According to the Digital Bits "Rumor Mill", the Bits' "industry sources" at Paramount are tentatively aiming to give us this summer's lovingly forged blockbuster Iron Man on DVD and Blu-ray Disc "on (or around) 9/30." Also mentioned is a possible Sept. 23 date for Paramount's remastered Godfather Trilogy showing up on DVD and Blu-ray. Take that cannoli, baby!

In his New York Sun write-up on the American DVD release of Grant Gee's 2007 documentary Joy Division, Steve Dollar says that although "less pop-obsessive viewers probably have had their fill of films about the rise and fall of the music scene in Manchester, England, in the late 1970s and early 1980s -- the post-punk era," this film presents "a solid case of the best having been saved for last."

At his entertaining new blog Some Came Running, Glenn Kenny (late of Premiere magazine and part of the wave of refugees from the MSM's recent fire-the-critics-cuz-it's-all-online-anyway purge) posts his "High Definition DVD Consumer Guide #5: Please Put Out Better Movies Edition."

This week's New Line release of Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind prompts Jette Kernion at Cinematical to give us his Cinematical Seven: Movies about Making Movies. They're all available and enthusiastically recommended on DVD.

Speaking of Be Kind Rewind, Randy Miller III over at DVD Talk notes that fans of the film "will be interested to learn that a new scene has been inserted directly into the film for this release..."

About his would-be "DVD of the Week" choice, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Sean Axmaker mentions this: "After reviewing the DVD (complete with interviews and documentary) and posting the review, I discovered the disc was pulled from release. For whatever reason, I do not know, but the studio never even bothered to update me on the status." A little investigation revealed that the DVD is currently a Borders exclusive and "will be widely available in October."

Bond goes blu: A Fox studio press release at Blu-ray.com tells us that "Fox Home Entertainment in conjunction with MGM Home Entertainment have announced that they will bring six classic James Bond films to Blu-ray this fall. All six titles -- 'Dr. No,' 'Die Another Day,' 'Live and Let Die,' 'For Your Eyes Only,' 'From Russia with Love,' and 'Thunderball' -- are currently planned to hit store shelves on October 21st (October 20th internationally)."

Speaking of Blu's Clues, High-Def Digest spreads the word that "A&E Home Video is jumping into Blu-ray with their debut high-def release, the hit History Channel series 'The Universe.'" Look for it on October 14. Other Blu-ray announcements there include both volumes of Kill Bill on September 9, L.A. Confidential on September 23, and -- in time for Christian Bale's return as The Dark Knight -- Warner Brothers' Batman Begins and Batman Begins (Limited Edition Gift Set) on July 8. Alfred, let's go shopping.

My heart goes out to High-Def Digest's Peter M. Bracke, however. We can only imagine the suffering he experienced to provide such a thorough Blu-ray review of Witless Protection, a "pretty big piece of crap" sporting "a 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode (1.85:1)" with "DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 7.1 Surround (48kHz/16-bit) and Dolby Digital Surround EX (640kbps)." We salute Mr. Bracke for taking that bullet for the rest of us.

Dave Kehr's weekly DVD article in the New York Times takes a look at Fox Home Video's Carmen Miranda Collection. "The giant bananas, rising and falling in phallic waves in the film's most famous production number..."

Home Media Magazine reports that at TransFORMATions: The 7th Annual Home Entertainment Summit, held June 16-17 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, CA, last year's best DVD was the comprehensive multi-disc set of Warner Brothers' Blade Runner. "Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner was the big winner at the fourth annual DVD Critics Awards, with a Warner Home Video re-release of the film earning honors for best director's cut and best overall home video of 2007." Among the other 2008 DVD Critics Award Winners listed, Ratatouille took Best Animation DVD, Transformers topped the Best Theatrical DVD, and My So-Called Life: The Complete Series won the Judges' Special Citation.

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