Dan

New Line
Hairspray. Both formats.

ugh.

stingermck

Supermallet

What the fuck? Come on, New Line.

Unless this is the original John Waters' Hairspray, in which case, I say bring it on.

Gizmo

Phew! Atleast its not a crappy movie like Final Destination or Lord of the Rings.

jiggawhat

Throw me a frickin bone here... why couldn't it have been Austin Powers.

eedoon

I hope they're just testing the new ground here.

QuePaso

Baby steps.. Im happy they announced anything at all.

The Bus

Drexl

Hey, I'm glad they're not using TotalHD. Maybe that really will go away.

Does it really matter what the first title is? We had heard they would be starting with new releases, and this is just that. Hopefully they'll have some good catalog titles to go along with it.

Jericho

I agree. They're obviously starting with new releases since those actually sell on High Def formats as opposed to catalog titles, which barely sell at all. Start with something that will actually, you know, sell a copy seems smart. I'm guessing Hairspray is scheduled to be released earlier than Rush Hour 3.

And then from there, who knows what might come out...

Bill Geiger

For the lazy:

I'm at the Home Media Expo this week in Las Vegas, which officially kicks off tomorrow, but got a sluggish start today.

There's surprisingly little on the official agenda this year from Blu-ray and HD DVD backers, strange since they both have so much riding on this fourth quarter, which will really be the first that players are widely available at retail. There are no panels for retailers on either format. No presence on the show floor by backers of either format, no big presentations to sell retailers on their respective format.

Sure the HD DVD Promotional Group is offering Toshiba's bottom line HD DVD player for $99 to attendees, which is totally tempting. New Line told indie retailers today that Hairspray would be their first high def release on Blu-ray and HD DVD. But that's about it. No competing press conference between the two camps like last year, no Blu-ray lounge from Sony as there was last year.

That's not to say that backers are skipping the show altogether, just the retailer part, it seems.
Kiosk makers and digital download services certainly seem to be reaching out to them at the show. They'll take part in panels focused on digital distribution, the new part of the business that's expected to grow much slower than high def disc and be a much smaller part of the market for the next five years. Lionsgate estimates that consumers have so far spent $40 million on digital movie downloads, which is like less than the consumer spend on one small box office DVD release. And most retailers I asked about digital yesterday seem unconcerned with it right now.

Instead I've heard talk from small and midsize retailers about Blu-ray and HD DVD and whether more retailers are starting to lean in Blu-ray's favor. Too bad there's no big push from either format to the show them why they should or shouldn't pick a side already.

Jim

Bill, Hope you don't mind if I ask if you're a retailer or work in the industry in some other capacity? Just wondering about your connection to the show as it helps give your comments perspective.

Skoobooz

While I don't care about Hairspray, I am thrilled that New Line will finally be taking a step into releasing titles in HD. Now if only Dreamworks Animation and Criterion would finally jump in....

Skoobooz

I think he just copied and pasted the article....

starseed1981

WTF. This better mean Dark City is not far behind.

Giles

given the standard disc is a benchmark demo disc for handling/conveying very dark scenes, I would assume the HiDef will supercede it.

Overpar

The anticipation in underwhelming.

Bill Geiger

exactly.

clckworang

Well, I was temporarily very excited because I thought we were talking about the John Waters film. Now, not nearly so excited, but at least New Line is finally getting into the game.

PerryD

The unfortunate part of this announcement is that their first title hasn't even been released to theaters yet, therefore will be at least 4 months before hitting the HD formats, kind of becoming a bottleneck to the future releases.

I was surprised to see that this movie has a 100% Rottentomato score so far with 19 reviews. I could have sworn that it was 91% just yesterday though. It will be interesting to see how the score holds up once the major reviews hit on Friday.

Davy Mack

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hairspray/

It's at 100% on RT.com.
Who knows...? Maybe it is actually good. Gonna be full of color. Will probably look great in HD....

It's one of the best Broadway-tuner adaptations in recent years -- yes, arguably even better than those Oscar-winning ones. Unpretentious, feel-good pic is low on histrionic diva wailing and MTV-style editing, high on retro movie-musical craftsmanship.

Dennis Harvey
Variety

fryinpan1

I would not watch Hairspray if you gave me the HD DVD or Blu-ray disc for free. Nevertheless, at least this is a start for New Line.

Drexl

I'm not sure if I want to see it in theaters, but I will definitely rent it.

candyrocket786

Just got back from the theater and I can now say that I'm definitely looking forward to owning this title on HD-DVD

Davy Mack

It got rave reviews pretty much across the board.
If it's a hit, should do well on HD...