Home Media Magazine - February 24, 2008 - (Page 38) NEWS Bloggers’ HD Debate Is Over Continued from page 1 due to studio support, bonus features or hardware specs, fans resolutely lined up on either side, discussing and defending their high-def choice. Sometimes the debate was rational. Most of the time it was heated. And it went on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But now that the war is over, after spending so much time and effort discussing HD, what do fans do with their free hours? “We do it just like we did 10 years ago after DVD vs. Divx [the ill-fated DVD competitor],” said Bill Hunt, editor of TheDigitalBits.com. “We get back to talking about great movies on disc. I suspect it won’t be too hard.” Jed Rosenzweig, publisher of HighDefDigest.com, said: “Obviously Blu-ray supporters are thrilled, while some ardent HD DVD backers are not. With the format war behind us, I think all eyes are on the studios’ Blu-ray release slates.” It’s no surprise HD DVD fans are in mourning, and Blu-ray fans are rejoicing. Yet home entertainment die-hards, red and blue, are now talking more about the movies than the way they’re delivered. “The reader reaction on our site has been surprisingly civil, as compared to the gloating that has happened on some forums,” said Tyler Pruitt, editor of FormatWarCentral.com. “Most of our readers want to focus on pushing Blu-ray into the mainstream so that it doesn’t become the next laserdisc.” Geoffrey Kleinman, editor in chief of DVDTalk.com, said: “Overall I think there’s a real www.homemediamagazine.com Will digital downloads make Blu-ray obsolete before it can really get off the ground? “If anything, we’ve actually seen more traffic since the Toshiba announcement,” said Ben Drawbaugh, an Engadget.com HD reporter. “I believe watching Blu-ray take on DVD and downloadable media will be more than enough to keep us occupied.” But not every Internet forum will be able to survive in this post-war world. Some Web sites are dedicated completely toward advancing one format or the other, and attrition is inevitable. “Some will die. That’s the cold hard truth,” Kleinman said. Seeing the end of the format war discussions won’t be entirely disappointing to some. “While it was fun, I won’t miss some of the nasty comments we saw,” Drawbaugh said. Film critic Pete Hammond (left) moderates a Q&A session with Scott. Photo by: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com Ridley Scott Discusses Extended ‘Gangster’ Cut By Billy Gil irector Ridley Scott is known as the father of the director’s cut. His 1982 film Blade Runner was recently released by Warner Home Video in myriad versions with multiple cuts. So it should come as no surprise that his American Gangster would come with a director’s cut as well. A two-disc unrated extended edition DVD ($29.98), a three-disc collector’s edition DVD ($34.98) and an HD DVD/DVD combo version ($39.98) streeted last week from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. During a Q&A session following a Feb. 19 screening of the unrated, extended version in Los Angeles, Scott revealed that despite his films’ success, he can’t help tinkering with them once they’re finished. “I think, as a director, I can never get it right in the editing room,” Scott said. “It’s basically got to be torn away from me.” Scott also called himself a “commercial bastard,” saying that screentesting movies is part of the process of filmmaking. When screening American Gangster, Scott said they received very high marks from the audience — an 86 out of 100, which is rarely received for an ‘R’-rated film, Scott said. It wasn’t enough. “The temptation was to leave it alone — that’s the film you saw tonight,” Scott said. “And then we got greedy and thought, you know, I wonder if we could push it past 90.” Scott changed the film, whittling it down to 2 hours and 27 minutes and changing the ending. When the film re-screened, the rating jumped to 92. In the extended cut’s ending, Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is seen with Russell Crowe’s detective Richie Roberts, the man who put him behind bars, as the two discuss the new era after Lucas’ 15-year prison sentence. Scott preferred this ending, but changed it to something more ambiguous. There was another reason for releasing an unrated, extended cut of American Gangster right off the bat: Before the film even hit theaters, it had already hit the Web in pirated versions, and the director’s cut trumps pirates. Scott said it’s also an easier experience watching an extended cut of a film at home on disc, rather than in theaters. “You’re much more relaxed and therefore you’re more patient,” Scott said. “You can get up, freeze it, get a can of beer and come back.” sense of relief. Everyone knew the format war would end at some point. So I think people are relieved that there’s now a clear winner, and there’s no more fear about buying into a format which might end up in your attic.” Now that there is a winner, anyone who may have been on the fence is out of excuses. “There’s real excitement from all those folks — and there are a lot of them — who