Batman, Baby, Potter to go high-def

Most major studios once again announced plans to collectively release hundreds of titles in high-def this year, including simultaneous releases with DVD of their newest and biggest theatrical releases, such as Paramount Home Entertainment’s Mission: Impossible 3 on both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

Though not officially announced, scenes from Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s new King Kong were being shown in HD DVD here at the CES show, and that title, also listed on Amazon.com as coming in HD DVD, is expected to be one of the earliest releases for that format.

Similarly, Buena Vista Home Entertainment did not announce any of its biggest new theatricals for Blu-ray Disc yet, but sources say the studio is planning to put titles such as Chicken Little and The Chronicles of Narnia on Blu-ray as close to the DVD release as possible this year.

Meanwhile, two new suppliers chose sides last week. The Weinstein Co., which is distributing its new slate of films such as Derailed through Genius Products, will put high-def titles exclusively on the HD DVD format beginning this summer, while Eagle Rock Entertainment will release 20 of its music performance titles by artists such as Usher and George Benson on the Blu-ray Disc platform this year.

Specific title prices are expected by the end of the month.

None of the studio execs believe the new high-def formats will drive any meaningful revenue for their studios this year, but they say it will entice the early adopters and set up more significant growth in 2007 and 2008.

Lionsgate president Steve Beeks said high-def, which he describes as a “replacement” format, will not grow as fast as DVD, which was more of a dramatic shift from videocassettes.

Beeks noted that high-def discs require two purchases by consumers: a high-def TV/monitor and a high-def player.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, the studio with the most at stake in its Blu-ray format, is going out on a limb and committing to the debut of two titles—Bridge on the River Kwai and Black Hawk Down—using the 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray Disc, which has been running behind development time from the standard 25GB single-layer disc.

The studio also announced plans for summer titles featuring advanced interactive gaming using the BD Java software, which has sparked some dissension from Hewlett-Packard within the Blu-ray Disc camp. SPHE president Ben Feingold said the process is too far along now to turn back and not use BD Java.

As for the 50GB dual-layer disc, Feingold said both movies have long running times as well as hours of bonus features that the studio has produced but been unable to release on DVD because they take up too much space.

Sony also will take advantage of the enormous additional capacity to use uncompressed audio on some of its Blu-ray Disc titles, including two MGM titles in the first wave: The Fifth Element and The Last Waltz. Sony execs say that even movie theaters do not offer uncompressed digital audio.

The studio has plans to introduce the upcoming theatrical release Underworld Evolution simultaneously with the DVD in late spring/early summer, the earliest any company has said it will have Blu-ray players on the market. Sony will have 20 Sony and MGM titles, including XXX and Robocop, ready to go even earlier if Blu-ray players come to market closer to the announced March debut of two HD DVD players from Toshiba.

Disney’s first 10 catalog titles for Blu-ray will include the studio’s first computer animated film, Dinosaur, as well as Dark Water, Ladder 49, Armageddon and a couple of the same earliest titles it released for the PlayStation Portable, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Hero.

“The Blu-ray Disc represents a major technological advance in our industry, and just as DVD revolutionized home entertainment, the Blu-ray Disc promises to be the next step in our ability to satiate the consumer’s appetite for entertainment by providing the ultimate user experience,” BVHE president Bob Chapek said.

Sony will release four catalog titles each month beginning this summer, every new theatrical release simultaneous on DVD and Blu-ray Disc and the first of just two high-def versions of a TV series announced so far, Stargate: Atlantis. (HBO will have The Sopranos some time this year on HD DVD.)

Feingold said he expects to ship 50,000 to 100,000 units of each of the first titles, as compared to the 60,000 or so units for each of the first five movies shipped for PSP.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn said the studio will have five titles for Blu-ray Disc, including Fantastic Four and Ice Age, in stores two weeks prior to the release of the first Blu-ray player by any manufacturer. Fox will release 20 titles by summer, also debuting most new theatrical titles simultaneously on DVD and Blu-ray.

Each Fox Blu-ray title will have at least one feature unique to the new format and will include 10% to 20% of the bonus features from previously released or new DVDs and 80% new bonus elements. Those new elements will include advanced branching and menus and added value programming accessed through connections to other devices such as the Internet.

Fox also is preparing two sci-fi titles to be announced later that will take advantage of the extra capacity of the 50GB dual-layer disc.

“We have material that we set aside a long time ago for these,” Dunn said. “We’ve been working up to this and cataloging content for two years.”

Lionsgate will release its traditional new-format driver, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, among its first wave of high-def movies, which also includes recent release Lord of War as well as The Punisher, Reservoir Dogs, Total Recall, Dune and Rambo: First Blood.

Beeks said Lionsgate will be ready to release as many as 10 titles as early as March or April or whenever the first players hit the market.

He said the studio already has plans to encode some features using the new technology, which he said will represent the “killer app” for the format, but he declined to discuss those components.

Paramount joined Warner and Universal at an HD DVD media event on Wednesday.

“We are excited to support the launch of HD DVD with 10 titles from Paramount’s storied library,” said Thomas Lesinski, president of Paramount Pictures, worldwide home entertainment.

The studio will have more than a dozen titles ready to go for both formats at launch and later this year, including all three Mission: Impossible movies, the most recent of which is being released in theaters this summer.

But Lesinski said the studio will determine its own definition of what constitutes a “launch” of high-def digital disc players in the market.

A few hundred or a few thousand players at select retailers will not be enough to motivate Paramount to release product, he said.

“When we know there’s enough product out there, we will determine that to be a launch and will then put out product,” Lesinski said.

He predicted that timeframe will be summer or possibly late spring.

Warner identified release dates for 24 HD DVD titles and said that slate would be augmented with simultaneous DVD/HD DVD releases of upcoming summer theatrical movies Superman Returns and Poseidon later this year.

“We are pleased to confirm the availability of 24 titles, which will enable consumers to start building their high-definition libraries,” said Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders. “Warner Bros. has always been an innovator in home entertainment and is committed to delivering the best experience in any format.”

Like Paramount, Warner also is releasing movies in Blu-ray, but identified only 15 titles for that format (among the missing, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), in part due to that format’s thus-far delayed entry into the marketplace.

Among Universal’s first 10 titles timed to coincide with the introduction of the first HD DVD players in March will be The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Jarhead, Doom, Cinderella Man, Apollo 13 and The Bourne Supremacy.

"The launch of HD DVD marks a new era in the evolution of home entertainment," said USHE president Craig Kornblau.

In addition to The Sopranos, HBO Video, which is distributed by sister company Warner, will also release Deadwood on HD DVD sometime this year.

In a nifty nod to precedence, Warner is releasing Twister as one of its first titles on March 28, nearly nine years to the day that the movie became the first major DVD release.

Other titles planned include such recent DVD and theatrical releases as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dukes of Hazzard, Rumor Has It and Syriana.

Among the catalog titles from Warner will be Unforgiven (April 11), Goodfellas and The Matrix (April 25), Blazing Saddles (May 9) and The Green Mile Special Edition (May 16).