Pitch Black

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

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Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Pitch Black

#1 Post by Ribs » Fri May 29, 2020 7:22 am

ImageImage

Releasing... in UHD!

THERE S A NEW REASON TO BE AFRAID OF THE DARK.

A sci-fi/horror sleeper hit that birthed a franchise and launched the career of a new action movie icon, Pitch Black holds its own today as a nerve-shredding creature-feature in which the monsters outside finally meet their match against a monster within.

When an intergalactic transport ship crashes on a remote desert planet with no sign of help on the horizon, the survivors, led by Fry (Radha Mitchell), band together to find a way back home. Among the passengers is Riddick (Vin Diesel), a convicted murderer being transported by marshal Johns (Cole Hauser) and now freed of his chains and on the loose. But as a solar eclipse plunges the planet into total darkness, a threat even worse than Riddick reveals itself, and the last humans standing may have to form an uneasy truce with the cunning fugitive (whose eyes have been surgically altered to see in the dark) to last the long night.

Boasting crackerjack direction and a whip-smart script by David Twohy, as well as a star-making performance by Diesel, Riddick s first outing is freshly unleashed in an illuminating, brand new 4K restoration, with hours of exclusive bonus content.

ULTRA HD 4K BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
  • Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films of the Theatrical and Director s Cuts of the film, approved by director David Twohy
  • 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
  • Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround on both cuts
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on both cuts
  • Archive commentary with director David Twohy and stars Vin Diesel and Cole Hauser
  • Archive commentary with director David Twohy, producer Tom Engelman and visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang
  • A newly filmed interview with director/co-writer David Twohy
  • A newly filmed interview with actor Rhiana Griffith
  • A newly filmed interview with actor Claudia Black
  • A newly filmed interview with cinematographer David Eggby
  • A newly filmed interview with visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang
  • A newly filmed interview with composer Graeme Revell
  • The Making of Pitch Black, a short behind-the-scenes featurette
  • Pitch Black Raw, a comparison between early CG tests and the final footage
  • Additional behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the film
  • 2004 archive bonus features, including an introduction by Twohy, A View Into The Dark, and Chronicles of Riddick Visual Encyclopedia
  • Johns Chase Log, a short prequel narrated by Cole Hauser detailing the character s hunt for Riddick
  • The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (in 16:9 widescreen with DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio), an animated short film directed by Peter Chung that acts as a bridgepoint between Pitch Black and The
  • Chronicles of Riddick, featuring vocal performances by Vin Diesel, Keith David and Rhiana Griffith reprising their roles
  • Dark Fury bonus features including Bridging The Gap, Peter Chung: The Mind of an Animator, A View Into The Light, and a pre-animation version of the film
  • Slam City, a motion comic from the film s official website
  • Into Pitch Black, a TV special offering an alternative non-canon glimpse into what happened before and after the events of the film
  • Raveworld: Pitch Black Event, footage of a dance music event held to promote the film
  • Theatrical trailers, plus trailers for the two sequels and video game
  • Image galleries
  • Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned ""night"" and ""day"" artwork by Luke Preece
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collectors booklet featuring new writing by Simon Ward on the film s creature designs and much more

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MichaelB
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Re: Pitch Black

#2 Post by MichaelB » Fri May 29, 2020 11:02 am

A really interesting choice for an HDR release.

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domino harvey
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Re: Pitch Black

#3 Post by domino harvey » Fri May 29, 2020 11:32 am

Is it? Does this film have a cult following or something? This is prime “Oh yeah, that movie I might have seen on HBO at 930 PM some Wednesday night” material, a moderately popular mainstream film that I have not encountered discussion of in the wild in some time

Glowingwabbit
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: Pitch Black

#4 Post by Glowingwabbit » Fri May 29, 2020 11:39 am

domino harvey wrote:
Fri May 29, 2020 11:32 am
Is it? Does this film have a cult following or something? This is prime “Oh yeah, that movie I might have seen on HBO at 930 PM some Wednesday night” material, a moderately popular mainstream film that I have not encountered discussion of in the wild in some time
Domino, it launched the Riddick franchise and Vin Diesel's career. I think it's a weird title to start with given it's production values, but it absolutely has a cult following and I believe it's been a big seller every time it gets a rerelease.
Last edited by Glowingwabbit on Fri May 29, 2020 11:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

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MichaelB
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Re: Pitch Black

#5 Post by MichaelB » Fri May 29, 2020 11:41 am

There's a specific reason for the penultimate word that I chose, and why I said that instead of "4K", "UHD" or "revamped BD".

I'm very much of the opinion that unless you have a 4K projector and a huge screen, the resolution of 4K over 1080p makes surprisingly little difference - certainly far, far less than you'd expect from a picture that notionally has four times the number of pixels.