have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for this thing to be over so they can finally buy a player of their own,” Hunt said. And the high-def discussions aren’t over. Will the studios ratchet up their high-def releases? Will Blu-ray ever compete with DVD? Netflix, Microsoft Rumor Mill Continued from page 1 Then, Netflix reportedly asked subscribers if they would be open to watching movie streams on Xbox. Scuttlebutt was the deal would be unveiled during Microsoft VP John Schappert’s keynote address at the Game Developers confab in San Francisco. It wasn’t. “[The deal] would make sense,” said Edward Woo, a media analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. Woo’s boss, Michael Pachter, who was at the conference, told MSNBC. com such a deal would give Microsoft “a partner that already streams movies to more than 7 million subscribers through their PCs.” Rob Enderle, analyst with Enderle Group in San Jose, Calif., believes the two companies are in discussions but that issues over licensing and cost, among others, have curtailed an announcement. “Microsoft already has a download service, and there are always people inside a company who want to protect [their] turf,” Enderle said. Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said company policy precluded him from commenting on speculation. A Microsoft spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. JUST ANNOUNCED A Weekly Product Update* TITLE STREET DATE PREBOOK BOX OFFICE (MILLIONS) GENRE PRICE Juno 4/15 3/19 $125.5 Comedy DVD $29.98, BD $39.98 Fox. 2007. Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons. A teenager faced with an unplanned pregnancy sets out to find adoptive parents for the child. Also available in a two-DVD special edition for $34.98. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber 4/1 Now $52.4 Musical DVD $29.99, HD DVD $39.99 VOD Future Still Uncertain Continued from page 16 Paramount. 2007. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen. Directed by Tim Burton, it is an adaptation of the Broadway musical about a revenge-crazed barber in London. Also available in a two-DVD set for $39.99. Aliens vs. Predator — Requiem 4/15 3/19 $41.7 Horror DVD $29.98, BD $39.98 sellthrough. With the exception of Warner, most studios and media companies involved have declared the results inconclusive. Lionsgate president and co-COO Steve Beeks told analysts last week the industry wanted a clearer view on the impact to DVD before going forward. The studio might have been responding to Forrester data that showed sales of pay-per-view movies declined 11% in 2007, to 56%, from 67% in 2006, and that subscription VOD fell 2% to 34%. Only free VOD, which included next-day prime-time TV programming, increased 12% from 46% in 2006 to 58% last year. Indeed, 50% of VOD viewers watch five or fewer VOD programs monthly, while 11% watch more than 10 programs — up from 7% in 2006. Principle competitor to VOD is the digital video recorder (DVR), which the report said generated three times the usage as VOD. Ongoing efforts to expand Web-based VOD continue to gain traction, according to the report. “2007 should have been a good year for VOD,” analyst James McQuivey wrote in the report. “TV service providers have 2008 in which to finally make VOD content easier to find and more satisfying to watch — or must step aside and watch players like Hulu and iTunes walk away with the market.” Fox. 2007. Steven Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz. In the sequel to Alien vs. Predator, the monsters from two film franchises wage war in a Midwestern town. Also available in a two-DVD extreme unrated special edition for $34.98. Lars and the Real Girl 4/15 3/19 $5.9 Comedy DVD $27.98 Fox/MGM. 2007. Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Patricia Clarkson. The brother and sister-in-law of an introverted young man are shocked to discover that his new girlfriend is actually a life-sized doll. Includes a deleted scene and two featurettes. Delirious 5/6 3/25 $0.09 Comedy DVD $19.95 Genius. 2007. Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Gina Gershon, Alison Lohman. A member of the paparazzi befriends a young homeless man who wants to be an actor. But when the homeless actor becomes romantically involved with a pop star, his relationship with the pap is strained. Hero Wanted 4/29 3/27 DTV Action DVD $24.96 Sony Pictures. 2008. Cuba Gooding Jr., Ray Liotta. A man who was shot in a bank robbery and left for dead pursues vengeance against the robbers. Includes deleted scenes, a commentary with Gooding Jr. and the filmmakers, and a digital copy of the movie. Botched 5/13 4/8 DTV Horror DVD $19.97 Warner. 2007. Stephen Dorff, Jamie Murray, Bronagh Gallagher. A professional thief’s situation goes from bad to worse when a heist goes wrong in a Moscow skyscraper. * In order of box office, then prebook date Home Media Magazine February 24–March 1, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://Engadget.com http://TheDigitalBits.com http://www.formatwarcentral.com http://www.formatwarcentral.com
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