August 19, 2016

Coming Soon: IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE on 3-D Blu-ray

8/30/16 UPDATE: Bob Furmanek just announced the following update: The upcoming 3-D Blu-ray release of IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE is Region-free and has the following extras: 3-D trailer, 2002 featurette on the history of the film, commentary track by historian Tom Weaver and closed-captioning! It is also available from Amazon Canada and Amazon UK.

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This post is just a little preview of the upcoming 3-D Blu-ray release of the 1953 favorite IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, coming on 10/4/2016 from Universal Home Video and available initially as a retail exclusive at Best Buy (link updated 9/15), with general availability at other retailers to be announced at a later date.

[Note that this will not be the red/green anaglyph conversion from the 1970s that came out on VHS tape at one time, but a modern Blu-ray 3-D version of the original dual-strip film elements.]

I was recently granted the opportunity to see a preview of the final 3-D Blu-ray master that will be used for this release. Bob Furmanek, head of the 3-D Film Archive, invited me plus several others to view the master on his setup utilizing an Epson 5030 LCD projector running an image about 8 feet wide.

The results, courtesy of Archive Technical Director Greg Kintz's 3-D alignment and panel matching, are nothing short of superb. I ran a 35mm dual-strip Polarized print at the Lafayette Theatre, plus I've seen it several times via this same process, and the 3-D Blu-ray is even better. Greg managed to correct 99.9 % of the errors in the original (there is one shot that Bob described as being impossible to fix - I think it lasts 4 seconds - and I didn't notice it while we watched the movie) and it just looks great.

And there's a huge upgrade in the sound department - they were able to access the last surviving element of the original 3-track stereo master (Left-Center-Right) and have preserved the original - v e r y  w i d e - dynamic range and channel placement. The previous DVD used a tamed-down version of this mix and hearing the Blu-ray is a revelation.

I'll follow up this post with a full review when the Blu-ray hits the street, but this posting can serve as a preview and assurance that you can safely pre-order this science fiction classic with confidence.

For more information about the film and its history, go to the 3-D Film Archive.



8 comments:

  1. Isn't that nice that Universal is offering this 3D classic less than other Blu-ray 3D.It's also shifty.Well this doesn't concern this title ,but Universal has no intentions of releasing the restored version of king of jazz,1930, on Blu- ray or DVD. They even deny that they own to0.

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  2. What region will the Blu of ITCFS be?

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    1. I don't think Universal has announced that information. A number of other releases from them are Region Free, but it might be best to wait for reviews if you don't have region free playback ability.

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  3. Best Buy pre-order is sold out.
    Any idea when this will be available at other retailers?

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    1. Hi - still available, they changed the item number so the original link is no good. Here's the new one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/it-came-from-outer-space-blu-ray-3d/5622264.p?id=3622777&skuId=5622264

      I seem to remember that it was about 6 months of exclusivity the last time BB had some Universal titles.

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  4. Looking forward to this sci-fi classic. The worst shot in the movie is the helicopter sweep of the town right at the start, it's incredibly out of focus.How did the experts work around this?

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    1. Other than correcting any 3-D errors in the shots you're talking about, what else could they do?

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