Slam evil! The Phantom appears on 4K Blu-ray later this year
Billy Zane's ode to the classic adventure struggled to find an audience upon initial release, but it will get the 4K treatment from Kino Lorber. The post Slam evil! The Phantom appears on 4K Blu-ray later this year appeared first on JoBlo.
In the wake of Batman and its hit sequels, interestingly, movie studios wouldn’t necessarily snatch up more DC properties to adapt, but they did attempt to bring more classic pulp heroes to the screen with The Rocketeer, The Shadow and 1996’s The Phantom. While there was an animated series just two years prior with the purple-clad character trying to save our dying planet in the future with The Phantom 2040, the feature film with Billy Zane takes its cue more from Indiana Jones-esque action with its 1930s setting and globe-trotting adventure.
Blu-ray.com has reported that the Paramount adaptation of the Lee Falk comic strip is now set to grace your TV screens in crisp ultra-high def 4K with a new Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. The new physical release of the Simon Wincer film, which stars Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, Treat Williams, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and James Remar, is scheduled to hit retailers sometime later this year. The description reads, “The Phantom, descendant of a line of African superheroes, travels to New York City to thwart a wealthy criminal genius from obtaining three magic skulls which would give him the secret to ultimate power.”
Not much is announced by way of special features, but the technical specs are:
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Subtitles
English SDH
Discs
4K Ultra HD
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD-100, 1 BD-50)
Packaging
Slipcover in original pressing
Playback
4K Blu-ray: Region free
2K Blu-ray: Region A (B, C untested)
Billy Zane recently declared that Kit Walker aka The Phantom stands as “one of my favorite characters.” But the movie itself was a flop, with the June 7th, 1996 opening weekend finding it opening at #6, despite only one other title that week being a new release. As Zane remembered, “It got a lot of stick early on because it wasn’t edgy at a time when all those movies were going dark. I’ve always held a torch for what I saw as a dying genre, which was adventure. I was raised on adventure, and I think it’s so easily overlooked as how critical it is to young boys and girls.”
This action is what drew Billy Zane to The Phantom, saying, “I really understood the ethos of that, which is why I think I got the role. I just knew it and I was holding a torch for it… and it was a candle in the wind at the time, but then this thing came about, and I was, like, ‘A-ha! At last!’ It was something that would benefit from this weird adoration and fixation on all things Errol Flynn and Tarzan. A happy hero. Go figure! No issues. Well-adjusted. Animal friends. Man cave. Girlfriend. The family business. Life is good!”
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