Yippee-ki-yay, Die Hard first details announced

Confirming details that had long been rumored by fans, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced a July re-release date for the Die Hard trilogy, replacing the slightly outdated inital releases of the action-packed franchise.

Bruce Willis stars as the New York cop John McClane in the series of films that have become a standard for the action genre. First taking out a group of terrorists in the confines of a newly constructed high rise in “Die Hard” (1988), then averting an airport hijacking in “Die Hard 2” (1990) and finally reversing his confinement as he’s forced to scramble across New York City to avoid disaster in “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” (1995), John McClane can’t seem to get a break. But bad news for him is worse news for the terrorists he seems to kill off in droves while buildings explode around him.

Although full features have yet to be made available, all three films will receive anamorphic widescreen transfers that were sadly lacking from their original release in 1998, also added will be DTS 5.1 audio tracks in addition to the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks. Unfortunately, only the original “Die Hard” will be available individually (as part of Fox’s 5 Star Collection), “Die Hard 2” and “Die Hard with a Vengeance” will be released without the five star banner, and only as part of a boxed set. All three titles are two-disc sets which, if past Fox releases are any indication, means they will be pretty impressive packages. All three films had excellent behind the scenes featurettes produced at the time of their release, which will hopefully make it to these new special editions.

“Die Hard” 5 Star Edition, and the “Die Hard” Box Set will both be available on July 10th.

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