A firm cult favourite among film fans, John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China is heading to Blu-Ray and Limited Edition Steelbook for the first time ever via Arrow Films.
Re-uniting Carpenter with Kurt Russell (Escape From New York, The Thing), Big Trouble in Little China sees Russell plays Jack Burton, a reasonable guy who is about to experience some unreasonable things in San Francisco’s Chinatown. As his friend’s fiancée is kidnapped Jack becomes embroiled in a centuries-old battle between good and evil. At the root of it all is Lo Pan, a 2000-year-old magician who rules an empire of evil spirits. Jack goes to the rescue dodging demons, goblins and the unstoppable Three Storms as he battles through Lo Pan’s dark domain.
The film also features Kim Catrall (Sex and the City) and the legendary James Hong (Blade Runner, Wayne's World 2).
The press release reads:
"Arrow Video is thrilled to announce 16th December 2013 as the confirmed release date for Big Trouble in Little China, one of the most hotly anticipated Blu-ray titles of the year. John Carpenter’s iconic cult classic will be released as both a deluxe Blu-ray & also as a limited edition SteelBook featuring Drew Struzan’s iconic artwork.
Featuring a bumper crop of bonus features including newly filmed interviews with the director John Carpenter and star, Kurt Russell as well as Carpenter’s long-time producer Larry Franco and the film’s stunt coordinator Jeff Imada, cinematographer Dean Cundey and a further wealth of archive content. The Blu-ray producer’s Francesco Simeoni says of the release “Big Trouble was a dream come true, it’s such an iconic film and to be able to work on a new version of this was a real treat. Technically one of our most complicated discs with acres of content to fit in whilst making everything easy to navigate and user friendly our technical team made this all seamless on the final disc and we are really pleased with the final presentation. The film’s restoration from Twentieth Century Fox was a gift, it’s never looked so good and we can’t wait for our fans to enjoy this package for Christmas.”
A commercial failure upon release in cinemas the film was mishandled by the studio and interviewees Carpenter and Russell especially make no bones about what happened. Finding a secondary life on home video and becoming a bona fide cult classic the film has enjoyed a great reputation on VHS and DVD and now for the first time can be enjoyed in this definitive edition."
Here's a list of the special features:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the film from a digital transfer prepared by Twentieth Century Fox
- Optional 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed Stereo 2.0 Audio
- Isolated 5.1 DTS-HD Isolated Score Soundtrack
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio Commentary with director John Carpenter and star Kurt Russell
- Return to Little China – A brand new interview with John Carpenter
- Being Jack Burton – A brand new interview with Kurt Russell
- Carpenter and I – A brand new interview with cinematographer Dean Cundey
- Producing Big Trouble – A new interview with producer Larry Franco
- Staging Little Trouble – A new interview with stuntman Jeff Imada
- Interview with visual effects producer Richard Edlund
- Vintage Making-of featurette featuring cast and crew
- Extended Ending
- Deleted Scenes
- Music Video
- Gallery of behind-the-scenes images
- 3 original trailers
- TV Spots
- Booklet featuring new writing on the film by John Kenneth Muir, author of The Films of John Carpenter, as well as a re-print of an interview with production designer John Lloyd and make-up effects artist Steve Johnson on the design and effects of the film, illustrated with archive stills and posters
- The standard release is available with a reversible Sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw and the Limited Edition SteelBook is presented with the original iconic Drew Struzan artwork
Big Trouble in Little China hits Blu-Ray shelves on December 16th 2013.