David Fincher's Overlooked Panic Room To Get UHD and Blu-ray Release

Panic Room UHD blu-ray
Courtesy: Sony Pictures

David Fincher is surely one of the most consistently acclaimed filmmakers of his generation, with a seriously impressive number of films in his filmography that are widely revered as modern classics, and really none that are widely agreed to be bad, even if a few are very divisive. Even his much-maligned first feature, Alien 3, has undergone quite the reappraisal in the last decade or so, since the release of an alternate version that more closely resembles his original vision for the fraught film. If any one film stands out in his filmography as being unfairly overlooked or neglected, surely it is Panic Room, the 2002 thriller starring Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, and Forest Whitaker which he made between his much more popular Fight Club and Zodiac. It may not have been a massive hit when it came out, but it did respectably well, critically and commercially, and while it may be a relatively mainstream thriller by Fincher standards, rather than one of his darker or more stylized auteur outings, he unquestionably handles the material well, supported by an outstanding cast. Which makes it extremely bizarre that Panic Room is the one and only David Fincher film which has never seen a blu-ray release, despite HD masters existing for streaming and cable.

All of that is about to change, according to a leak publicized earlier today by Dawn of the Discs. A premature listing was found on the Canadian retailer DealsAreUs for an upcoming Sony Pictures UHD/blu-ray combo pack of Panic Room, with a pre-order date of February 24th, and a street date of March 29th. It appears that the site responsible for the listing posted it early, before Sony's official announcement - something that tends to happen fairly regularly, as Dawn of the Discs previously scooped the release info for the Scream Factory Halloween 1-5 UHDs (among others) the same way.

Panic Room UHD blu-ray
Courtesy: Sony Pictures

Assuming this leak proves to be true (so far Sony has not addressed the leak at all), this would be a huge upgrade, elevating Panic Room from the only Fincher film to never receive a blu-ray release to one of the first Fincher films to receive a UHD. A lavish upgrade for one of the least-popular movies in Fincher's filmography, considering that some of his best-loved still have not gotten the same honor, but Panic Room is certainly a good film (though not one of Fincher's best), and it absolutely deserves a bit more love. We will eagerly await an official announcement from Sony - hopefully a confirmation with a full slate of extras.

- Christopher S. Jordan

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