HDR, on the other hand, can make a very noticeable difference with the right material, and Pitch Black strikes me as an exceptionally interesting choice in that respect - along with Lost Highway (a film that I'd buy in HDR like a shot), it's one of the darkest films of its era, so I'll be fascinated to see what they do with it.

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rapta
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Re: Pitch Black

#6 Post by rapta » Fri May 29, 2020 11:57 am

This is a fun film, but I haven't seen it probably since my mid-teens at least. A ballsy first 4K UHD title for Arrow, that's for sure, but it's a bit like Waterworld in that regard and I may pick up the standard Blu-ray edition as it looks like a solid release. By far my favourite Vin Diesel film, I'll give it that! I think I bought this in Poundland not long ago...

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Ribs
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Re: Pitch Black

#7 Post by Ribs » Fri May 29, 2020 12:04 pm

I don’t know if it’s quite risky, especially considering where Kino started - This is a way more appealing release than Hannibal - it’s a movie that the consensus is actually that it’s liked, for one, and it started a franchise that has only grown with popularity with its star. I really think it’s important to support these labels putting out anything in UHD but could not possibly bring myself to want to buy Hannibal whereas I’ll be picking up both the Arrow releases fairly quickly. Plus Arrow has more a completist fanbase that are wont to pick up basically anything of value they put out in comparison to Kino’s flood of new titles each and every month.

It’s not The Deer Hunter in terms of appeal for a first release but I think this should do on the higher end of things for an Arrow Video title.

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colinr0380
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Re: Pitch Black

#8 Post by colinr0380 » Fri May 29, 2020 12:08 pm

It certainly goes to extremes in its colour scheme from blown out desert lighting in the early scenes to complete darkness, such that it would test any set up. Isn't it also one the earliest bleach bypass process films, increasing the silver levels of the film stock for the daytime scenes?

I love this film, especially that ten minute sequence at about 55 minutes in where the action really ramps up in the race to safety against the setting sun sequence. Plus I think it may arguably have one of the best spaceship crash sequences in film, which also beautifully succinctly sets up the main character's moral dilemma and redemptive arc! (Which is the main theme of the film: everyone's a morally ambiguous 'villain' if not technically a killer, not just the convicted one) And what a supporting cast with Keith David and Claudia Black around the time of Farscape but unfortunately not quite making it to the end of the film! Compared to the other films in the Riddick series this is much more of a veiled slasher film than a sci-fi one.

Great to see Dark Fury on there too. Peter Chung of course is also the creator of Aeon Flux. Good to see the trailers for the video game on there too, as whilst I have not played them I keep hearing that the Chronicles of Riddick games (mentored by Vin Diesel) are surprisingly good.

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RitrovataBlue
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Re: Pitch Black

#9 Post by RitrovataBlue » Fri May 29, 2020 8:32 pm

I made the leap to UHD last year somewhat reluctantly, originally expecting to only upgrade a handful of poorly restored/mastered BDs (2001, Apocalypse Now, The Big Lebowski and a few others) with their better-received UHD editions. Then I actually watched a few UHDs. After finishing 2001, I was ready to upgrade my entire library, cost be damned. My monitor is only 55”, but the upgrade is tangible on every title I’ve watched on the medium (50+ films at this point). I’d attribute the improvement to HDR, but I’ve seen a couple SDR UHDs that still look vastly superior to anything I’ve seen on Blu-ray. I don’t think that any one factor necessarily determines the overall improvement the medium offers. Even without HDR, it still offers a significant improvement in contrast and color stability over BD. The intense pinks in Color Out of Space looked absolutely stunning on UHD, without any of the overheating and bleeding typical of such saturated colors on most BDs. Don’t Look Now looks breathtaking on UHD but rarely uses the HDR range. Some of the improvement may be in the resolution bump, some may be in the contrast/color stability, and some may be in the HDR. The end result is a striking improvement over BD.

The format even has me revisiting films I’d been cool on before just to see how they look on UHD. I loathed Hannibal in 2001, but found it to be a surprisingly enjoyable camp thriller when I picked up the Kino release, and much closer in tone to the acclaimed television series of the same name than it has ever been given credit for. Similarly, I’ll probably pick this up just for the sensory experience. It would be nice if Arrow had entered the format with a better film, but hopefully this will lead to upgrades of titles like Blow Out, Branded to Kill, etc.

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swo17
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Re: Pitch Black

#10 Post by swo17 » Fri May 29, 2020 8:38 pm

RitrovataBlue wrote:
Fri May 29, 2020 8:32 pm
It would be nice if Arrow had entered the format with a better film, but hopefully this will lead to upgrades of titles like Blow Out, Branded to Kill, etc.
It hasn't been mentioned here yet but the same week they're also releasing a UHD of Flash Gordon (US/CA only) so, er, I guess your point still stands

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