By Filmmaker David Fincher says he doubts that Netflix will ever release his TV series “Mindhunter” or any of his other films for the service on physical media.
Fincher signed up with Netflix just over a decade ago, helping release their first major original drama series with “House of Cards” and then creating the period serial killer profiler series “Mindhunter” which lasted for two seasons on the service from 2017 to 2019.
He’s subsequently released the films “Mank” and “The Killer” on Netflix, and the animated anthology series “Love, Death & Robots” which he executive produces. Recently he re-upped his deal with them for several more years.
Speaking with Collider to promote the “Se7en” 4K disc release, the director was asked about the possibility of his work for the streamer ever coming to disc with “Mindhunter” specifically mentioned as part of the question. He says:
“I like physical media, but I really like on-demand. I mean, I love liner notes, and I kind of prefer laser discs to anything just because I’m old and I remember what LPs used to be like. I do like the act of holding them.
But I can’t imagine there’s any interest in the business plan from Netflix to make packaged goods out of the stuff that I’ve made for them because their whole thing is that mainline that connects your eyeballs to their servers. So, yeah, I doubt it.”
Fincher then spoke about home video formats at length, saying issues like data compression on DVD means once you get past the nostalgia for the physical disc they’re actually kind of rubbish in terms of archiving:
“It’s so funny because if you blow that stuff up and you really look at it, it’s a travesty. [Laughs] You know, DVD, I loved it just because I loved the idea of a whole movie on one side of a disc, but in terms of archiving and in terms of it being the document of cinema, it leaves a lot to be desired… “I don’t miss going back to DVD in terms of the gamma, in terms of the dynamic range that it has.
Instead he’s all in on 4K, saying while the HD prints on Blu-ray are “pretty good,” it’s the high-dynamic range with 4K discs that is “really amazing” but he adds: “sometimes I do feel 4K is too sharp.”
It’s a problem he’s currently dealing with on the 4K remaster of “Panic Room” saying they couldn’t “go with the enhancement du jour” because a lot of the film’s VFX were “done in very early 8-bit CG, and you just don’t have the detail”.
The post Don’t Expect “Mindhunter” On Physical Media appeared first on Dark Horizons.
