Director Alfred Hitchcock is having a pretty big year.  Two feature film iterations of the iconic filmmaker will have been released by 2012’s end—the Toby Jones-fronted The Girl and the aptly named Hitchcock with Anthony Hopkins—and this week a massive collection of Hitch’s films hits Blu-ray.  Just in time for Halloween, this convenient box set includes 15 of the most revered features from The Master of Suspense’s career in glorious HD, with special features and extras galore.  From Psycho to Family Plot, this swell collection will make a fine addition to the home video libraries of cinephiles aplenty.  Hit the jump for our full review of Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection on Blu-ray.

Universal Pictures has announced a 25-film Blu-ray collection to commemorate the studio’s 100th anniversary, and it’s a genuinely great box set.  The “Universal 100th Anniversary Collection” includes 25 of the studio’s finest films, a 15-track music CD chock full of iconic film scores, a “100 Years of Universal” 72-page collector’s book and more.  Though the inclusion of HD versions of films like Dracula, Jurassic Park, The Sting, Back to the Future, Jaws, Do the Right Thing, and To Kill a Mockingbird alone would have been worth the purchase, the box set includes a number of vintage cartoons and shorts as well as a collection of featurettes covering the studio’s entire history.

The 25-disc Blu-ray set and 26-disc DVD collection (Schindler’s List is included in the DVD set only) will be available for a limited time starting November 6th.  A price has yet to be announced, but I don’t expect it’ll be cheap.  Hit the jump to read the full rundown of films and special features.

Universal Pictures has been around for 100 years and to celebrate their 10-carat diamond anniversary, the studio has big plans for 2012.  The most exciting aspect of this celebration is the studio’s plan to restore and release 13 of their classic titles including All Quiet on the Western Front, The Birds, Buck Privates, Dracula (1931) , Frankenstein, Jaws, Schindler’s List, Out of Africa, Pillow Talk, Bride of Frankenstein, The Sting, and To Kill a Mockingbird.  To Kill a Mockingbird will be the first out the gate with the release of the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack on January 31st.  The restorations will also be released as a limited edition collector’s set, and near the end of the year we can look forward to Blu-ray releases for Universal’s Classic Monster and Alfred Hitchcock series.  Here’s hoping the restorations are worthy of their movies.

Hit the jump for the full press release, which also includes info on Universal’s planned events and promotions for their centennial celebration.

I’m a big fan of David O’Daniel‘s movie posters.  I dig the designs and the metallic and iridescent inks really make the image pop.  He also takes on popular movies as well as art house fare.  This time he’s got new posters for The Birds (edition of 250), The Exorcist (edition of 200), The Shining (edition of 200), Metropolis (edition of 300), Repulsion (edition of 200), The Third Man (edition of 150 and each Third Man poster comes with a free poster for Brighton Rock), Rosemary’s Baby (edition of 200) Taxi Driver (edition of 200), and Shoot the Piano Player (edition of 150). All posters are 18×24, cost $40 plus $9 domestic shipping or $15 international shipping.  Hit the jump to check out the posters and the purchase link.

Toby Jones should’ve received more praise for his turn as Truman Capote in the film Infamous, but Philip Seymour Hoffman and the superior film Capote just got more traction and attention when awards season came around. However, now Jones will get a chance to shine for BBC2 as the UK network has announced the actor will play iconic filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in a TV film called The Girl. Rather than being a standard biopic, the film will focus on the director’s “obsessive relationship” with his The Birds star Tippi Hedren, who will be played by Sienna Miller (The Factory Girl). Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane) will direct the film from writer Gwyneth Hughes which also features the acting talents of Imelda Staunton (Another Year) and Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey) with Hitchcock biographer Donald Spoto also working on the film for authenticity and accuracy. More after the jump.

The first Alfred Hitchcock film I ever saw was Psycho. Teenage me scoffed at the notion that a black and white movie that was made during the Eisenhower era could be as scream-inducing as “real scary movies” like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Leprechaun (that little green guy scared the hell out of me). Of course, I quickly realized that my initial impression of the film was 100% wrong. Not only was Psycho genuinely frightening, it’s also an exquisite piece of filmmaking. Even a layman like me knew I wasn’t just seeing a bunch of scenes that were randomly cut together; it was the first time I realized that there’s a true art to good filmmaking.

Hitchcock had a knack for telling incredibly rich and layered stories that appealed to both the wide masses and the deeper-thinking cinephiles. Now, arguably five of his best films have been remastered and boxed together in one glorious package that includes Psycho, North by Northwest, Rear Window, Vertigo, and The Birds. Hit the jump for our review of Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection on DVD.

Director Dennis Iliadis (Last House on the Left) has signed on to direct The Demonologists.  The film tells the story of “a family of veteran ghost hunters who get more than they bargained for when they are called in to face what they soon realize is not a routine ghost job but a demon infestation.”  The film will be written by Teddy Tenenbaum, whose previous credits include a few episodes for the television series Ghost Whisperer and Dead Zone.  Hit the jump to read about Iliadis possibly directing a remake of The Birds.

Last week I was on the set of Platinum Dunes “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake with a number of other websites. While I’m under embargo from writing about anything I saw while there, I was given permission to post what producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller said about their other projects.

As most of you know, Andrew and Brad have been working non-stop these last few years making horror films like “Friday the 13th”, “The Hitcher”, “The Unborn”, “The Amityville Horror” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. As you might imagine, they’ve got a few other projects in development…

The big news we learned is the sequel to “Friday the 13^th” is not yet greenlit, but they’ve got a script being written and they’ve already picked out “a nice date next summer that we hope everyone can see another Friday the 13th on. August 13, 2010.”

They also revealed we’re going to see something that’s never been done in a “Friday” film and that’s see Jason in the snow!

We also talked about if they’d do the film in 3-D and Andrew said, “I suspect it will not be in 3-D, although we’d love to make a 3-D horror movie.” Andrew explained since the cost would be a lot higher for 3-D and with the short turnaround time between filming later this year and a next summer release date, it’s probably not going to happen. But they both seemed excited by the possibilities.

They also talked about why they’re having problems developing “The Birds” remake and their original script called “Butcherhouse Chronicles”. It’s after the jump: