Empire of the Sun: 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray
Posted March 12, 2012 01:51 PM by Josh Katz
In June, Warner Home Entertainment will bring Empire of the Sun to Blu-ray. Directed by Steven Spielberg (War Horse), this epic WWII drama stars Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) as Jim Graham, a privileged English child separated from his parents during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Adrift in a world of sudden violence and chaos, Jim finds himself resorting to desperate survival measures that chip away at his youthful innocence.
Adapted from J.G. Ballard's novel by Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love), the film features an impressive supporting cast that includes Miranda Richardson (Sleepy Hollow), Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix), John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich), and an early appearance from Ben Stiller (Greenberg).
In addition, Empire of the Sun received the following six Academy Award nominations:
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration: Norman Reynolds and Harry Cordwell
Best Cinematography: Allen Daviau
Best Costume Design: Bob Ringwood
Best Film Editing: Michael Kahn
Best Music, Original Score: John Williams
Best Sound: Robert Knudson, Don Digirolamo, John Boyd, and Tony Dawe
This 25th Anniversary Edition presents the film in its 1.85:1 original aspect ratio with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. The Blu-ray also contains a number of bonus supplements, such as:
The China Odyssey: Empire of the Sun behind-the-scenes documentary
Warner at War documentary about Warner Bros' WWII propaganda department (included on separate DVD)
The disc also comes packaged in a collectible 36-page digibook with "rare images, cast bios, facts about the film, essays, and more."