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.
Synopsis
Following Escape from New York and The Thing, John Carpenter and Kurt Russell re-unite for this mystical, action, adventure, comedy, kung-fu, monster, ghost story!
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.
One of Carpenters most enjoyable and best loved films, Big Trouble in Little China brilliantly juggles delirious set-pieces, comedy and kung-fu action with a razor sharp script of corking one-liners, as Jack would say “It’s all in the reflexes”.
The super-deluxe package, which is available both as a standard Blu-ray and as a limited edition Blu-ray SteelBook, is full of special features and bonus material. The special features for this edition include:
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
Isolated 5.1 DTS-HD Isolated Score Soundtrac
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
