Jodie Foster Panic Room and Kubrick titles? (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

i was thinking about a few Jodie Foster titles I like such as Contact since the news of the Arecibo radio antenna collapsed last week. I have Contact on blu ray, but I wondered if that might ever be re-released as a 4K disc. Then I went looking for Panic Room on blu ray and I see that title was never released on blu ray! That’s a surprise as it’s a really good thriller. I have the Superbit DVD so maybe that will have to do for now. Maybe Sony/Columbia has plans for it.

In regards to Kubrick, a thread on Eyes Wide Shut reminded me that I don’t have too many Kubrick titles on blu ray. I have the Kubrick box sets on DVD. I have the recent titles from Criterion ( Dr Strangelove) and the new Warners 4K 2001: A Space Odyssey release. I never collected the Kubrick Masterpiece Collection as I was waiting for remastering of many of those titles. So I was curious if the other titles in that box set will ever see a UHD release. Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut. I see that The Shining does have a 4K release from last year. Full Metal Jacket had a 4K release too.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The master used on the Criterion Barry Lyndon was created in 4K so Warner can make a 4K disc with what they have on hand if they do choose. Clockwork continues to be popular in home media and in repertory, so Warner will probably upgrade that at some point if only to give something better to theaters. Eyes Wide Shut has historically come in the first waves of new format releases, so that’s possibly coming at some point too. Lolita took forever compared to other Kubricks to come to BD (as did Barry Lyndon), so I think those two might have the longest wait, if they come at all.

I’m not privy to the sales numbers on the 4Ks they did put out but I think in general there’s a lot of fatigue among consumers for buying the same titles again and again, so I think it’s also within the realm of possibility that not all of these get revisited for 4K disc.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Josh. Maybe I’ll do a piece meal approach and pick titles up as they appear. I wasn’t sure I’d want to wait for another box set anyway. And I think your theory about fatigue makes sense. I recall thinking, they are releasing another set?

 

[Jeffrey D]

Surprising that Panic Room has never been on BluRay. I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[Matt Hough]

There is obviously an HD master. I watched it in HD for Free with Ads on Vudu several months ago. I love the movie, too, but I had no idea there wasn't a Blu-ray already. Amazing!

 

[Nelson Au]

Interesting Matt, you made me curious so I checked iTunes. I see they have Panic Room available in 1080 HD. Must be a similar master shown on Vudu.

 

[B-ROLL]

The master used on the Criterion Barry Lyndon was created in 4K so Warner can make a 4K disc with what they have on hand if they do choose. Clockwork continues to be popular in home media and in repertory, so Warner will probably upgrade that at some point if only to give something better to theaters. Eyes Wide Shut has historically come in the first waves of new format releases, so that’s possibly coming at some point too. Lolita took forever compared to other Kubricks to come to BD (as did Barry Lyndon), so I think those two might have the longest wait, if they come at all.

I’m not privy to the sales numbers on the 4Ks they did put out but I think in general there’s a lot of fatigue among consumers for buying the same titles again and again, so I think it’s also within the realm of possibility that not all of these get revisited for 4K disc.

Honestly, I don't think they did very well ... I vaguely remember paying around $5.00 each for the 2001, Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket and A Clockwork Orange blu-rays from Wal-Mart about six months after the format wars had ended ... Up to that point I had been buying the, HD-DVD releases for about $4.00 from Wal*Mart as I had bought a Toshiba player for about $70.00 at Costco (including the first two Bourne movies) at Costco. I figured it was worth the cost of the HD player to watch The first season of Star Trek Classic on HD.

Other than Star Trek episodes, I was never able to get an HD-DVD to play completely. When the 2nd generation computer blu-ray drives came out, I bought one of the first generation drives for about $50.00 installed it in my computer and used it as my player for about a year.

I think I paid about $7.50 for the first Spartacus blu-ray issue ...

 

[Walter Kittel]

Add me to the list of folks completely surprised by the absence of a BD for Panic Room. There are certainly other high profile titles still MIA on BD in the U.S. (cough Open Range cough), but I would have bet money this was available. Checked over at Amazon and Panic Room is available to rent / purchase an HD streamed version.

- Walter.

 

[David Wilkins]

Don’t quote me on this, and I can’t remember the source... but I seem to recall reading within the past year that ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘Panic Room’ were being prepped for UHD release. Being so vague doesn’t help, but just thought I’d throw it in. Perhaps someone who’s heard similar can chime-in.

To be honest, Panic Room seems like an odd choice to release on UHD first, considering Fischer’s catalogue. I’d love to see several of his titles in the format, such as Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, and Zodiac.

