Fox launches BD Live feature with Wolverine

PHYSICAL: Blu-ray users will have access to IMDb.com data

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 7/28/2009

JULY 28 | PHYSICAL: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is introducing new BD Live technology tied to popular movie database IMDb.com with the Sept. 15 Blu-ray release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Dubbed ‘Live Lookup,’ the IMDb feature will let fans hook into the site through BD Live to access up-to-date filmographies and other information related to Wolverine cast and crew.

This is Fox’s first time incorporating IMDb into BD Live interactivity and it appears to be the first studio to do so. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment teamed up with Gracenote to power a similar film database, movieIQ, for all Web-enabled Blu-ray new releases and catalog titles, starting this September.

As well as its Blu-ray release ($39.99 SRP), Fox also will street Wolverine as a two-disc standard-definition set ($34.98), both with digital copy, and a standard-def single disc ($29.98). The title’s prebook is Aug. 19.

The Blu-ray version also is stacked with exclusive featurettes, including “Wolverine Weapon X Mutant Files: 10 Character Chronicles,” “The Thrill of the Chase: The Helicopter Chase Sequence” and “X Connect and On Set With [director] Gavin Hood.”

Both the Blu-ray and two-DVD versions also include commentaries from Hood and producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter. They also include featurettes “The Roots of Wolverine: A Conversation With X-Men creators Stan Lee and Len Wein” and “Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins.”