May 14th is the release of Ghostbusters yet again on Blu-ray. This time it’s being presented in 4K and promises to have a much more crisper and clearer transfer that what was seen in the 2009 release.
We’ve also managed to put together a few comparison shots, hopefully to help anyone who’s on the fence.
We’d also like the clarify that this release only features the film. No extras are included.
Still curious on what’s the difference between your regular 2009 copy of Ghostbusters and this 4K release? Here’s Sony’s press release on the film:
The Blu-ray “Mastered in 4K” collection will set a new standard for Blu-ray HD picture and sound, creating the ultimate 1080p home entertainment experience. Created from the highest quality 4K source materials with new expanded color*, consumers can enjoy a brilliant picture with exquisite detail using their existing Blu-ray player or PlayStation®3. The Blu-ray “Mastered in 4K” collection is optimized so that 4K Ultra HD TV owners can take full advantage of the new 4K upscaling technology, delivering an outstanding near-4K experience. “Mastered in 4K” Blu-rays also work with all 1080p HDTVs for spectacular high definition picture and sound.
*Expanded color requires xvYCC-compatible TV and Blu-ray player
Why “Mastered in 4K” Blu-ray?
• Get the best Blu-ray picture possible, mastered from 4K source materials
• Push your TV to the limit with a high bitrate digital transfer for an immersive visual experience
• Ideal solution for new 4K TV owners and great for Blu-ray collectors
Our good pals over at Mass Hysteria Cards are holding a pretty cool contest for any Ghostbusters collector.
What is it you ask? How do I win you ask? Pfft, keep reading!
WHAT CAN YOU WIN?
All three Ghostbusters themed cards from Mass Hysteria Cards! That’s right, you get the “Ecto 1 Repair & Replace” card from the original Ghostbusters, the “New Romantic Exhibition” card from Ghostbusters II and the “Welcome to Halloween Eternal” from The Real Ghostbusters.
Did you know that Six Flags had plans to feature a Ghostbusters ride? Roger Hector, one of the creative minds behind the project was recently interviewed by the 2600Connection.com. Hector goes into great detail on what fans could have expected out of it, including several images of concept art and even some of the real mock-ups.
Here’s a quick recap of the interview:
The Hauntington Hotel was a complete design for a Ghostbusters-themed dark ride that was produced for Six Flags (another division of Bally). It was another “first” of its kind as it was the first interactive theme park game/ride, giving its riders a ghost busting gun mounted in front of them, and a variety of sophisticated “ghost” targets to shoot at, and receive a score and prizes. In this way, it was a huge game that required many plays to learn and master. The target ghosts were a combination of physical animated props with CG displays that were combined through mirrors, and they reacted/exploded when hit. The guns were a combination of laser pointer and IR emitter that kept track of hits and displayed the player’s score. The whole thing was created, designed, engineered, and prototyped at Sente, and the ride system was in the hands of a prominent roller coaster engineering company, Intamin. But before it could be rolled out in the Six Flags parks (1st one was slated for Texas), Bally sold the Six Flags division in 1987, and the project fell into a corporate black hole, never to be seen again, which is too bad, as it was really pretty cool, even by today’s standards. I hadn’t seen anything like it until 20 years later when Disney installed the Toy Story Midway Mania ride at Disneyland in 2008. I don’t think any of it has ever been seen before outside the company. We had a very strong concept & storyboard artist named Don Carson, and below is some of his work, along with some of my sketches. This is far from complete, but it’s all I could find. The photos below only show some of the many scenes & features. Howie and his team prototyped the technology, and the layouts and sets were all there. At least you can get an idea for it.
Lead designer on Extreme Ghostbusters Fil Barlow is back again with more conceptual art, this time featuring an image of Julia, the character that eventually became Roland + the first sketch of Kylie.
This is how Roland began in the early development phase of Extreme Ghostbusters. Executive Producer Richard Raynis wanted to see this character as a male. So for a while Roland had long dreads, which were too hip for the bookish character that Richard had in mind. So the dreads became cornrows, then ended up with Roland’s final, more conservative, haircut.
