Incredibly exciting news came from MVD Entertainment Group this week when they announced they would be partnering with Umbrella Entertainment to release a 35th anniversary edition of the Australian World War II classic Attack Force Z on Blu-ray. There’s a lot to take in here, but all of it is very good.
For starters, the partnership between MVD and Umbrella is HUGE. Hopefully this leads to many more releases down the line. Umbrella Entertainment is one of the best labels in the world. They’ve been putting out great stuff down under for years. Making their stuff easier to get in the US is pretty fantastic.
Then there’s the actual film in question, Attack Force Z. This film has been dying for a great Blu-ray release. Five years ago it got a release and it was bad, bad, bad. And you can’t even grab that bad release anymore unless you want to pay top dollar. It’s out-of-print and going for like $80. No, thank you! I am fully confident that Umbrella will treat this film with much more respect and Eric Wilkinson, MVD’s Direct of Acquisitions seems to agree.
“Previous home video versions of this film have looked sub-par,” Wilkinson says. “Umbrella Entertainment has done an amazing job restoring this film to its original glory. As a collector of physical media, myself, I’m happy to announce that Attack Force Z represents the first of many classic films on Blu-ray that MVD will be releasing in the near future.”
The film, which is an absolute classic and stars Mel Gibson and Sam Neill, is scheduled for a November 7th release. The release will be the film’s debut in high definition thanks to a brand new 4K scan, presented in the film’s original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Bonus features will include a 25-minute featurette containing interviews with cast and crew of the film, a photo gallery and original trailer.
