Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 4K Ultra HD edition (from the original camera negative) of writer/director Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo.

The street date will be June 18.   A Blu-ray buying option will also be available on that date.
This was the film that moved Richard Gere’s career from being an actor to that of a star, but it almost didn’t happen.   Paramount had made a major announcement — hitting all the trade publications in early 1978 — that John Travolta, the star of Paramount’s Saturday Night Fever and Grease, would be in the lead, even to point of decking him out in Giorgio Armani suits for a major photo shoot.

Instead, he backed out (for personal reasons), kept the Armani suits tailored for him and did a little film instead … one that you might remember, Urban Cowboy.

In one of those “only in Hollywood” twists, Richard Gere was offered the role (after “Superman,” Christopher Reeve turned it down) for a fraction of Travolta’s starring fee, but he got points (whether he collected or not is between him and the studio).   His co-star, Lauren Hutton —fashion model turned actor — waited patiently for all this to be sorted out.

The film was a box office success and set Gere up for the lead in An Officer and a Gentleman (also from Paramount) in 1982 … and, likely, all that followed, including Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, Chicago and more.   

Bonus delights included with this 4K Ultra HD debut of American Gigolo are a newly prepared commentary option with film critic Adrian Martin, a new video session with filmmaker Paul Schrader and six new featurettes — “Six Ways to Sunday,” “The Business of Pleasure,” “Montages and Monologues,” “The Non-Conformist,” “Man Machine” and “American Icon.”