were doing research on where the original idea came from, and read about it. But we don't know that one exists.

The patent for the Roll-a-Book, filed November 2, 1938 and credited to inventor Everett Whitmyre, suggest that the device operated like an encased scroll that the user would navigate through with a pair of nobs. The reader would turn the nobs simultaneously, changing the image shown and letting the story continue. Specifically in the case of Dumbo, the story of a baby elephant with ears so giant that they allow him to fly.

Justin Springer and Ehren Kruger were unable to track down the Roll-a-Book, but interestingly it seems that their interest in digging through the archives was a touch contagious. The producer noted that the material they had found was passed along to Tim Burton and his team once they started becoming involved with Dumbo:

When I first met Tim [Burton] and Derek [Frey], when they were coming on-board the movie, I brought them a bunch of those files so that they could have them as well.

That was only the start for Derek Frey, though, as I later learned when I sat down with him and his producing partner Katterli Frauenfelder. During that interview I again opened by asking about the Roll-a-Book, and Frey admitted that the mystery was one that intrigued him as well in the making of Dumbo. And not only was it interesting to him, but it caught the attention of his wife Leah Gallo as well. Said Frey,

We looked [for the Roll-a-Book], and actually, my wife, who wrote the making-of book, she contacted Syracuse. I think it's Syracuse University has some kind of record of it, or maybe the original artwork. I don't think it's the Roll-a-Book itself, but they were so happy that we contacted them, because we wanted to get the information on like where did this originally come from? Obviously everybody thinks of the Disney animated picture, but they got the rights to do it based off of that little Roll-a-Book. So it's interesting.

If you can’t tell where this is going, however, the efforts ultimately didn’t bear any real fruit. Even with all of the resources of the Walt Disney Company supporting the search, the original Roll-a-Book prototype that inspired Dumbo remains a lost item… if you can even call it lost, given how it’s unclear whether or not it ever physically existed. Derek Frey summed it up this way:

From what I understand, it's kind of like one of these myths. There was a Roll-a-Book being planned. I guess the fact is I don't know if anyone's actually found a physical copy of one. I think there's imagery of it, or artwork that was created for it, and there could have been like maybe like a prototype created for it. But I don't think there's actually a physical Roll-a-Book. We didn't have one, but we looked.

Frankly, this sounds like a case where the thing will randomly turn up in someone’s basement someday, with the person in possession of it being totally and entirely clueless about its pop culture significance. But until that day comes, we’ll just have to live with the material we know exists.

On that note, the original Walt Disney Animation classic Dumbo is widely available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital. And if you're curious about the new live-action take, Tim Burton’s Dumbo – starring Colin Farrell, Nico Parker, Finley Hobbins, Eva Green, Danny DeVito, Michael Keaton, and Alan Arkin – is now playing in theaters everywhere worldwide.

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