 

[jayembee]

I've heard the same things. Panic Room, in fact, had been rumored to have a UHD release in Europe last year or so, along with some other Sony titles that also never ended up in the format (like Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). One of them, Easy Rider, did get a UHD release in a half-dozen European countries, but that's about it.

Maybe Sony is holding a UHD of Panic Room until they decide on whether they'll do another Columbia Classics Collection, and if so, whether they'll include Fincher's film.

As for the other Fincher titles, it depends on the studio. Se7en is a New Line (Warner) title, which gives it at least some odds of getting a UHD release. Fight Club is a Fox (Disney) title, so that's extremely unlikely to get a UHD. The Game is with Universal, who is reasonably good at the UHD game (no pun intended), but it's not clear whether they'd do it while Criterion still has the blu-ray rights. Zodiac is with Paramount, so who knows?

 

[Nelson Au]

So the lack of UHD releases might not be due to being Fincher titles as those titles mentioned are already out on blu ray, except Panic Room. It could just be planned and in the queue for eventual release. For Panic Room, I’d be happy if there was a regular blu ray Now!

 

[David Wilkins]

As for the other Fincher titles, it depends on the studio. Se7en is a New Line (Warner) title, which gives it at least some odds of getting a UHD release. Fight Club is a Fox (Disney) title, so that's extremely unlikely to get a UHD. The Game is with Universal, who is reasonably good at the UHD game (no pun intended), but it's not clear whether they'd do it while Criterion still has the blu-ray rights. Zodiac is with Paramount, so who knows?

I hope your prognosis for ‘Fight Club’ is wrong. Seems that it would be hugely popular on UHD.

 

[jayembee]

I'd like it to be wrong, too, but Disney has already expressed a lack of interest in releasing UHDs of catalog titles (other than the obvious: WDA classics, etc.)

 

[B-ROLL]

I've heard the same things. Panic Room, in fact, had been rumored to have a UHD release in Europe last year or so, along with some other Sony titles that also never ended up in the format (like Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). One of them, Easy Rider, did get a UHD release in a half-dozen European countries, but that's about it.

Maybe Sony is holding a UHD of Panic Room until they decide on whether they'll do another Columbia Classics Collection, and if so, whether they'll include Fincher's film.

As for the other Fincher titles, it depends on the studio. Se7en is a New Line (Warner) title, which gives it at least some odds of getting a UHD release. Fight Club is a Fox (Disney) title, so that's extremely unlikely to get a UHD. The Game is with Universal, who is reasonably good at the UHD game (no pun intended), but it's not clear whether they'd do it while Criterion still has the blu-ray rights. Zodiac is with Paramount, so who knows?

Hey the first rule of Fight Club is "nobody talks about Fight Club!"

 

[Nelson Au]

I found this on The Digital Bits August 2018 entry about Panic Room:

One more bit of 4K Ultra HD news… we’ve learned from sources that Sony is going to be releasing David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on 4K Ultra HD in October or November, probably at the same time as their forthcoming Panic Room. Savvy Blu-ray fans will know that Panic Room has never been released on the format, but there should be a Blu-ray in the UHD package and there will almost certainly be a separate Blu-ray SKU as well.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I wonder if Bill ever retracted that or just chooses to forget it on top of all the other bogus rumors (mostly involving The Abyss and various Star Wars items) he's "reported" over the years.

 

[bugsy-pal]

There was a bluray of Panic Room listed for release in December on the Australian EzyDVD web site - https://www.ezydvd.com.au/blu-ray/Panic-Room/dp/6221984
But it now has no release date and can't be found via the in-site search - but still comes up on Google.

 

[marshman1138]

I wonder if Bill ever retracted that or just chooses to forget it on top of all the other bogus rumors (mostly involving The Abyss and various Star Wars items) he's "reported" over the years.

I think his posts on these subjects are in his "Rumour Mill" catagory.

 

[titch]

Panic Room and The Girl With The Dragon Tattooo were also announced as a 4K UHD release on the Scandinavian site CDON.com as well as a Czech site Filmarena.cz in August 2018. It's not unusual for these sites to list 4K disc releases that haven't been officially announced from the studios. They also announce premature release dates of 4K discs that HAVE been officially announced, several months ahead of the release dates on Amazon. That was the case with the The Big Lebowski and Spartacus 4K discs. The release dates of those discs were, of course, delayed several times from CDON.com until they coincided with the release dates on Amazon.

It's a competitive market out there and I suppose some retailers want to try and get some pre-orders in. I've consequently stopped looking at other websites for release dates.

 

[skylark68]

Panic Room and Open Range would be day 1 for me. I still have the Superbit DVD of Panic Room and the old DVD of Open Range.