Universal to release over 100 titles in 2007 on HD DVD
 

Great news

Excellent! Too bad no info on Spielberg films, though.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the Universal Spielberg films...


http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/...ness/dream.php

Dreamworks were set to sell to Universal when...

"...Negotiations began with Universal more than a year ago, when Geffen sat down with one of his best friends, Ron Meyer, president of Universal Studios. A sale to Universal made sense for both sides, and Hollywood insiders as well as Wall Street observers fully expected a deal.

Spielberg has longstanding personal ties to Universal, the studio that gave him his first break as a young director when he made such blockbuster hits as "Jaws," "E.T." and "Jurassic Park." His production company, Amblin, is based on the Universal studio lot, where he has a contract to remain through 2010.

Indeed, Geffen said he and Spielberg favored making a deal with Universal. Geffen added, "Steven's instructions were: 'If it is possible to make a deal with Universal, make a deal."'

In July, DreamWorks and Universal agreed to a period of exclusive negotiations, and a tentative deal was struck for Universal to acquire DreamWorks for $1.5 billion, with about $900 million of that sum going to pay DreamWorks' principal executives and investors - $125 million more than the deal that was ultimately struck.

But the talks broke off two months later when Universal lowered its bid to $1.4 billion after the poor performance of some DreamWorks films, principally the big-budget summer thriller, "The Island," and the romantic comedy "Just Like Heaven." Geffen said the chairman of NBC Universal, Bob Wright, had made a handshake deal for the $1.5 billion, and then "reneged."

Feelings were bruised, but at the time, Universal was the only bidder for DreamWorks. Paramount had started to negotiate, but when Grey and Tom Freston, the co-president of Viacom, brought the proposal to the Viacom board of directors, they were told the deal was too expensive and was poorly timed because Viacom was in the process of splitting into two companies, Viacom and CBS.

Rather than abandoning the deal, Grey took a different message from that meeting. He felt the board favored the deal if he could overcome the obstacle of the price. When Grey learned that Universal had not closed its bid for DreamWorks by late November, he sounded out several private equity firms about the prospect of helping to finance the DreamWorks purchase. When he secured interest from a number of firms, he went back to Geffen to see if a deal were still possible.

On Dec. 2, Geffen called Meyer and told him another bidder was in the game. During the next week, Meyer waited for a response from GE's chairman and chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt. None was forthcoming.

On Thursday, Viacom's board met in New York and approved the purchase of DreamWorks. Grey and Freston flew through the night on a private jet to bring the contracts to the DreamWorks principals.

All that remained was for Spielberg, the powerhouse director with longstanding affection for Universal, to get comfortable with the deal and his new patrons. That took place on Friday morning at his home.

But before signing the contracts with Grey and Freston, Geffen called his friend Meyer. He would still make the deal with NBC Universal, he told Meyer, if General Electric would produce a check for $100 million as a good faith deposit on the purchase.

It was not to be. "They said, 'We couldn't get a deal done today under any circumstances,"' Geffen recalled. "That was the end. We knew they couldn't get it done in a day. They couldn't get anything done in a day....."

and from another article on Rottentomatoes.com

"...Steven Spielberg said, "I am thrilled by today's announcement of the deal with Viacom/Paramount, who came recently to the table and were able to conclude and sign agreements quickly. Due to my very long history and my loyalty to Universal, I was saddened that after long negotiations and many compromises, we were unable to come to terms with Universal's parent company, GE. Nevertheless, I am truly looking forward to working with Tom Freston, Brad Grey and Gail Berman, as this is an exciting opportunity for each of us to embark on a new adventure together."

Spielberg's probably not too happy with Universal at the moment...

This could decide the format war!!!!!!!!

Quote from article: "However, they will continue to aggressively push HD DVD/DVD combo discs; the studio estimated as many as 90 percent of its 2007 HD DVD releases will be combos."

90% combos? Ugh.

The Big Lebowski?

Yes, please!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind = Sale!

The MSRP of combos seems to have dropped to $34.99. This means (as long as the 10% off lasts) that getting these from Amazon will only cost around $21.50. I would gladly pay this extra $2-$3 to have the option to watch the movie on my laptop or portable DVD player.

I thought their catalog combo's have always been $34.99, but new releases are $39.99.

Not if you look at places like BB and CC. Not too sure on amazon though.

As for this announcement, this is definitely what HD fans have been waiting for. Unlike BR (again I support both formats), Universal is going to load these releases with interactive features or all the SD features. Excited times lie ahead!

Not sure what you mean, but...
$39.99 Miami Vice
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....uct&id=1618437
$34.99 American Werewolf In London
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....uct&id=1574217

I actually like the combo discs, as they let me watch the movie anywhere and not just on my HD DVD player at home. However, the prices could come down, even though they're about the same as some (non-combo) Blu-Ray titles.

Yeah, it does suck getting burned on the new releases, but most of the stuff I want will be catalog. HD DVD prices are going to have to start dropping if they want greater exceptance.

I don't get it - what is the purpose of the combo DVDs? If people are buying these, they are buying them for the HD content. In most cases the SD versions have been on the market for sometime, and are cheaper to boot.

