Criterion Richard III Available 3 Weeks Early at B&N

From an email sent an hour ago to B&N newsletter subscribers:

Now is the spring of your contentment, for the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray of Laurence Olivier's celebrated 1955 Shakespeare adaptation ''Richard III'' is available today at Barnes & Noble -- three weeks earlier than anywhere else. Criterion produced this edition using a new high-definition digital master of the Film Foundation's 2012 restoration, and the bonus material includes an interview with Olivier from a 1966 episode of ''Great Acting.''

Also in there is a Fillm Foundation intro from Martin Scorsese.

It's $35.99 on their site, and is readily available in their stores. When it's widely released, the price will probably only be five or six bucks less than that at retailers like Best Buy and Fry's, but Amazon's pre-order is currently at $27.99 if you don't mind waiting.

Daily Grab 46: Where There's Smoke

I'm rather certain that I at least registered that Shout Factory was putting The Seven-Per-Cent Solution on Blu-ray today. It may have subconsciously driven my posting of Holmesian editions of this feature late last week.

Three years ago, I wrote a piece (for a now-deprecated feature) wishing that the screen adaptaion of Nicholas Meyer's apocryphal Holmes novel would come back into print on DVD at least, if not Blu-ray.

Nicol Williamson (Excalibur) plays the Great Detective, Robert Duvall plays one of the best screen Watsons (not joking), Laurence Olivier is kindly math professor Moriarty, and none other than Alan Arkin plays Sigmund Freud.

The Blu-ray/DVD Combo edition runs $25 on Amazon, and includes a freshly-recorded, 20ish-minute interview with Nicholas Meyer. If you're any sort of Holmes fan, just get the thing. I found a single copy in one store in Austin, so Amazon is your best bet.

I'm writing a review to go up on Ain't It Cool. I'm thrilled that this one is back out in the world.