More mystery has surrounded the upcoming Indiana Jones Blu-ray box set than the actual Ark of the Covenant. Now it looks like Paramount is ready to stop cracking the whip in our faces; we now have all of the details on Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures.
Lucasfilm Ltd. and Paramount Home Media Distribution made the big announcement today, saying that Raiders of the Lost Ark has been completely restored under the watchful eyes of director Steven Spielberg and sound designer Ben Burtt.
To keep the original look, sound and feel of the iconic film, the original negative was scanned at 4K and then examined frame-by-frame to repair any damage. The sound was also preserved using Burtt's original master mix, which had been archived and unused since 1981. From there, new surrounds were created using the original music tracks and original effects recorded in stereo but used previously only in mono. The sub bass was also entirely redone and tiny technical flaws were corrected on the dialogue.
Although it was a painstaking process, it wasn't the only film in the franchise to get a little tweaking. Both Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade have been remastered as well. The set will round out with 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was previously released on Blu-ray.
All four films will have their own Blu-ray, with original teasers and trailers on each disc. Raiders of the Lost Ark will also have a "re-issue trailer." All four will come packing 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio in English, with several foreign language tracks and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.
The set's fifth disc will have seven hours of extra goodies. That content will include "On Set with Raiders of the Lost Ark - From Jungle to Desert and From Adventure to Legend," a brand-new, two-part documentary with almost an hour of rare footage from the set of the film and archival interviews with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford.
That disc will also have four Making the Films featurettes (one for each film), including "The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark," the 1981 documentary previously unavailable on DVD. Other featurettes include "The Stunts of Indiana Jones," "The Sound of Indiana Jones," "The Music of Indiana Jones," The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones," "Raiders: The Melting Face!," "Indy's Women: The American Film Institute Tribute," and "Indy's Friends and Enemies."
Two additional featurettes will have optional pop-up trivia. Those include "Indiana Jones and the Creepy Crawlies" and "Travel with Indiana Jones: Locations."
Last, but not least, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will have a few of its own featurettes on the fifth disc, and all in high-def. Those include "The Making of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "Iconic Props (Crystal Skull)," "The Effects of Indy (Crystal Skull)," and "Adventures in Post Production (Crystal Skull)."
Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures will make its Blu-ray debut on September 18, 2012. Amazon has started taking pre-orders on the set, which has an MSRP of $99.99.
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