Toshiba’s Blu-ray player did not bring HD DVD back from the dead, however Indie film makers WETNWILD FILMS and Anthem Pictures are resurrecting the HD DVD format with at least one brand new title: Deadlands 2: Trapped due out on October 27, 2009, in a limited run of only 500 copies.

What started out as a small discussion at the AVS forum has turned in to bigger news in the HD DVD world. Director/writer Gary Ugarek, an HD DVD fan himself, passed along a press release on Friday afternoon about his zombie horror film, Deadlands 2: Trapped. Here are some of Gary’s quotes:

• “Some people thought I was flat out nuts and were asking, why HD DVD? Are you not a Blu-Ray supporter? I answered I am, but when you have a dedicated fan base for a format, like HD-DVD does, and you see the passion of its supporters I immediately knew I wanted to do this for the fans. I want to give them something special.”
• “Right now we have 30gb of space to fill up, so Anthem and I are working together to see what can be included, and if we have the space I will keep adding more to the list to make it a packed to the brim HD DVD release of the film.”
• “I know it’s a gamble with HD DVD having lost out on the format war, but based on feedback from HD DVD fans we expect this to be a huge moment for them, the film and HD DVD. Kind of ironic that a zombie film would be helping HD DVD try to come back from the dead, even if for a short period of time, but who knows, if the program is a success maybe other indie filmmakers and distributors can do something similar for the HD DVD fans and keep it alive for the hard core.”

And more info directly from the press release:

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As I predicted in the previous posting, Toshiba made an announcement about their Blu-ray player right on time for the IFA show.

There will be pictures and interviews at the gadget sites, but here’s the scoop on what Toshiba included in their press release:

• Model: BDX2000
• Available in November for $249
• BD-Live Profile 2.0 and Bonus View
• SD card slot so that you can store any downloaded content
• does not play HD DVD discs

I did not expect availability in November, however none of us should be surprised that the BDX2000 supports the complete interactivity of the platform, since this kind of feature was already available on HD DVD players. The $249 price is pretty amazing, and is likely to catapult Toshiba towards the top of the list of popular Blu-ray players.

What do you think? Are you miffed about no HD DVD compatibility? I think it would have been nice to include, but would have confused some customers about HD DVD discs, and would also have made the player a little more expensive.

UPDATE: CNet points out that competing players in this price range offer Netflix and YouTube. I suspect these can be added via firmware updates. We’ll find out soon enough as more technology sites start picking up this story and begin to interview Toshiba reps.