Sony has a rather spotty reputation when it comes to 4K Blu-ray releases. Titles it does release tend to feature impressive AV standards, but it has a nasty habit of not releasing as many films on 4K discs as home theater fans would like. Even some of its biggest cinematic hits, such as Where The Crawdads Sing, have only come out on HD Blu-ray, not 4K.
Today, though, is a good Sony 4K Blu-ray news day, as the studio has announced that it’s going to be releasing the unexpectedly excellent David Harbour and Orlando Bloom-starring Gran Turismo film in the 4K disc format on November 7 in the US, and November 13th in the UK.
Despite the film’s title, Gran Turismo is not a straightforward video game adaption. Rather it tells the genuinely remarkable true story of what happened when British Gran Turismo gamer Jann Mardenborough won a PlayStation tournament where the game’s best players would be trained to drive real cars on real tracks in real races and championships.
Obviously there’s some poetic licence in play to make the key race scenes a bit more dramatic than they may have been in real life, but for the most part this is a straightforwardly inspirational and enthralling story elevated to an improbably entertaining level by Neill Blomkamp’s stirring direction – especially of the film’s numerous race sequences.
The 4K HDR transfer will be presented in a 1.9:1 aspect ratio, and be accompanied by a Dolby Atmos soundtrack which, based on my experience of seeing the film in a Dolby Atmos-equipped cinema, has the potential to be serious home cinema demo fodder.
Sony has also revealed details of the extra features that you can look forward to getting alongside the 4K movie transfer. I’m especially looking forward to checking out the more than 10 minutes worth of deleted and extended scenes Sony is including in the package, especially if they include more footage from the race scenes.
These deleted and extended scenes are going to be accompanied by five featurettes. Given how incredible the true story behind the film is, the highlight of these featurettes may well be ‘The Plan’, which explores the real facts behind Mardenborough’s amazing story.
The Engine, meanwhile, will delve into the film’s visual style and how they captured some of the film’s remarkable racing shots, while The Pit Crew goes behind the scenes of the film’s action scenes with a focus on the stunts (Mardenborough himself acts as one of the film’s key stunt drivers).
The Garage gets us up close and personal with the stunning cars featured throughout the film, and The Wheels wraps things up with a ‘meet and greet’ with the film’s cast members.
Fans of steelbook 4K Blu-ray releases, finally, will be pleased to hear that Best Buy is listing one for Gran Turismo despite it soon pulling the plug on sales of physical media, while in the UK two separate ‘Gold/Orange’ and ‘Blue’ steelbook versions will be on offer (both are on offer at Zavvi at the time of writing).
Sony has released a short promotion for the film’s home video release that you can watch here.
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