Universal Pictures has announced that Christopher Nolan’s remarkable box office hit Oppenheimer ($942 million box office and counting) is going to be released on 4K Blu-ray on November 21 – and fans of Nolan’s likely Oscar-friendly hit will be pleased to hear that the epic film will be packaged with a dedicated extra disc containing more than three hours of bonus features.
As you would hope for a film with a three hour run time, the 4K transfer is being mastered onto 100GB discs rather than the smaller 66GB alternative. The 4K resolution images will appear in high dynamic range, too – though I’m still waiting on confirmation from Universal as to whether the HDR will be in the HDR10 format only, or will also feature Dolby Vision.
As we’ve seen before with Christopher Nolan films, the three-hour Oppenheimer transfer will be presented in shifting aspect ratios, alternating between 2.20 and 1.78 ratios to accurately reflect the viewing experience cinemagoers will have witnessed in Nolan’s beloved IMAX theaters.
Also in keeping with previous Nolan 4K Blu-ray releases, the 4K HDR video will be accompanied by a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix rather than the Dolby Atmos or DTS:X mix most 4K Blu-ray releases of recent films opt for.
Heading up the mountain of extra features is ‘making of’ documentary running to more than 70 minutes, and divided up into the following sections:
- NOW I AM BECOME DEATH – The cast, crew and producers join Christopher Nolan in sharing the personal stories that made them passionate about the project’s ambitious design for bridging multiple genres.
- THE LUMINARIES – OPPENHEIMER’s all-star cast discusses how they synthesize the script’s dramatic narrative with the real lives of historical figures to embody their complex characters.
- THE MANHATTAN PROJECT – To visualize Oppenheimer’s ability to see different dimensions and to recreate the historic Trinity test, filmmakers developed unique techniques to craft stunning effects without using CGI.
- THE DEVIL OF DETAILS – A look at how production designer Ruth De Jong and team recreated the entire town of Los Alamos with period-accurate props, spectacular sets and painstaking attention to authenticity.
- WALKING A MILE – Costume and makeup craftspeople populate Oppenheimer‘s immersive environments with iconic figures by utilizing thousands of pieces of clothing and cutting-edge prosthetic applications.
- CAN YOU HEAR MUSIC? – Working closely with Christopher Nolan, Ludwig Göransson composes a deeply personal, historically expansive score ranging from the organic to the alien to accompany the visual landscape.
- WE CAN PERFORM THIS MIRACLE – Christopher Nolan’s closest collaborators demonstrate how his artistic vision creates camaraderie that drives his talented crew to continue breaking new ground in filmmaking.
Once you’ve made your way through that, an Innovations In Film: 65mm Black-And-White Film In Oppenheimer featurette follows FotoKem as it opens its film labs up to show how new technologies were invented for using colour and black and white 65mm film to deliver Oppenheimer’s dual timelines.
Then there’s footage of a Meet the Press Q&A panel where Nolan, author Kai Bird, and physicists Dr Kip Thorne, Dr Thom Mason and Dr Carlo Rovelli share their reflections on the science and doomsday concerns Oppenheimer takes on.
Wrapping things up are a medley of trailers and a featurette called To End All War: Oppenheimer & The Atomic Bomb, which explores how the invention of the atomic bomb changed the nature of war forever, led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and unleashed mass hysteria cross the globe.
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