Fresh off the 30th anniversary of his all-time great actioner, , filmmaker is now turning his attention to his highly successful sophomore effort, . On July 9, the and Helen Hunt-led disaster film will be made available on 4K Ultra HD for the very first time, whetting the audience’s appetite for July 19th’s long-awaited sequel, . The original 1996 film allowed the Dutch director to pick up where he left off with and deliver yet another intense thrill ride that swapped Los Angeles freeways for Oklahoma highways.
And instead of a bus that’s trying to outrun its own ticking time bomb, Paxton and Hunt’s storm chaser characters doggedly pursue immensely powerful tornadoes that destroy everything in their ever-changing path. For de Bont, it’s rather bittersweet to look back on his 1995 production due to the 2014 and 2017 deaths of co-stars and Paxton, respectively. “Those two were basically the shapeshifters of that group, and they helped make a group of really amazing people feel as if they had worked together for a really long time.
It’s unique to get that feeling on the screen,” de Bont tells in support of ‘s July 9 4K release. Based on the involvement of executive producer Steven Spielberg and his production company Amblin Entertainment, also served as a technological follow-up of sorts to the celebrated filmmaker’s 1993 smash hit, . De Bont’s blockbuster would expand on its predecessor’s use of visual effects in combination with in-camera practical effe.
