As a film fan and patron of the internet, I love to follow random Reddit boards that come up in my key areas of interest. Sure enough, in this year of 2024 movies that have used large format to some exciting degrees, the thread of IMAX fans keeping track of the brand’s goings on is one of the places I frequent.
Lately they’ve been abuzz about what’s been going on with the planned 10th anniversary re-release of Interstellar; which was supposed to be dropping next month. Well, those plans have been altered somewhat, and the official news has come after a heated period of speculation that included some pretty wild Christopher Nolan rumors.
The Plan For Interstellar’s 10th Anniversary Release
Initially announced during Paramount’s CinemaCon 2024 panel, director Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi blockbuster was originally going to return on September 27th. Naturally, a mix of standard digital prints and Nolan’s preferred IMAX 70mm format are going to be used, which is good for any other enthusiasts who don’t want to miss out on the next Oppenheimer-style experience.
However, as of Variety’s updated reporting on the matter, that date has now been moved to December 6th. The official party line from Paramount is that this move has been made to hype up Interstellar’s “home entertainment relaunch” later this year. However it’s the following portion of this report that has me thinking Paramount execs must have heard some of the chatter on Reddit:
Studio sources dispute a rumor that 70mm prints of Interstellar were destroyed; Paramount claims it has archived more copies of the movie than most other pictures. However, because reels of film experience wear and tear while playing on the big screen, it’s not uncommon for them to be unusable after their theatrical runs.
The latter scenario sounds more like the truth, as I presume that if anyone told Christopher Nolan they'd destroyed an IMAX 70mm print of any film, in any condition, his anger would be akin to Oppenheimer's practical nuclear explosion effect. Paramount brass would probably be right there with him, considering Interstellar’s complicated studio dealings saw the project originate at Paramount, but eventually led to Warner Bros. getting a piece of the pie.
Having existing, runnable prints would be Paramount's way of winning the war, so to speak, as that studio would be the one primarily making money off of future reissues. At the same time, film preservation in the current movie ecosystem isn’t at a premium. Some movies are lucky to even be available digitally, much less on physical media.
So the rather dire rumors about why this Interstellar re-release was supposedly rescheduled did seem to align with what fans were ready to believe as the truth. But now, with that rumor dispelled by Paramount, it's time to talk about where those stories probably started.
The Rumors Surrounding Interstellar’s Delayed IMAX Re-release
Again, the only reason I’ve had this much skin in the game pertaining to this story is the fact that I’ve been following the Interstellar drama on Reddit for a couple days now. Two of the reasons that were circulated throughout the IMAX threads pertaining to this chain of events have some valid concerns.
And I think it all came from what looked like a pattern of theaters cancelling their plans for the September 27th release, which inspired theories such as this:
Bad News on Interstellar Re-release from r/imax
If this were the truth, I could totally see Christopher Nolan being furious about the fate of Interstellar. It would also explain how myself and other home video aficionados got our own IMAX film cells when purchasing the Blu-ray edition of 2014’s emotional sci-fi hit. So maybe we were part of the problem all along.
Reddit users took to emailing their local IMAX venues for further clarification before the official announcement was made, and with varied results. Some said that the show was still going on as planned, while others alleged that they didn't know what was happening, which helped another theory gain traction.
Occupying the more likely realm of possibility is the sentiment that most movie fans thought the IMAX portion of Interstellar’s celebratory rollout was going to be jeopardized not by print destruction, but by the major releases set to land on that same weekend in September. If you know anyone who's been clamoring for the return of Twisters in 4DX, you're familiar with what I'm about to tell you.
Both Megalopolis and The Wild Robot are debuting on that day, and you can believe those movies will be competing for real estate in the already limited large format universe. If I’m being honest, Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project might win out, as the format got behind his picture before it even had a US distributor secured.
Meanwhile, a December 6th start is relatively easy to slot, as Interstellar shouldn't have to deal with too much competition in that particular week. It just has to wait for Moana 2's Thanksgiving release to make way for its arrival...provided that Disney's previous conditions for theatrical exhibition have been relaxed in modern times.
You can begin to see where it starts to feel less like scheduling movies and more like messing around in the Tesseract at this point. Everyone knows that sometimes a rumor is worth the paper it's printed on, so getting an official confirmation of the delay to Interstellar’s 10th anniversary re-release is relatively good news.
At the same time, you have to wonder just where the line between truth and fiction lies, as it’s pretty late in the game to make such a reveal. And seriously, is the proximity of a Disney animated movie going to further complicate things? We’ll see what happens as we get closer to the new December 6th date that should reunite us with Matthew McConaughey and his adventures in the fourth dimension.
Of course if you want to enjoy this adventure at home, perhaps in an effort to debunk that recent viral theory about Interstellar, you can, of course, purchase or rent the film on digital and physical media. Not to mention those of you with a Paramount+ subscription can jump back into the beauty of Christopher Nolan’s space-time odyssey at any time, at least at the time of this publication.
