Paramount is so Blu
PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT’S FANTASTICAL HIT THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES
LAUNCHES DAY-AND-DATE WORLDWIDE ON BLU-RAY
There Will Be Blood, Cloverfield, Bee Movie, Face/Off and Next
Also Released in Time for Memorial Day and Father’s Day;
Focus Remains On Immersive High-Def Home Entertainment Experiences
LOS ANGELES (April 29, 2008) – Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE), a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), today announced its first day-and-date Blu-ray release, The Spiderwick Chronicles on June 24 and rolling out in key international markets beginning in July. Continuing its commitment to offer the best possible movie experiences for consumers, the studio will deliver the highest quality picture, sound and special features available with these upcoming Blu-ray releases. In the U.S., There Will Be Blood, Cloverfield, Bee Movie, Face/Off and Next will begin arriving May 20 to capitalize on Memorial Day and Father’s Day. Internationally, The Spiderwick Chronicles will be followed by Cloverfield and the Academy® award-winner for Best Picture, No Country for Old Men beginning in August.
“Paramount Home Entertainment continues to focus on the consumer and to explore avenues that allow fans to get more out of their home entertainment experience,” said Kelley Avery, President of Worldwide Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures. “We will have a strong slate of titles for Blu-ray release throughout the year worldwide and are enthusiastic about expanding the format’s offerings for a broad consumer audience while delivering an experience that goes beyond what viewers love about DVD.”
The Spiderwick Chronicles launches PHE’s day-and-date new release strategy. Based on the best-selling series of books, The Spiderwick Chronicles takes viewers on a fantastical journey into the unseen world all around us and the Blu-ray disc will include behind-the-scenes featurettes, an exploration of the Spiderwick world, an exclusive peek inside Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide and much more.
PHE’s 2008 Blu-ray titles debut on May 20 in the U.S. with two sensational action-adventures: a Special Collector’s Edition of Face/Off, the mind-blowing crime-drama starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, with special features such as multiple commentaries, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, the Making Of Face/Off and more; and the sci-fi thriller Next, which stars Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and
Jessica Biel in an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story. The Next Blu-ray includes a Making Of featurette, “Visualizing the Next Move,” “The Next Grand Idea” and “Two Minutes in the Future with Jessica Biel.”
DreamWorks Animation’s smash hit Bee Movie also will buzz onto Blu-ray on May 20. The hilarious animated adventure from renowned comedian Jerry Seinfeld took audiences by swarm and earned approximately $287 million in worldwide box office. The
Bee Movie Blu-ray features a wealth of bonus materials including “Barry’s Trivia Track” with fun pop-up trivia, changeable menus, a Build-A-Bee feature to allow viewers to create their own avatar, lost scenes, alternate endings and much, much more.
Following the initial wave of titles, Producer J.J. Abrams’ monster hit, Cloverfield, arrives on Blu-ray on June 3. Earning over $166 million in worldwide box office to date, Cloverfield thrilled critics and audiences alike with its shocking, first-person video account of a horrifying attack on Manhattan by an unknown—and seemingly unstoppable—force. The Cloverfield Blu-ray will include an exclusive feature-length “Special Investigation Mode” with added details about the film. Additional features include a director commentary, Making Of featurettes, deleted scenes, alternate endings with commentary and more.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s critically-acclaimed epic There Will Be Blood also arrives on Blu-ray June 3. The film was named by more than 200 critics as one of the top 10 movies of 2007 and stars Academy Award®, Golden Globe® and SAG Award® winner Daniel Day-Lewis. The Blu-ray features a slideshow of vintage photos selected by the director and set to the unforgettable score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, deleted scenes, a featurette on dailies and more.
Blu-ray fumbles after winning format wars
Hot on the heels of last week’s report from ABI Research noting that many consumers may not see the picture quality difference between Blu-ray and standard DVDs comes the latest Blu-ray sales figures from NPD Group. And they’re not pretty.
According to NPD, sales of Blu-ray standalone players plummeted 40 percent from January to February, then rose a scant 2 percent from February to March. The general consensus was that once Toshiba dropped its support for the HD DVD format early this year, sales would increase.
In fact, sales of Blu-ray standalone players remain so low that NPD has not yet released actual numbers, for fear that it would be easy to identify individual retailers. The research group will start to give actual figures later this year, said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD.
Via NYtimes
Details on Seth Rogan’s the Green Hornet
Most of you will know, the pair has been working on superhero-update The Green Hornet, but Goldberg let us in on what fans can expect from next year’s superhero movie, “We decided to make it before he was the Green Hornet, when they [the Green Hornet and his sidekick Kato] had to work out their partnership. He’s a bit of a dick and he’s rude to Kato and it’s about them coming to terms with one another, so the Green Hornet people know is three years later.”
Via Empire
Sir Ian on Tolkien… and Magneto
“Yes, it’s true,” he said. “I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it’s not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf.”
“We talk occasionally and he’s looking forward to coming out of retirement, yes,” he said. “Guillermo will be getting around to starting the script in about six weeks when he’s finished filming Hellboy 2.”
The major question on everybody’s lips is what are they going to do with the second film, which takes place directly after The Hobbit and before Fellowship of the Ring?
“Well I’ve read The Hobbit so I’ve got a good idea of what the story would be,” said McKellen. “But as to how it’s going to work over two films and what going to happen on screen, well Guillermo has not got down to working out the major details yet – I can tell you it’s going to be amazing though.”
While on the subject of big-screen returns, what are the chances of McKellen re-appearing as the Master Of Magnetism in the long-mooted X-Men spin-off?
“They are making a Magneto spin-off but I don’t think it will involve me because it’s about the younger Magneto, it’s a back-story.”
Via Empire
Brad & Angelina go to France
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie returned with their soon-to-expand brood to France on Monday evening for what a source tells PEOPLE will be a “a stay of long duration.”
The couple, their four children, two nannies and three bodyguards arrived in a private Gulfstream jet at Nice and drove to nearby St Jean Cap Ferrat. According to local sources, they’re staying at Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s historic Villa Maryland.
The Florentine-styled villa with pool overlooks the peninsula’s small yacht harbor and commands an unparalleled view of the Mediterranean. The couple previously borrowed the villa for a one-week stay during their 2006 French break preceding the birth of daughter Shiloh.
Via People
The Uma Thurman & Kubrick movie that never was
“I was going to make a film with him — for a long time I was scheduled to make a film with him,” she said of “Wartime Lies,” a movie she was signed on to make with Kubrick in the early 90s. “I was contracted to do it and things happened and he shelved the film. He never made the film.”
The story of two Jewish family members, a young woman and her nephew, who disguise themselves as devout Catholics in order to avoid Nazi persecution, “Wartime Lies” was scrapped by the mercurial director after Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.” At the time, he was reputed to have concluded that an accurate film about the Holocaust was impossible — that the horrors of the era could never be captured on film.
His decision to move on to other projects was “devastating,” said Thurman.
“It was devastating because it was an incredible part,” she confessed. “It would have been the part of my career, the best part I ever had been offered or had written for me, or anything.”
Via MTV
