M:I III shooting to HD DVD

AUG. 8 | UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.—As retailers look for a “killer app” movie to give a kick-start to high-definition, Paramount will release the $133 million-grossing Mission: Impossible III on HD DVD and Blu-ray this year.

Execs from Paramount, Warner Home Video, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and New Line Home Entertainment laid out their HD DVD titles during the Entertainment Media Expo here Monday.

No street date or pricing was announced for Impossible, but it will mark one of Paramount’s first new A-list titles in the market.

Alex Carloss, Paramount’s VP of worldwide marketing and entertainment, said that all of the film’s special features were shot in high-def during M:I III’s production. He promised that the title would have the HD DVD-exclusive picture-in-picture bonus feature. Viewers can watch the director video commentary while the film is running.

Paramount said it will double its currently available 10 HD DVD releases to 20 by the end of the year.

Universal is due to have bowed 60 HD DVD titles by the end of 2006.

The studio showed off the HD DVD-unique bonus features of Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift during an interactivity session.

While watching the film, viewers can access a GPS navigational option to determine where the cars are located. Also while viewing the movie, viewers can calculate the dollar amount of damage for each car crash.

To spread the word about upcoming HD DVD activity, studio backers are launching a massive consumer product tour.

Universal executive VP of marketing Ken Graffeo told VB that the roving 18-wheeler HD DVD promotional truck, announced in July during Home Entertainment 2006, will debut in Denver in mid-September. Exact locations are still being determined.

An online ad campaign for HD DVD starts this week, and TV and outdoor spots will launch in the fourth quarter.

At its infancy, the format’s software sales are light, but studios keep rolling out titles, seeing potential in HD DVD.

“If you look at the number of hardware sales and the number of software sales, people are buying at the same rate or greater than they were with DVD [at the same early stage],” said Steve Nickerson, Warner senior VP of marketing management.

Toshiba audio/video marketing VP Jodi Sally said that tens of thousands of the company’s two HD DVD models have sold since their April launch. But that is primed to explode, she said.

At the end of 2006, it’s estimated that 24 million households will be equipped with HDTV and capable of playing HD DVD.

“If we can attach to just 3% of that figure, [that equals] 700,000 units [sold],” Sally said.

Warner’s Nickerson said the studio will add 35 to 50 additional HD DVD releases to its 21 currently available on shelves. He was optimistic about the estimated 45 million to 60 million HDTV households expected in the market in 2007.