George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead Aiming for February 4K Release

A previously announced 4K release for the George A. Romero-directed Dawn of the Dead, once planned for a late summer 2019 release, is now expected to reach 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray in the UK in February 2020.

UK distributor Second Sight Films announced the new planned release date on Facebook, where Second Sight revealed the new set will offer Romero’s original “Theatrical” cut, a “Cannes” cut with 10 additional minutes and and the “Argento” cut, edited by Italian filmmaker Dario Argento.

In an update published to Facebook Wednesday, Second Sights said it expects Final Frame to complete manual frame-by-frame restoration in roughly one month before work is handed off for its HDR grade, or High Dynamic Range, for the 4K disc. In addition to the three cuts, the new box set will offer both archive as well as new bonus material and “other exciting additional content.”

“I place upon this extraordinary effort a nihil obstat in certification of its quality,” said director of photography and restoration supervisor Michael Gornick.

Following the 4K scan of the camera negative, grading and framing approved by DP Michael Gornick, we now have about 4 weeks left of manual frame by frame restoration at Final Frame followed by the HDR grade for the UHD. We are releasing the 3 cuts on 3 separate discs (both Blu-Ray and UHD) plus bonus disc so the authoring stage will then take several weeks for the best possible encodes by David Mackenzie. We are currently hoping for a release date in February and will update again in the next month. Aside from the 3 versions of the film itself, plus archive and new bonus material, we are also working on other exciting additional content for the box set. We have been very fortunate to have Michael Gornick involved and it was great to hear his comment on work to date: ‘I place upon this extraordinary effort a nihil obstat in certification of its quality’. More soon…

Second Sight previously confirmed the forthcoming Blu-ray release will be Region B. As is standard with UHD discs, the 4K disc is not region coded.