Is there a reason no (or very few?) David Fincher films are on 4K disc? (1 Viewer)

[jayembee]

Both titles have been rumored for months. The Bits even posted in January that a Panic Room announcement was imminent, but nothing came of it. I wouldn't be surprised if both titles are being held for release so they can tie-in with The Killer later this year.

https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/012022-1400

They've both been rumored for 2-3 years now. They were among a number of Sony titles that were announced for UHD release in Europe but not for the US, but they never came out in Europe, either. I think the only one that actually did get released (in Europe) was Easy Rider.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I'm just going to repeat this again...

Panic Room has to be completely reassembled for a 4k transfer. The completed film only exists as a 2K DI and a dupe filmout of said DI.

Either upscale an ancient DI from 20 years ago, transfer a 35mm printing dupe ip of said DI, or spend the money for a film that's not very popular. Either way it's eithe going to be really disappointing or cost an arm and a leg compared to some other films in Fincher's oveur that were finished on film or in 4k.

 

[Dick]

I know this is sacrilege but perhaps Fincher believes the Blu-rays look good enough ?

And, for a fair percentage of 4K releases so far, I believe he would probably be correct, unless one has a dedicated home theater and a long-throw projection system with a huge screen.

 

[Carlo_M]

Before we start projecting our own feelings of "the blu-rays are good enough" onto Mr. Fincher, let's not forget his penchant for pursuing perfection. He obsesses over every single aspect of his films, but suddenly BD transfers from the mid-2000s are fine? While we don't have any official word from him (which is why I started this thread), I'd be more inclined to subscribe to the "he's too much of a perfectionist working on his current project to have time to look backwards" camp than the "he thinks the BDs are good enough" crowd.

But again, unlike Cameron who has been very vocal about his own involvement in home video releases (to the point where he has held up 2K releases of The Abyss and True Lies), we don't have that same track record from Fincher. It's also not clear to me he has the same cache, or pull, with the control of his films like Cameron (and until the Disney sale, Lucas) does.

And while I do agree with those who may contend that his films won't generate millions on 4K...look at the 4K releases thus far. They're littered with films that wouldn't sell nearly as much as Fight Club or Se7en.

I don't have a long throw projection screen but I have recently put on my BDs of Se7en and Fight Club, movies I haven't watched on disc in years, probably close to the times they were released. My TVs back then were 1080p RPTVs. Now I have a 65" OLED (calibrated). One thing both films (and many/all?) Fincher films have in common is an abundance of dark scenes. We know that dark scenes, shadow detail, and black crush are all things that compression CODECs struggle with. Blu-ray's AVC is a big improvement over DVD's MPEG-2 in handling dark scenes, but UHD's HEVC is even better.

Now I can't claim the shadow details I'm not seeing, or some of the black crush I do see, in these films isn't intentional and inherent to the original material. I'm too far removed from seeing the theatrical run to compare to a memory of a film I saw 20 years ago. Also in the dark scenes I'm noticing a lot more noise which I am inclined to blame on the compression codec for a couple of reasons: 1) there's a lot less of the noise present in the lighter scenes, and 2) when I watch similarly dark movies on UHD (The Dark Knight, The Green Mile) there is much less of that type of noise on their dark scenes. Now again, could it be inherent in the source material? Maybe. But it would be nice to have a 4K release to be able to compare it to.

These are easily visible to me on a 65" OLED from 8' away. So I don't believe one needs a long throw projector and an enormo-screen to see it.

Now if you want to argue: 95%+ of people won't notice or care, that's probably correct. But that's also not the point, is it? Because if "most people not noticing" is just cause to not release most Fincher films in 4K, then what's the logic of releasing any 4K UHD movies at all?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I wonder though if at least some of those Fincher films could at least use new, better (re)mastered/(re)encoded BDs even if not 4K. Most of them, particularly the couple you just mentioned, are quite old by now (and aren't particularly high bitrate... and is VC-1 encoded in case of Se7en), and there seems to have been improvements (just not for those films yet) since then...

Anyway, hard to know why exactly there aren't more 4K releases of Fincher films unless he himself speaks up I guess... though it could mostly just be timing and coincidence...

But as some noted, his Social Network did make it into the last Columbia Classics 4K boxset despite having essentially no 4K rez details to speak of (to upgrade from the otherwise pretty strong existing BD), and it seems typical enough of his better known/appreciated films of the last decade or so, if not quite as dark as some. Of his more recent films, as some noted, Gone Girl did also see 4K release on digital streaming format, but that's a Fox title, now under Disney, who seems much less inclined to release 4K discs of catalog titles than most other studios, so you can probably forget the couple others they also own...

IMHO, it's much more curious that Panic Room still hasn't even gotten a BD release yet...

_Man_

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I just thought I would point out there are no K's in David Fincher. There is however, two K's in Kubrick, there is a K in Hitchcock. There is a K sound in K-hristopher Nolan. Fincher abandons even a K sound. I mean he could pronounced it Fink-her...but no, not even that. So, bottom line is NO K's FOR HIM!

 

[Carlo_M]

Sadly, Reggie, many of his films are in 2K. Maybe they're in his middle name.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I just thought I would point out there are no K's in David Fincher. There is however, two K's in Kubrick, there is a K in Hitchcock. There is a K sound in K-hristopher Nolan. Fincher abandons even a K sound. I mean he could pronounced it Fink-her...but no, not even that. So, bottom line is NO K's FOR HIM!

