In an early retail announcement, Lionsgate has indicated plans to release the Miramax catalog title Heavenly Creatures on Blu-ray. Director Peter Jackson's critically acclaimed drama stars Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road) and Melanie Lynskey (Away We Go) as two teenage friends whose intense fantasy life leads them to murderous extremes.
Oscar-nominated in 1994 for Best Original Screenplay, the film garnered attention because it represented such a dramatic departure for co-writer/director Peter Jackson; his previous features were the low-budget and extremely violent horror films Bad Taste and Dead Alive as well as the gross-out puppet comedy Meet the Feebles. Heavenly Creatures also marks the first theatrical production featuring visual effects from Weta Digital (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong).
Lionsgate's Blu-ray presents the uncut, "New Zealand" version of Heavenly Creatures, which runs nine minutes longer than the ninety-nine-minute international cut of the film. The studio has not yet detailed the technical and supplementary specifications for the Blu-ray; Miramax's previous DVD edition presented the film in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and included a theatrical trailer as its lone bonus feature.
Heavenly Creatures is expected to street on December 13th.