“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is coming back around.
The Miloš Forman masterpiece, one of the rare movies to win all five of the big Academy Awards categories, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. And part of that celebration is a brand-new 4K UHD disc and an accompanying 4K digital release, both of which will be available on Nov. 11 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (the film was initially released on Nov. 19, 1975, so this is coming out almost exactly 50 years later).
This new release will include legacy features like deleted scenes and the “Completely Cuckoo” documentary, but there will also be new supplements like two featurettes about the making of the movie that include a conversation with producer Michael Douglas and stars Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd and Brad Dourif. You can see a clip from one of these featurettes below, with Douglas recounting the very beginnings of the project.
That clip was from the “Conversations on Cuckoo: Moviemaking Memories” featurette; there’s another new featurette called “Conversations on Cuckoo: Group Therapy.” Both have Douglas, DeVito, Lloyd and Dourif, who share their memories of making the movie and working alongside legends Jack Nicholson and Forman, who passed away in 2018.
Back in 1976, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” won Best Picture (with producers Douglas and Saul Zaentz), Best Actor for Nicholson, Best Actress for Louise Fletcher, Best Director for Forman and Screenplay for Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman. In 1993, the movie was deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has been firmly committed to re-releasing films from its classic library in beautiful 4K presentations. Just this week, Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride” got the 4K treatment, in both regular and Steelbook versions, and before the month is out they’ll unleash a new 4K box set of all of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies. Recent 4K reissues also include “Lethal Weapon,” Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant!” and a trio of Clint Eastwood classics – “Dirty Harry,” “The Outlaw Josey Wales” and “Pale Rider.”
