Boy Blu-ray for US But Not Us

The NZ distributor of Boy has shelved plans for a Blu-ray release but the country’s biggest grossing indie hit’s about to go Blu in the US.

Art house distributor Kino Libor has announced Boy will go on sale on both DVD and Blu-ray on July 9, with the latter selling for $US30.

Extras will include writer/director Taika Waititi’s Oscar-nominated short Two Cars, One Night, interviews and B-roll footage, Kickstarter update videos and the theatrical trailer.

Thanks to reader Mark Cross for alerting me to this: “Pretty sad really that there is no sign of a Blu-ray release of this movie in New Zealand or Australia.

“Looks like another import for me, although I will wait a little while for the price to drop a bit.”

The irony is Boy barely registered at the US box office, after Kickstarter funding helped it secure limited distribution, and is winning a Blu-ray release.

But in NZ, where it grossed more than $9 million, second only to Avatar that year, it’s doomed to DVD only.

It’s not clear if the Kino Lorber release is region A-locked or region free.

Meanwhile, don’t count on the restored Utu getting a Blu-ray release here, either.

Thirty years after its first NZ cinema release, Geoff Murphy’s classic has been enhanced, re-edited and restored for dgital exhibition under the title Utu Redux.

It will have its world premiere in Wellington on July 26, as the opening film of the New Zealand International Film Festival, followed by a Special Presentation screening in Auckland on July 28.

“I was excited and amazed by the restoration process,” Murphy says in a Film Commission press release.

“The work done by Weta Digital on bringing the picture back to life was spectacular.

“It now looks better than it did the day it was first shown. Park Road Post were no less brilliant in their re-mastering and enhancing of the soundtrack.

“It’s like a completely new experience – I am proud to have been associated with it.”

Despite this “experience”, Screenscribe.tv understands a Blu-ray release is not part of the movie’s DVD strategy, which has still to be finalised.