General Blu-ray News and Discussion - Part 5
 

Continued from part 4...

You might notice that the Blu-ray discussion is on its fifth thread, while the HD DVD discussion is only on its second. The overwhelming reason for this is because a tiny handful of particularly determined posters are hellbent on diminishing every piece of Blu-ray news, no matter how innocuous it may be.

This is thread is intended for news and discussion about Blu-ray. Criticism of the format and studios is acceptable and encouraged, but that doesn't give you carte blanche to post that "this is why your Blu-ray update doesn't matter" or blindly defending HD DVD. There are no more "...versus..." threads here, and those users who continually attempt to use this thread to that end will be suspended.

We've been overly lenient towards some obnoxious users up to this point, but the derailment at the end of the earlier thread will not happen again.

If you're not interested in Blu-ray -- and I don't care if you have a player or not -- stay away from this thread.

rock on!

Alright, guys, let's talk about the point of even having a Blu-ray player: HDM. Let's hear your predictions for Top 5 Blu-ray releases of 2008 (sales-wise or in terms of being a candidate for DVD Talk Collector's Series). Pan's Labyrinth got in just before the buzzer to close '07 -- what are we gonna get in '08 that will cause non-HD supporters to make the leap? You would think we'd be seeing great titles coming at a breakneck clip, but I just don't see it yet.

I personally have no huge predictions to make. I just want to comment that I hope to see many more titles announced for the 2nd quarter than what we've got now. Right now, I'm basically just looking forward to "No Country for Old Men", "Michael Clayton", "Walk Hard", "Twister", and "The Chronicles of Narnia" this year (and I think that covers stuff that has been announced up through May). Everything else I've seen announced is just going to get a Netflix rental. By comparison, when I was still buying DVDs, there were weeks when I would buy that many titles at one time. I don't even buy DVDs anymore -- just rent.

the dark knight ought to come out before the end of the year. i predict it will have the biggest first-week numbers of any title so far.

of the titles with official release dates, i'm personally looking forward to:
Gattaca
No Country For Old Men
Bonnie and Clyde

but i don't think any of those will do very big numbers (though No Country ought to be respectable).

I am looking forward to Lawrence of Arabia. And this is the only A-region title so far that has me excited (Run Lola Run I pre-ordered). In a month or so I will have a B-machine which clearly will make me excited about a few imports (Roman de Gare in particular and depending on initial reviews most likely Caramel).

This being said, I think it is very difficult to tell how the year will shape up as we simply have very little info thus far (my feeling is that catalog titles will be much stronger than new releases).

Pro-B

My bad - I forgot Bonnie & Clyde. I will definitely purchase that.

Nothing announced so far from Blu-ray has be going "Yes!". Hopefully we get X-men I & II, Magnolia, Rushmore and Fight Club later this year. I can't think of any movie this year coming into theaters that has me going "Yes!" either (but I don't follow Theatrical movies that much). Problem is, I don't see Blu-ray (or HD DVD) digging deep into their catalog to release movies I'd like to buy. Releases so far have been so damn random I don't know if were going to get Magnolia or Darkness Falls. :lol: Casee in point, GI Jane. Was anyone REALLY expecting that one so soon?

I heard a Wolverine and/or Magneto movie was coming out...any idea if its this year? If so, X-Men I and II would make snse to be released around that time.

Edit: Dark Knight is a must for me. Hopefully its better then the first movie as I thought it was pretty boring.

really? isn't that the opposite of what we've seen so far?

i do think catalog titles will pick up considerably this year, but it seems like there will have to be tons of catalog releases for them to catch up with the big numbers that day and date titles do.

anyway, i will add to my list that if Iron Man does pretty well at the box office and gets critical reviews at least on par with Transformers, it ought to move a lot of units on BD.

I don't think they're too far on the Magneto/Wolverine films, but I wouldn't rule out X-Men/X2 releases simply because of that. As for Batman Begins, I thought it was very good for a comic book to film translation. It spent the necessary amount of time building a believable backstory rather than just jumping in and getting it all wrong. The sequel should only require backstory on The Joker, and I think it will be pretty action packed. I am stoked for it, and would be downright shocked if we didn't get both Batman titles on the same release date (unless WB gives us Batman Begins around the theatrical release date of The Dark Knight!)

X-Men:Wolverine in May 09... I hope the first two are released sometime this yr... but they might just wait until next yr.

I can't wait to hear the score of the just announced Patton in lossless sound. Fight Club is the other title I'm waiting for in 2008.

Didn't Fox promise the Alien flicks? Gimme.

what blu-ray needs is a title like Raiders get the treatment like Bladerunner received to get some of the mainstream buyers interested. New Indiana movie is coming so maybe some hope sooner than later.