Guess somebody musta mentioned 2K for a Panic Room BD (NVM the rumored 4K disc), and the powers-that-be heard that and wised up to put a stop to that, LOL...

And maybe somebody at Sony snuck Social Network into that boxset never mentioning any K's since it's just UHD w/out actual 4K rez details afterall...

_Man_

 

[jayembee]

I just thought I would point out there are no K's in David Fincher. There is however, two K's in Kubrick, there is a K in Hitchcock. There is a K sound in K-hristopher Nolan. Fincher abandons even a K sound. I mean he could pronounced it Fink-her...but no, not even that. So, bottom line is NO K's FOR HIM!

Hah. I used to have a thing for the "ka-" phoneme. I'd find myself getting involved with women named "Karen" or "Carol" or the like. I ended up marrying a "Katrina".

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Sadly, Reggie, many of his films are in 2K. Maybe they're in his middle name.

Maybe his middle name is Klark? If he changes his last name to Klopeck he would be in 4K.

 

[Carlo_M]

ManW, it is too bad that Panic Room doesn't even have a 2K release, especially given how dark that film is. But it also is considered a "weak link" in his filmography. I personally enjoyed it and find it to be a good film, but it had the misfortune of being surrounded by a lot of great Fincher films, so it's kind of the "elder Hemsworth" of the films. He's a fine actor and a decent looking guy, but when your brothers are Liam and Chris...

I want to get The Social Network (a film I do love) and compare it to the streaming 2K (and if I can find it, my older BD of it) to see if there's a visible improvement just from the CODEC alone handling darker scenes. But man, the thought of springing for the entire Classics V2 set just for that one film really hurts...

 

[Carlo_M]

And...just because I like to eat my own words...I looked at Amazon and saw the Sony Classics V2 set on sale for $96 and pulled the trigger. I figure between that and Taxi Driver (and I also like Stripes, though I'm not sure how much 4K will help that particular film's look ) those three films are to me worth $75 (if we assume $25 a film) and so for the remaining $20 I get Anatomy of a Murder, Oliver! and Sense and Sensibility.

Should arrive tomorrow.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

You could also get Social Network on a 4K stream, if that suits you... or maybe buy it separately on the 2ndary market -- probably isn't hard to find for <=$20 I imagine.

I actually splurged on the 4K boxset this go-around not for Social Network at all, but for some of the others in the set since I felt Social Network probably had the least to gain of the included films.

IF you really want and can't find any sellers, I can probably offer my copy for ~$20... or I can offer the 4K digital code for a few bucks -- I actually already bought the 4K digital (for the entire set) for a few bucks (each) before taking the plunge on the boxset (when it dropped to more recent pricing), but just haven't gotten around to selling any DC (along w/ some others) yet...

Just noticed you already decided to take the plunge on the boxset instead, haha... Pretty much my feelings exactly as well (though I did manage to get it for a bit less)...

_Man_

 

[Kyle_D]

I want to get The Social Network (a film I do love) and compare it to the streaming 2K (and if I can find it, my older BD of it) to see if there's a visible improvement just from the CODEC alone handling darker scenes. But man, the thought of springing for the entire Classics V2 set just for that one film really hurts...

It's been a few months since I watched The Social Network on UHD, and I didn't do a back-to-back comparison with the Blu-Ray. My recalled impression, however, is that it only offered marginal improvement over the Blu-ray. I love the film, but it was an early Red production, and it still looks like an early Red production. Fincher also bakes a lot of DNR into the DIs of his films. It's a deliberate choice, but it smooths over a lot of fine detail. The other UHDs in that box set show much more significant improvements over their Blu-ray counterparts.

 

[jayembee]

It's rather funny that The Social Network is the one Fincher film I didn't have (and didn't want*) in my collection. I have everything else in blu-ray, except Panic Room (DVD) and Mank (no physical release yet).

And yet, The Social Network is the only one on UHD, and which ended up in my collection anyway because I bought the CCv2 set.

* I have nothing against the film, per se, it's just that I'm completely uninterested in seeing a movie about Zuckerface creating Zuckerbook.

 

[Kyle_D]

One other thing to note about the Social Network UHD: it contains an R-rated version of the film. It's the exact same cut, but the audio track retains an extra f-bomb that was previously dubbed over to get a PG-13.

 

[Radioman970]

I'm a fan of Panic room as well. I'm pretty happy with the high bit version I have. (whatever that was called. MegaBit? been too long since I've watched that sucker! lol)

 

[TravisR]

* I have nothing against the film, per se, it's just that I'm completely uninterested in seeing a movie about Zuckerface creating Zuckerbook.

I wish nothing but the worst for Mark Zuckerberg but The Social Network is still one of the best movies of the 2010's.

 

[Carlo_M]

Thanks for the kind offer ManW, but I’m now a little bit excited for the set. Seems like the other films have great transfers and there are a couple of movies I haven’t seen before so this will be a thing.

 

[AlexF]

I'm a fan of Panic room as well. I'm pretty happy with the high bit version I have. (whatever that was called. MegaBit? been too long since I've watched that sucker! lol)

Superbit I think?