While still unconfirmed at this point, it appears Ridley Scott’s Alien will finally be released in 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray on April 26th 2019 – Alien Day. Czech retailer FilmArena has posted numerous listings for various Alien 4K editions, to be released at the end of April 2019.
FilmArena have been pretty accurate so far as they tend to get word from the movie studios when films are released in 4K as they create exclusive steelbook versions etc.
What else is special about 2019? It’s none other than Alien’s 40th Anniversary in May so all signs are pointing to Alien Day for its official 4K release. Other Alien 4K listings include Lenticular, 3D, Steelbook versions and an “Alien Maniacs” Collector’s Box including all the different versions of it. You can see the various artwork below – bear in mind it’s subject to change for other regions.
No other details about the sets are known but I expect it will be something special. The makers put in a huge amount of work remastering the film when they brought it to 1080p Blu-Ray in 2010. Alien is still one of best transfers out there. Maybe too good as the jump to 4K might not be as beneficial as say, James Cameron’s Aliens. Considering how much darkness there is in Alien, it will still benefit from HDR grading to get even darker blacks.
As for the other films – Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection, there is still no word on those coming to 4K any time soon. They did an amazing job at creating the Quadrilogy and the Anthology sets so I do wonder if they’ll go back through the archives and create even more brand new featurettes. I’ll guess we’ll have to wait and see what 20th Century Fox announce.