Citizen Kane, which has rightly been called one of the greatest American films, will be coming to blu-ray disc and various online streaming options this fall. Starting on September 13 you’ll be able to own director/star Orson Welles’ masterpiece in high-def. The film will also be available soon after via iTunes, On Demand, VUDU and Amazon Instant Video.
Released 70 years ago, Welles film told of the glorious rise and ignoble fall of a publishing tycoon, a thinly-veiled swipe at newspaper magnate William Randolp Hurst. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won for Best Original Screenplay.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film will be undergoing a frame-by-frame high-definition 4K restoration from the original nitrate negative. The studio is touting this as the best looking release of the film ever, which is saying something as I think the DVD version is pretty damn near perfect.
If you have the original DVD, all of its extras – including the Academy Award-nominated documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane and the two fantastic commentary tracks from Roger Ebert and Peter Bogdanovich – will be ported over to this new release. Additionally, the blu-ray will contain RKO 281, the docudrama about the making of the film starring Liev Schrieber and James Cromwell, a 48-page book, part of which will be a 20-page reproduction of the original 1941 souvenir program, lobby cards plus facsimiles of memos and correspondence made during the movie’s production.
