Film - Naked Lunch

David Cronenberg's classic adaptation of Naked Lunch gets a Limited Edition 4k re-release on 17th April, thanks to Arrow Video. Watch the new trailer...

Press Release

In a career dedicated to seeing the unseeable and filming the unfilmable, perhaps only David Cronenberg could really do justice to William S. Burroughs’ controversial novel, Naked Lunch. Weaving together elements of Burroughs’ own remarkable biography with the content of the book, Cronenberg’s film steps inside the body and mind of an author to depict the dangerous act of imagination itself from the inside out.

Former junkie William Lee (Peter Weller, Robocop) makes ends meet as an exterminator. But when he and his wife Joan (Judy Davis, Barton Fink) discover the hallucinatory properties of the powder he uses to kill bugs, they become hooked, and their world is changed forever. Insects speak, typewriters mutate and talk, interdimensional beings reveal themselves, identities fracture and blur; nothing and no one is quite what it seems. When Bill, under the influence of drugs, or the bugs that have begun talking to him, shoots his wife, he flees to Interzone, at once a place and a state of mind, where things only get stranger.

Featuring a new 4K restoration approved by director David Cronenberg, and packed with an exhaustive selection of extras, including a new commentary and featurettes, this essential release also includes reproduction lobby cards, poster and an 80-page book. It will also be available on a Limited Edition two-disc Blu-ray, as well as an Arrow Store exclusive Original Art slipcase UHD edition.

Winner of Best Picture, Best Direction, and Best Screenplay at the 1992 Genie Awards and featuring an astonishing score by Howard Shore (Videodrome), Naked Lunch is provocative, transgressive, and surreal – a feast for the senses, where nothing is true and everything is permitted.



LIMITED EDITION 4K ULTRA HD CONTENTS

• New 4K restoration from the original camera negative overseen by director of photography Peter Suschitzky and approved by director David Cronenberg
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original lossless 2.0 stereo and 5.1 audio options
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary by director David Cronenberg
• New audio commentary by film historian Jack Sargeant and screenwriter Graham Duff
• Naked Attraction, a new interview with legendary producer Jeremy Thomas
• Exterminate All Rational Thought, a new interview with star Peter Weller
• Peter Suschitzky on Naked Lunch, a new interview with the celebrated director of photography
• Naked Flesh, a new interview with special effects artist Chris Walas
• A Ballad for Burroughs, a new interview with composer Howard Shore
• Tony Rayns on William S. Burroughs, a new interview with the renowned writer and critic
• David Huckvale on Naked Lunch, a new interview taking a closer look at one of Shore’s most unusual film scores
• A Ticket to Interzone, new visual essay by critic David Cairns
• Naked Making Lunch, archival making of documentary directed by Chris Rodley presented in a new scan from the director’s personal 16mm print and viewable with a new audio interview with Rodley discussing his connection to Cronenberg and the process of making Naked Making Lunch
• Concept Art Gallery, a collection of drawings and maquettes for the creatures of Naked Lunch by Stephan Dupuis
• Theatrical Trailer
• Image Galleries, including never before seen stills from the set courtesy of Chris Rodley
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
• Double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
• Six postcard-sized reproduction lobby cards
• 80-page perfect bound collector’s book featuring new writing by critics Vanessa Morgan and Jack Sargeant, plus select archival material including David Cronenberg’s introduction to Everything is Permitted: The Making of Naked Lunch, and a chapter from Cronenberg on Cronenberg