IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

Arrow Academy, the “art house” label of Arrow films, announced that they would release Robert Altman’s Kansas City (1996) on Blu-ray on March 3rd.  Being that Arrow Academy is a British company, not all of their titles are released both in the U.K. and the U.S., due to distribution rights. However, Kansas City is scheduled to be released in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

Here’s the disc announcement directly from Arrow Academy:

NEW UK/US/CA TITLE: Kansas City (Blu-ray)

Release Date: March 3, 2020

Returning to the city of his birth for inspiration, legendary maverick director Robert Altman helms an evocative, bullet-riddled tribute to the music and movies of his youth in Kansas City, a Depression-era gangster flick as only he could make one.

Blondie O’Hara (Jennifer Jason Leigh) resorts to desperate measures when her low-level hood husband Johnny (Dermot Mulroney) gets caught trying to steal from Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte), a local crime boss operating out of jazz haunt The Hey-Hey Club. Out on a limb, Blondie kidnaps laudanum-addled socialite Carolyn (Miranda Richardson), hoping her influential politician husband can pull the right strings and get Johnny out of Seldom Seen’s clutches.

Nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and featuring a remarkable soundtrack performed live by some of the best players in contemporary jazz, one of Altman’s most underrated and idiosyncratic films finally makes its long-awaited Blu-ray™ debut.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation
• Original 2.0 and 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by director Robert Altman
• Newly filmed appreciation by critic Geoff Andrew
• Gare, Trains et Déraillement, a 2007 visual essay by French critic Luc Lagier, plus short introduction to the film narrated by Lagier
• Robert Altman Goes to the Heart of America and Kansas City: The Music, two 1996 promotional featurettes including interviews with cast and crew
• Electronic press kit interviews with Altman, Leigh, Richardson, Belafonte and musician Joshua Redman, plus behind-the-scenes footage
• Four theatrical trailers
• TV spots
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jennifer Dionisio

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Dr Nicolas Pillai, original press kit notes and an excerpt from Altman on Altman.