The Holdovers gets a new 4K release for the Christmas season

Alexander Payne’s and Paul Giamatti’s well-received film from last year will get a brand new 4K release in time for the holidays.

Blu-ray.com has just announced a number of new 4K Blu-ray releases for this December. One of the releases includes the new 4K transfer of last year’s awards darling — The Holdovers. In a rather unusual process, while Universal’s home entertainment department would oversee the original Blu-ray release and distribution of the film (as is the standard procedure for recent releases), the studio would not do their Ultra High Definition remastering of the film in-house. Instead, Universal outsourced the job to Shout! Factory, which is more of a specialty label for certain kinds of releases of older films and television shows.

The Alexander Payne-directed (Election, Sideways, Nebraska) comedic drama stars Paul Giamatti in one of his most outstanding roles, with Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Dolemite Is My Name, The Lost City, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) and Dominic Sessa in his feature film debut. The 4K UHD release will hit retailers on December 17.

The description reads,
“A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school’s head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.”

Bonus Content will include:

• 4K Presentation
• Features Dolby Vision and HDR10 for Brighter, Deeper, More Lifelike Color
• Working with Alexander
• The Cast of The Holdovers
• Deleted Scenes
• Alternate Ending

The technical specs read:

Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 3.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)

Subtitles
English SDH

Discs
4K Ultra HD
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD-100, 1 BD-50)

Playback
4K Blu-ray: Region free
2K Blu-ray: Region A

Meanwhile, the film’s director, Alexander Payne, is seriously considering teaming with writing partner Jim Taylor to create a sequel for their early film Election, saying, “There is talk and Jim Taylor and I are conceding that now,” with him adding, “If there were to be a sequel to Election, what would that look like?”