Paramount Home Entertainment has announced '
Minority Report' on Blu-ray. This Steven Spielberg science-fiction thriller, based on a short story by Philip K. Dick and starring Tom Cruise, will be released on a two-disc edition on April 20. A "true 4K master" of the movie had been created in late 2009 by LaserPacific post production company (see blu-ray.com,
September 11, 2009).
Audio tracks will be included in English (5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio), French (5.1 Dolby Digital) and Spanish (2.0 Dolby Digital), along with subtitles in English, French and Spanish. The Blu-ray contains over an hour of newly-created content.
Special features include:
New extra content:
- The Future According to Steven Spielberg (in HD)
- Inside The World of Precrime (in HD)
- Phillip K. Dick, Steven Spielberg and Minority Report (in HD)
- Minority Report: Future Realized (in HD)
- Minority Report: Props of the Future (in HD)
- Highlights from Minority Report: From the Set
- The Hoverpack Sequence (in HD)
- The Car Factory Sequence (HD)
- Minority Report: Commercials of the Future (in HD)
- Previz Sequences
- The Hoverpack Sequence Previz (in HD)
- Maglev Chase Previz (in HD)
Extra content carried over from the DVD:
- From Story to Screen
- Deconstructing Minority Report
- The Stunts of Minority Report
- ILM and Minority Report
- Final Report
- Production Concepts
- Storyboard Sequences
- Trailers (in HD)
The look of Minority Report
When the movie opened in theaters, director of photography Janusz Kaminski warned that it is “gritty, full of texture; we wanted viewers to get close to the story by making them feel that what they're looking at has a little bit of patina and roughness.” (Live Design,
June 1, 2002). He used
an "extremely grainy" 800 ASA film stock and criticized recent Kodak grain-free emulsions. “I like looking at movies and seeing the movement of the grain. There's a certain emotional response, whether viewers are conscious of it or not; we distance ourselves emotionally from images that are crisp and clear. Grain reminds people of their experience and gets them closer to the story,” concluded Kaminski. Additionally, a special print process was utilized, to increase contrast and grain and reduce saturation.
The remastering of Minority Report
In 2009, 'Minority Report' was re-mastered at 4K resolution using the original negative, under direct supervision of the Poland-born cinematographer. According to LaserPacific's Senior Colorist Lou Levinson, "when Janusz Kaminski saw certain scenes in the movie, he was astonished to see details that he had never seen before. Working at 4K is as close as you can get today to seeing exactly what is on the original negative" (source:
LaserPacific).
Levinson was able to tweak not only the color but also the grain levels from shot to shot if necessary. He explains, "Janusz Kaminski is a cinematographer who uses the texture and grain of film as an integral part of the image. He was excited to be able to have the control over each shot that you get with a digital process, particularly the ability to adjust the grain level."
The grading process began with Levinson matching an answer print. The answer print consisted of individual reels that Steven Spielberg had selected as best representing how he wanted the movie to be seen. At that point, Janusz Kaminski came in to work with Levinson. The grading was done while viewing the 4K files rather than a lower resolution proxy.
Steven Spielberg was also closely involved in the remastering and the resulting HDCAM-SR master represents how the creative team want the movie to be seen by viewers today.
The HD master used for making the Blu-Ray release was created directly from the color-graded, dust-busted 4K files. Going directly from 4K to HD resolution eliminates any filtering or resizing artifacts that can result from intermediate steps.