So who in their right mind would be buying the combo release if they wanted the SD version? These just don't make sense to me.

One last thing - I read somewhere the reason Universal was HD-DVD exclusive was because they had a manufacturing partnership with Toshiba. Any truth to this?

See Ralph Jenkins' post above.
I don't like combos either, but for some people it comes in handy to have both versions of the movie. Although, for the rest of us, it would be nice to have a choice or there not be a higher price for something we don't want.

I have sold off the regular versions of all my combo disc, and most of my HD disc in general. My portable player is only SD, so if I wanted to take say Animal House with me someplace, I can now do so, but a movie like Gone in 60 Seconds is home only.

That said, I don't like paying extra for that ability. If they can do it for the same price great, but I don't want to pay extra for it.

Does anyone know when the 51G HD-DVDs are set to be released?

I want an HD only disc. I won't speculate as to whether or not I am in the majority, but I think it's clear many HD-DVD owners couldn't care less about the DVD side of these things. It wouldn't bother me as much of the list prices were the same as a standard disc, but they're not.

I'd like to get excited about this announcement, but the combos will definitely make me rent more vs. buying.

Perfect example: I would have almost definitely blind bought the Good Shepherd. Now that will be a Netflix if it's a combo. Same thing with stuff like Meet the Fockers, Inside Man and The Big Lebowski. I will get Children Of Men, Brazil, ESofSM and BSG no matter what.

It's too bad Uni didn't announce Blu-Ray support, since combos have yet to permeate that side, thankfully.

I'd like the full release list.

Highly unlikely that it'd be before Q4. Very possibly never.

There's alot on that list I want...Hope we get dates soon. :)

I'll be getting:

Children of Men
Smokin' Aces
Bourne Identity
Inside Man
Lock, Stock, and two smoking barrells
Shaun of the Dead
Dawn of the Dead
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
and Battlestar Galactica.

Also any Hitchcock.

Great news now lets see some dates:)

Does anyone know if Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels will be the "Locked 'N Loaded Director's Cut?"

Someone who plans to buy into HD DVD but hasn't done so yet? Children of Men comes out on a combo disc, our hypothetical movie viewer can buy the combo disc and enjoy the movie on DVD right now. But, a year later when he finally takes the plunge and gets an HD DVD player - would you look at that, he's already got some HD content to watch.

One more perfectly valid reason for their existence. I know this is tantamount to heresy around here, but what do you suppose would happen if an HD-DVD studio like Universal dropped SD disc production entirely and released NOTHING BUT combos at regular HD-DVD prices?

I suppose that's a question for another thread . . .

Not even a possibility at this point. If HD DVD really got on a roll this year that might be a possibility a year or two from now, but at this point there are no signs of it happening.

I would bet money that less than 15% of combo purchases are made by those who are planning to buy HD in the future. Most consumers don't think like that. We don't buy what we can use later, we buy what we can use right now.

Throw caution to the wind and just imagine it. What could you foresee as a result?

Since the consumers have no choice but to buy the combo discs, at least they can do is create 2 discs instead of 1 disc. It probably costs them 5 cents for a regular standard disc. They are charging us extra...then might as well release them with 2 discs - one HD disc and the other standard disc.

The combo is a win (studio) - lose (consumer) case in my opinion.

I know it wasn't directed at me, but I would foresee a lot more renting of Universal titles by the average DVD viewer. People impulse buy standard DVD's for new releases at a release day price of $14.99 to $17.99. They're not going to do that for ~$23.99 to ~$27.99 combos.

Yep....the majority without HD player would not buy a combo disc just because.... It's like buying a rim for a new car that you "might" buy a year from now...but not certain. Since there are still two options - HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, they're probably still deciding which one to buy...until then, they're still comfortable paying for the cheaper price for just standard DVD movies.

I already thought about that...with all these combos.

Wouldn't that piss off millions upon millions of their customer base who don't want HD anything?

I, too, think it's really interesting that 90% of their HD-DVD releases this year will be combos. I think if the in-store price was right (maybe around the same as a 2-disc DVD release) they could totally pull it off -- with certain titles, at least. Anyway, it could be a relatively effective way to "reach out" to the SD crowd; it wouldn't force them to abandon their beloved SD format, and it would serve to inform the uninitiated, too.

I realize, though, that's a lot of "what if", and it's all built on purely unsubstantiated speculation. Just for the record, I don't see it happening tomorrow, and I really wouldn't expect them to just drop all SD disc production, but if they were to do it with a handful of titles . . .

"I know I don't know nothin'. I'm just speculatin' on a hypothesis!":)

any news on how soon it will be released?

^Copped

Glad I waited for bsg

I may just end up importing some of these in order to avoid the "combo" format.

Well, part of the answer would be that Blockbuster, NetFlix, etc. would be "forced" to buy and rent the combo disks for their normal rental price. For every person who buys a disk, there are many more that just rent them. That vast majority of viewers would start to realize "Hey, since I'm already renting access to a superior version of this movie, maybe I should spend the $300 for an HD-DVD player." Demand for both players and combo rental disks would spiral upward. Could be the shot that ends the war.....

(btw: I'm format neutral and don't yet have a dog in this fight. Just applying logic to help answer the question raised.)