A couple years ago, J.R. Bookwalter gave the special edition Blu-ray treatment to his 1989 debut feature film THE DEAD NEXT DOOR (which Sam Raimi not-so-secretly had a hand in). If you'd still like to pick one up, copies of the THE DEAD NEXT DOOR Blu-ray can be ordered on Amazon. Now Bookwalter is giving the HD treatment to his second feature, ROBOT NINJA, which was also released in '89 and up to this point hasn't been available on any format other than VHS.
A "dark, splatter-drenched" oddball comic book homage, ROBOT NINJA features a cameo by legendary scream queen Linnea Quigley and has the following synopsis:
Leonard Miller (Michael Todd) is a frustrated artist. His publisher (Burt Ward) and his agent (Mike Shea) are out to capitalize on the blooming success of "Robot Ninja", the greatest costumed superhero since Batman!
One night, Miller witnesses a brutal rape/murder of a young couple at the hands of ruthless thugs. He cries out for revenge! With the help of an inventor friend, Dr. Goodknight (Bogdan Pecic), Miller becomes the Robot Ninja, stalking the dark streets of Ridgway, intent on spilling some blood! The only thing stopping him is a remorseful Goodknight and a frustratred local cop (Floyd Ewing Jr.) that's always just one step behind him.
Robot Ninja slashes, stabs, guts, pokes, and jabs his way through body after body until his final confrontation with head baddie Sanchez (Maria Markovic). You'll never see comic books the same way again!
Bookwalter is hard at work on getting the Blu-ray ready for release later this year, and to show off the progress he has made on improving the picture he has posted a five minute clip online. Two versions of this clip can be seen below – there's the 4:3 original aspect ratio version, which is what will be on the Blu-ray, and there's the cropped 16:9 version, which is what will be streaming online, first on Vimeo and Amazon and then rolling out to other services like iTunes, VUDU, Google Play, etc.
In addition to offering a preview of the picture quality and a glimpse of the Robot Ninja himself in action, this clip also features the glorious sight of the interior of an actual 1980s video store.
The Blu-ray can be pre-ordered directly from Bookwalter through his site Tempe Video.
An SD version of ROBOT NINJA can also be purchased and viewed through Vimeo On Demand. If you buy the SD version now, it will eventually be automatically "upgraded to 4:3 1080p HD and the streaming-exclusive 16:9 version at no cost, plus all future extras!"
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