FYI, Iron Man, as of right now, is Paramount, which is HD DVD exclusive.

I'm assuming he's talking about quality rather than absolute sales numbers. Otherwise, that statement doesn't reflect the trends that have been in place pretty much since the inception of home video. Recent theatrical releases have dominated sales charts for decades.

Indeed. It seems like the French Warner list for 2008 for example that was leaked through RAMA has plenty of titles that if done right will move a lot of units in North America. The reason why new releases sold better in 2007 is because they were the perfect promotion for one of the camps to secure a larger base of supporters. Quality catalog releases on the other hand require more time as well as a secure market to sell well, something the distribs have not exactly been graced with.

Pro-B

I don't think they did. I believe that was wishful thinking that morphed into a rumor they were coming.

I think the best-selling title will be (or should be) Indiana Jones ATKOTCS, assuming it's at least half as good as hoped.

This should be spoilered.

Okay, I've put spoiler tags both on the original post and the quote in your post.

I agree. So far all of the buzz I've heard has been nothing but positive, so when Paramount makes the jump to Blu-ray, Iron Man will be a big seller.

The title I really want is Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World.

I also wish Fox would stop short-changing the special features (in some cases, leaving them out all together) for their Blu-Ray releases. Of course, it's for the inevitable double dip.

I thought they announced Die Hard was coming at the same time.

It's possible that Alien and Aliens might've been mentioned in an interview or something somewhere along the line, but they had definitely never been formally announced.

:up:
The clip from the Blu-ray demo in 2006 was one of the things that started me down this HD disc buying road. Can't wait to finally buy this on Blu-ray.

Maybe 2008 will be the year Warner Brothers releases Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and LA Confidential.

Lawrence of Arabia is number one on my list as well, to go along with my Collector's DVD edition and Superbit. But are there any specs on it? I'm hoping they transfer all the extras as well as sound from the Superbit release. New extras would be nice as well. They've been pimping this title since day one by showing it on the Blu Ray promo.

I'm looking forward to Lawrence of Arabia too, but do we know it's coming this year? I learned a while back not to get excited about rumored catalog titles.

BTW, I hope they don't transfer the sound from the Superbit. Half-bitrate DTS? No thanks, make it TrueHD. :)

Three excellent titles whose dvd couterparts have been pretty poor on the video department.

The Dark Knight should break all HDM records when it comes out but I would also put Iron Man in the running since it does fit the PS3 demographic as well.

Grubert found a listing of the following titles coming out in Germany, so hopefully we'll be getting U.S. announcements soon. I hope we get a nice box of those Dirty Harrys!

New releases:
Rendition
The Golden Compass
I Am Legend

Catalog:
Mystic River
Dirty Harry
Magnum Force
The Enforcer
Sudden Impact
The Dead Pool

Catch-up titles:
Batman Begins
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Constantine
V for Vendetta

Anyone hear anything about the Night of the Werewolf Blu-ray?

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Werewolf.../dp/B000YDBP5W

Is a DVDTalk review in the works?

I've seen some reports on AVS that it's shipped, so you might want to take a look over there.

We haven't gotten any of BCI's high-def releases to review, unfortunately. We're also not getting anything from Lionsgate, and it's been hit-or-miss with a few other studios. Personally, I would've loved to have reviewed that BCI disc since I'd already reviewed both halves of that double feature on DVD.

^ I didn't know that. I was wondering why 3:10 to Yuma on BD had not been reviewed by DVD Talk.

No reviews copies they purchased in store or online?

Just speaking for myself, I don't. Reviewing is a very slow, laborious process for me, and if I have the option, I'd prefer to watch a movie without having to write anything about it afterwards. There's usually something waiting to be reviewed by the studios that do support the site anyway, which is why you see me review dreck like Mobsters and Mr. Woodcock that no one else will touch.

Engadget has a bit of news up about a possible release of titles by Paramount. Three titles have come up for preorder in March.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/21...-is-going-blu/

I'd like to see Blu-Ray announcements of some DVDs I Ebayed recently in anticipation of upgrading:

Ghostbusters
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Batman Begins
Fight Club
Heat
V for Vendetta

And I would love to be given the chance to Ebay some more DVDs when these Blu-Rays seem alittle more likely. But, I am holding on to them for now.

LOTRs (Obviously)
Star Wars (Obviously)
Indiana Jones (Obviously)

Funny that they are all comedies, and not the stuff you would imagine to be big-sellers like Transformers and Beowulf. Looks like a goofball rumor... but we'll see. I would buy Anchorman.

It's not a rumor, they found that Amazon UK put up those titles for pre-order that's all.