Now then, the big news today is that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has finally set their long-awaited 4K Ultra HD release of David Fincher’s Panic Room (2002) for release on 2/18!
This is a title we first reported was being planned by Sony way back in 2018, and finally work began in earnest in early 2022. But of course, Fincher is known to take his time supervising such remastering to get everything right.
Given that Panic Room was shot on film but featured extensive digital effects (and it was finished as a 2K Digital Intermediate), we would expect the resulting 4K remaster to be very much in line with Paramount’s recent Zodiac UHD release (reviewed here, which is excellent), and perhaps even better.
The good news is that Sony’s 4K release of Panic Room will come in Steelbook packaging and it will feature both Dolby Vision HDR and a new Dolby Atmos mix. The 4K disc itself will feature only the film, to ensure the highest possible data rates. The package will also include the film on Blu-ray, and this is a new disc sourced from the 4K master. Both discs will include the previous English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix as well (it appears the Atmos is on the 4K disc alone).
Per the press release, the Blu-ray will also include all of our old friend David Prior’s excellent legacy special features on the film, as follows:
- Audio Commentary by David Fincher
- Audio Commentary by Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam
- Audio Commentary by writer David Koepp and special guest
- Pre-Production
- 6 featurettes on the prep phase, from pre-visualization through testing
- Interactive previsualization — Compare the pre-visualization, storyboards, dailies and final film in a multi-angle, multi-audio feature with optional commentary
- Production
- Shooting Panic Room – An hour-long documentary on the principal photography phase
- Makeup effects featurette with Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.
- Sequence breakdowns – An interactive look at the creation of four separate scenes in the film
- Post-Production
- 21 documentaries and featurettes on the visual effects
- On Sound Design with Ren Klyce
- Digital Intermediate and other featurettes dealing with the post-production phase
- A multi-angle look at the scoring session conducted by Howard Shore
Here’s the final cover artwork for the release (rest assured we’ll share the Amazon.com pre-order link as soon as it goes live...
That’s all for now! Stay tuned...
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