Is some game console or other device borrowing your HD DVD player’s HDMI cable or jack on your HDTV? It may be time to reclaim that cable or jack because Gary Ugarek has a new HD DVD in the pipeline.

The great Gary sent word of his newest feature film, “All in the Game” coming to HD DVD on December 6, 2011. Here’s exactly what Gary had to say:

My newest Feature film, the Urban Gangster Drama, ALL IN THE GAME, is coming to HD DVD December 6th 2011. Set as a very limited release (max 250 Copies) will be hitting full HD for all HD DVD Fans

the Release will be on a 15gb HD DVDR, in addition for 3rd Generation playback, will include a HDDVDR 9gb supplement of the film and extras (more…)

UPDATE: link to box art (click here)

One day, they’re gonna write folk songs about Gary Ugarek. Maybe they’ll even make Chuck Norris-like jokes, except the punchlines will be about how Gary has kept going back to support his dedicated fanbase and his own fondness for the HD DVD format.

Gary had had some amazing news about our favorite Blue laser format on this Black Friday: The original Deadlands movie will soon be released on a limited edition HD DVD release set for January 11, 2011.

Here’s the story straight from Gary’s press release:

11/25/2010

WETNWILDRADIO FILMS is proud to announce their first motion picture feature, the 2006 indie sleeper hit DEADLANDS: THE RISING will be joining its younger brother, DEADLANDS 2: TRAPPED on the defunct HD DVD format for a limited edition run for all the HD DVD enthusiasts that still support the former TOSHIBA format.

Deadlands 1 & 2 Director Gary Ugarek, a huge supporter of the format campaigned to release the 2008 follow up to Deadlands 1, Deadlands 2: Trapped, on the format and the release was a massive success. While only released in a limited edition quantity of 500 copies, the title quickly sold out and now fetches top dollar as a collectors item via eBay auction and other online purchasing sources. It was only proper to release the original film on the format to help those who collected Deadlands 2, so they had a current and complete series.

“After the release of Deadlands 2 on HD DVD, the fans wanted the first film to also join the format. At first i was skeptical because Deadlands 1 wasn’t exactly a prime candidate for an HD DVD release, but after mulling it over for a few month I decided to give the fans of Deadlands 2 and HD DVD what they wanted…” – Gary Ugarek Writer/Director and CEO of WETNWILDRADIO FILMS.

Deadlands: The Rising is very much a Low Budget film, shot on a small budget of about $10,800.00 USD, while Deadlands 2, was shot on an even smaller budget of $6,000.00 USD. Combined both films have won a total of 6 awards and have garnered over 15 nominations at various film festivals around the world. Deadlands; The Rising was originally released by TEMPE VIDEO in April 2007 through their partner label SPLATTER RAMPAGE, and has remained the distributor top selling Zombie related title since its release in 2007. Deadlands 2: Trapped recently joined the TEMPE library with an extended and unrated release on October 19th 2010. (Deadlands 2: Trapped was originally released by LA Based Anthem Pictures in 2009, Anthem is the US distributor of the Deadlands 2 HD DVD)

The Deadlands: The Rising HD DVD will come with a plethora of new features including:

Extended Work Print Version of the film – Contains over 2+ Minutes of material not int he original DVD release and an Alternate Ending
Original Ending for the film
Deleted Scenes
5 Years Later – A Look Back at the Making of Deadlands: The Rising
Behind The Scenes – The Traffic Jam sequence
Behind The Scenes – Over Budget, Location short and trying to get it finished a short look at the headaches of producing the first feature film writer/director Gary Ugarek undertook.
much much more.

What makes this release more unique is not only is it another release for the format long considered defunct since 2008, but the HD DVD fan community helped make the release a reality. Fans of the format helped with everything from the authoring of the Disc itself to the ARTWORK for the release.

“Because HD DVD Authoring is more or less non-existent through production houses, the HD DVD fan community at HighDefDigest.Com helped WETnWILDRADIO FILMS bring everything together. Fans and supporters from France and Spain have gone above and beyond to make sure this release is as perfect as it can be by lending their expertise in the authoring of such a long forgotten format that has very little in the way of professional authoring tools available. This has really been an HD DVD Community effort and i am damn proud of the work accomplished by all involved.” – Gary Ugarek

Deadlands: The Rising is set for an early 2011 Release (January 11th 2011)

For more information about the film visit the official website at www.playingwithdeadthings.com

Gary Ugarek
writer/director
DEADLANDS 2: TRAPPED

Go Gary!

Thanks to all of your support, (and that of many, many others) Gary Ugarek’s Deadlands 2 won the People’s Choice Award for the 2010 World Music and Independent Film Festival in Washington, DC.

Gary worked hard to round up votes from this and many other websites and was able to garner over 53,000 votes, winning by a margin of 16,000 votes over The Mountain Music Project, a documentary about mountain music from Appalachia to the Himalayas.

A hearty congratulations to you, Gary!

Whether you’ve enjoyed Gary Ugarek’s Deadlands 2 on HD DVD or DVD, Gary sends in word now that he needs your votes in an Audience Choice award in the World Music Independent Film Festival. Simply go to http://wmiff.com/?q=movies/vote-peoples-choice-film, scroll down once or twice and select Deadlands 2 from the list of films, then scroll to the bottom to submit your vote.

In addition to the Audience Choice award, the film has been nominated in three other categories:

1. Best Director
2. Best Screenplay
3. Best Horror/Thriller

Pass the word to your homies, comrades, confederates, associates, everybody! Deadlands 2 is within striking distance of second place, and with your help in spreading the word, first place is not out of the question. Voting closes on August 15, so act quickly.

