Bridget Jones's Diary 4K UHD (2001)

[Mosley likes BFDI]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

The rights to the film are very complicated. StudioCanal controls it in France. It's controlled by Universal in the UK and Miramax (so, presumably, Paramount) in the US.

The film was made by Working Title, which is owned by Universal. They probably control the negative. Universal had a partnership with Miramax at the time, thus they split the rights - US and International. StudioCanal was a corporate cousin of Universal at the time, they were both owned by Vivendi, and StudioCanal invested in a bunch of Universal films, so they got French rights. I seem to remember reading StudioCanal was also an investor in Working Title itself. It's all exceedingly complicated and my memory may not be 1000% accurate, but the gist is correct.

All of this is to say that the rights are with different companies in each market, so it's not a foregone conclusion that it will get a UHD anywhere else.

That said, I would have to think Universal actually retained the negative, so StudioCanal's new 4K scan would presumably have been done in concert with them. Perhaps they'll release a UK UHD. Although the film grossed a bit more in the US than the UK, the UK is a MUCH smaller market, so, comparatively, it was much bigger there, and it still retains a huge cultural relevance in the UK. I wouldn't be shocked to see a UK UHD from Universal at some point.

Universal and StudioCanal did have a nasty legal battle over the revenue from the films they partnered on, so that might make things difficult:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/201...udios-millions

However, if they mended fences enough for SC to scan Universal's negative, maybe it's water under the bridge.

I don't think Paramount has done any UHDs of any Miramax titles yet, so a US release seems unlikely.

Universal will probably do the UK 4K UHD Blu-ray, and Paramount is releasing some Miramax titles on the 4K format, like From Dusk till Dawn and Scream, and Universal have released The Cornetto Trilogy on 4K in the US and UK in which the first two movies of that trilogy are co-produced by StudioCanal.