There have been false announcements before, but there’s no question this time. Back to the Future and its two sequels are coming to Blu-ray on October 26th to celebrate its 25th anniversary (which actually falls this coming Saturday). Aside from all the obvious technical updates we’ll see with Blu-ray (and hopefully no ‘improvements’ like digital noise reduction or revisionist color timing) and all the special features that have come before, there are some new bonuses planned for this release. I’ve listed those below, or you see the full list of specs and features for the set over at Blu-ray.com.
- Tales from the Future: new six-part retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Director Robert Zemeckis, Producers Bob Gale and Neil Canton, plus Executive Producer Steven Spielberg.
- In the Beginning…: Delve into the genesis of the project, casting, re-casting, the DeLorean, sets and overall pre-production.
- Time to Go: Production stories through the release of the first film.
- Keeping Time: The score and the songs of the Back to the Future Trilogy.
- Time Flies: Learn more about how the sequel came about, the futuristic look, the special and visual effects, recreating 1955 and more.
- Third Time’s the Charm: Learn about building a western town, Doc Brown’s love story, the casting of Mary Steenburgen, the train sequence and completing the Trilogy.
- The Test of Time: Back to the Future becomes a phenomenon! President Reagan quotes the film, the Back to the Future ride opens at Universal Studios theme park and fans rebuild the iconic DeLorean. The film’s cast and crew take a look back and discuss why these beloved movies live on.
- The Physics of Back to the Future: A discussion with celebrity best-selling author and physicist Dr. Michio Kaku about the overall appreciation of the science in the Back to the Future Trilogy.
- Nuclear test site ending storyboard sequence: Storyboard sequence of the original proposed ending of the film.
The storyboarded original ending sequence should be pretty interesting to behold. I never picked up the DVDs of these movies for a variety of reasons, beginning with the manufacturing errors on the first printing, so I’m definitely excited to own these in a high quality format. Now if we could just get the Star Wars trilogy in their original forms…