I kept pitching different ideas for devices, Julia had a chest piece, this is by no means a well crafted drawing, but a rough that was one of many used to triangulate the characters into what they became. As you can see, this was page 14 of 17 conceptual designs faxed that day to LA from my Australian studio.
So, because you asked, here is the first sketch I ever did of Kylie, before she had a name. This was done very early in development long before the show was pitched to a network. Executive Producer Richard Raynis was still in the process of figuring out who he wanted in the team. I intended to throw as many female characters in the mix as early as possible. The first design, in the lineup above, evolved into Lucy, who became Garrett. The third one Richard rejected outright because it looked to close to a family member of his, which creeped him out.
The middle character, the Goth, he liked and wanted to develop some more. It was his decision to make her diminutive, we struggled for a bit over that. Anyway this is how Kylie began, as a part of a character smorgasbord.
Lead designer on Extreme Ghostbusters Fil Barlow is back again with more conceptual art, this time featuring images of Lucy, the character that eventually became Garret + a head modelling page of Kylie.
Back in 1996 while I was setting up my studio in Australia, Executive Producer Richard Raynis from Columbia Tristar (Sony) worked remotely from LA with me visualizing the characters for what was to be Extreme Ghostbusters. It was so early in development that the characters I designed had no names so I would randomly assign them ones. Richard wanted a male character in a wheelchair, I was pushing for more female characters in the line-up and I could only foresee problems with the wheels in animation (that’s a lot of ellipses and perspective to get right), so I sent him this design of “Lucy” and put her in leg braces (or calipers). I tried to show that the crutches could be used for sucking up ghosts, also that her head would be at the correct eye-line for the other characters to play off, making it easier for the Directors who would have to cut down to someone sitting all the time.
Needless to say the calipers were rejected, Richard really wanted a wheelchair so I went back to the drawing board.
This is the second attempt at Lucy. My boss Richard Raynis wanted the character in the wheelchair to be fearless and gung ho! I did my best to sell the fact that a female character could easily accomplish the same role. Richard wasn’t convinced, what I was offering didn’t fit the character he was forming in his mind. Resigned I simply changed the Lucy design into a male and Garrett was born.
Betcha never knew that Garrett was once a female!
Here is the original art from Kylie’s model pack that I prepared from Australia in 1996. I’ve been dying to color her expressions ever since. So I finally knuckled down and colored her a few days ago.
There are many more pages of expressions for Kylie and the rest of the team, but I wanted you to get a look at how I drew her. You’ll notice the sample construction head on the lower right, I added these to assist the animators on what angle I was tilting the head.
Keep in mind that this isn’t the first time we’ve featured Fil’s conceptual designs on the site. If you haven’t seen them yet, be sure to check out his early concepts for Janine, Egon and Kylie.
Amazon.com has listed a 4K Blu-Ray release for the original Ghostbusters film. Here’s a quick look at the cover art + “special features”:
Special Features:
The Blu-ray “Mastered in 4K” collection will set a new standard for Blu-ray HD picture and sound, creating the ultimate 1080p home entertainment experience. Created from the highest quality 4K source materials with new expanded color*, consumers can enjoy a brilliant picture with exquisite detail using their existing Blu-ray player or PlayStation®3. The Blu-ray “Mastered in 4K” collection is optimized so that 4K Ultra HD TV owners can take full advantage of the new 4K upscaling technology, delivering an outstanding near-4K experience. “Mastered in 4K” Blu-rays also work with all 1080p HDTVs for spectacular high definition picture and sound.
*Expanded color requires xvYCC-compatible TV and Blu-ray player
Why “Mastered in 4K” Blu-ray?
• Get the best Blu-ray picture possible, mastered from 4K source materials
• Push your TV to the limit with a high bitrate digital transfer for an immersive visual experience
• Ideal solution for new 4K TV owners and great for Blu-ray collectors
No mention of any difference when compared to the previous Blu-Ray release aside from the 4K optimization.
Ghostbusters on Blu-Ray (Mastered in 4K) is expected to release on May 7th, 2013.