Gary is currently in pre-production on Deadlands 3. At this point in the history of the discontinued format, it’s left to independent filmmakers like Gary, and Michael Bilinski (Smokers) to come out with a new title now and then on HD DVD. In the bigger picture, supporting indie artists of all kinds is good for art as a whole because those artists take on projects that the mainstream companies don’t always explore.

It’s easy for a studio to make a movie out of a book, comic, game, TV series, or remake another movie and just wait for the money to roll in. The same is true about music. Independent artists go beyond this factory-like churn and try something different. Whether they cross over or remain independent, they are eventually able to bring their vision to larger audiences, and new ideas into the industry. It all starts with grass roots support. Vote for Deadlands 2 and show your support for the guy who released on HD DVD just ’cause he wanted to.

• Vote for Deadlands 2 at the WMIFF

UPDATE: Links in the article have been updated

UPDATE June 30: First 100 Pre-orders are in, the disc is on!

Did you think you had every last HD DVD disc accounted for? You even counted Gary Ugarek’s Deadlands which came out this year, long after the official HD DVD party ended?

Well, pull out that spreadsheet or database program, because there’s soon going to be one more HD DVD title to add to the list (and maybe even more than that if things go well).

Indie filmmaker, and HD DVD fan, Michael Bilinski joins the ranks of fellow independent Gary Ugarek, in making an HD DVD version of his movie, Smokers.

In Michael’s own words: (more…)

The latest news from Gary Ugarek adds a whole lot of Zombie cred to his name. Not only has he made movies about Zombies, he then got involved with trying to put out a new HD DVD disc long after the format was already laid to rest, and then had that disc project itself require resurrection.

The new word on Deadlands 2 is that Anthem Pictures (the distributor) has been hard at work on offering the original product (bonus materials and all) through HD DVD-R discs, all made in-house instead of chasing down replication houses that failed them last time.

As usual, we have the story straight from Gary: (more…)

Writer/Director Gary Ugarek, the man behind Deadlands: The Rising, and its sequel, Deadlands 2: Trapped, also happens to be an HD DVD fan. He has been trying his darndest to release his latest creation on HD DVD, long after the format’s official demise.

We first covered news about Deadlands 2 last September, when Gary was able to announce pre-orders for this limited edition disc. Many of you jumped at the opportunity to show support for this project and placed orders at Anthem DVD.

Unfortunately, this story has not turned out the way that HD DVD fans would have wanted, including Gary. Rather than piece together an article based on various postings gleaned from around the web, I thought it would be good to give Gary a chance to tell us about it himself.

Here’s Gary Ugarek: (more…)

Whether you are celebrating holidays, holy days, or just taking some time off, best wishes to all of you for a wonderful new year!

2009 was a year where HD DVD lived on in some way for many of us via sales of old disc inventory, as well as promise of one last new title. Though the format is defunct in the western world, a sibling format, CB-HD has been making strong gains over in China, signing on more and more studios, like Warner and Paramount.

The Blu-ray format made its inevitable progress this year. The recent Black Friday saw sub-$100 players, one made by none other than Toshiba. Coming up at CES, they will show or announce players that support a 3D standard for the format to keep up with the numbers of 3D movies that have been coming out, such as James Cameron’s Avatar.

Though we loved our tangible physical media, most of us probably realized that HD DVD and Blu-ray were probably the last of the optical disc formats. But, did you expect such a huge proliferation in all the ways that we can now have HD content?

Netbooks were incredibly popular in 2009, and most of them included HD-capable video abilities in their $299 price point. In fact, almost all laptops sold today include basic HD features, as do most of the new smartphones and personal media devices. This spread of HD ability has kept pace with corresponding developments in the world of online video streaming, which is poised to make strong gains in 2010.

We no longer have to hook up a specially made PC to our HDTVs to enjoy video streaming, because more HDTVs are coming out with internet features built right in (as are Blu-ray players, finally!). This ranges from watching YouTube and Hulu, all the way to streaming DVDs from Netflix and Blockbuster.

What are your HD gadget plans for 2010? Did Santa leave any HD goodies for you under the tree? Have you eyed these thinner LCDs with LED backlighting? Or are you taking a break from the video side and focusing on building up the audio part of your home theater experience?

Though Toshiba has joined other PC vendors and included Blu-ray drives on their laptops, Microsoft joins Apple on this Windows 7 release week in continuing to leave Blu-ray off their own machines.

In a Windows 7 launch day interview with gadget site Gizmodo, Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer made some statements that included the words “360″ and “Blu-ray” in the same sentence. Ballmer’s exact words were, “Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there — you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.” Ballmer stated that the future of movies was to view them on-demand, and not on physical media. There was enough ambiguity in his words to lead some to conclude that an external Blu-ray drive was in the 360’s future, even though Microsoft spokespeople denied a new Blu drive.

Much later in the day, there was an emphatic clarification from Major Nelson, the Director of Programming for Xbox Live, who was able to burst the 360/Blu-ray rumor immediately. Major Nelson explained that Steve Ballmer was referring to the fact that Blu-ray drives are available as add-ons and options for PCs in home theater setups, and that Microsoft’s focus is on instant streaming of HD movies on the Xbox 360, as they’re doing now with Netflix.

Is this enough to completely squash the short-lived story about a Blu-ray 360? Only time will tell. Is there going to be a Blu-ray add-on drive? Only time will tell.

• Original Gizmodo interview (includes video)
• Engadget reports on Major Nelson
• Major Nelson at his own site denies 360/Blu-ray drive