Home Theater Forum: Does Criterion have any plans for releasing titles on disc in 4K UHD or streaming in 4K?

Lee Kline: Yeah, everybody wants to know about that. I mean, you know, I'm not here to give strategies or to give numbers about, you know, what sales are and things like that. I'm really a tech guy. I know there's been a lot of talk about these 4K discs...4K streaming. Not a day goes by where we don't discuss it and try to figure it out. You know, the market is...it's not a big market. That's part of the problem.

Would I personally like to see these 4...absolutely! Do you think I want to master, remaster everything in 4K and then just see it go out in HD? It's one of the things I love about DCPs. If we make something in 4K and we make a DCP of it, you can go in the theater and see it in 4K. Truly, that's the best way to do it. There's no doubt about it. It's the least compressed of the 4K methods, it looks great on a big screen if you go to a great theater with great sound with a good audience. Not always the case!

So I can't really say when or when there will be a 4K disc. I hope there is. I don't know. It's something that we would love to do. I have to leave it at that. There's probably a more detailed explanation to it. I can't really give it. All I know is that I'm fighting for it too. I would love to see it, and if we can make it happen for reasons beyond my control, then we'll do it.

HTF: And so, it's not like you just add it to one part of your chain, right? You have to start at the beginning...

LK: You need a new UPC code, you need everything. A new package.

HTF: And then you're selling it to a consumer who may or may not be able to take advantage.

LK: Correct. And the other thing about it to me is interesting, like...I don't know who are the people that are asking for the 4K discs.

HTF: Home Theater Forum readers. (laughs)

LK: I know that. What I don't know is: what are they watching on? 50"? Maybe even 65" or less? An HD Blu-ray looks pretty damn good. It's hard to see a difference on a screen that size from HD to 4K. That's another reason that there's complexity with the decision because how many people are watching on projectors and on 100" screens? I don't...okay.

HTF: (laughs)

LK: You and maybe a few hundred other people are. But again, I don't know the numbers. I don't know the strategy behind it.

HTF: It's a big expense, right?

LK: It's a big expense. We're ready. We've got these 4K remasters ready to go, so we can do it. But for now, you'll have to go to the theater and hopefully see the 4K DCP.

HTF: We were looking at some of your editing suites today and were talking about the aspect of HDR on it, and so there are ways to do HDR in a subtle way and give more director-intent versus just overwhelming you with color and sound and stuff like that. The Criterion market's probably more towards the first of those, right? To try to be more true versus bombastic?

LK: I would think so, but, you know, when we first started looking at HDR examples, let's say, whether we were at labs where they were doing it or the first discs...you know, what we saw were when we had done Blood Simple, we did a standard dynamic range version of it first, then we did an HDR version. The Coen Brothers came in, watched the SDR version, and signed off, made their changes. Then we said, "okay, we want to show you this high dynamic range version." "Oh, what's that?" And we tried to tell them, and so we said "come up, let's go see it." So we're in a lab in L.A., and we went up to the HDR monitor and showed it to them. And they go, looked at it, and they watched it for a few minutes and were like, "okay". And that's all they said. And then we thought, "well, they weren't that excited about it."

And then we have someone like Steven Soderbergh who, after we worked on Sex, Lies, and Videotape said "I want to do an HDR pass", and we said, "yeah, okay". So he came in here and...I remember saying to him first, I was like, you know, "what do you want to enunciate with HDR, because you basically have muted highlights in most of the movie?" "Because I just want to make it pop in a few places." So we went in, we'd go 10 minutes, and then "that light, a little boost, maybe up to 150-200 nits", and he said "that's it." And I love the fact that he didn't abuse the technology. He just used it where it made sense. And it all clicked for me when someone who's thought about it -- who actually knows what this means -- I mean, he's very technical. He clearly understands HDR, and he used it wisely.

So since then, we've done a few things. We've done Rumble Fish, was another one to name one, and Francis Coppola did it and approved that. Did he think it was a revelation? No, but he's really into technology, and he liked the idea of being able to do it. And if you go see the new Apocalypse Now, it's pretty spectacular. I just did a talk in Bologna, Italy at the film festival there with their guys who did the restoration of that, and that's something that you'll want to get for your home in HDR. It's gonna be your show-off disc, yeah.