According to an article at The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount’s HD DVD release slate for the first quarter of 2008, originally to be unveiled at CES, will be presented on Thursday, January 17, 2008.
From past statements and educated guessing based on 2007 releases and delayed discs, we can pretty much guess what many of these movies are going to be, but the formal announcement should make things a lot clearer. For example, we can already guess that Beowulf, Bee Movie, Into the Wild, and Things We Lost in the Fire will be mentioned (since they’ve been mentioned before), as will an update on last year’s The Jack Ryan Collection which was recalled due to problems with the discs not containing any of the advertised bonus materials. We’ll report on the release slate after the information is made available.
Meanwhile, fellow HD DVD-exclusive studio, Universal, has been busy with a couple of movie announcements in the last couple of days. They’ve announced that the critically acclaimed, American Gangster comes to HD DVD on February 19, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age on February 5. They had also previously announced Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution for February 19.
Warner still has HD DVDs to crank out for at least the first half of the year, such as Invasion, and I Am Legend among others. As a side note related to Warner, it’s been reported that BBC titles will continue to be distributed on HD DVD. Though BBC discs are released through Warner, the BBC has some independence in asserting their support for HD DVD. After all, the BBC is not a Time Warner company — they’re just a studio that needed a local distributor for their discs, and the HD DVD version of Planet Earth has outsold its Blu-ray counterpart any way.
So that’s a little bit of a peek into the movies coming in the future. If all of that has whetted your appetite to pick up a few movies, you can click on any of the movie links above to get to the pre-order pages (if available) on Amazon. For more instant gratification, you can check out these sales on movies that are already out:
- Amazon still has their sale on 84 HD DVD movies with plenty of titles at $14.99
- Circuit City has 34 HD DVD and Blu-ray titles at $17.99 until Saturday, Jan. 19
- Tower Records has a sale similar to Amazon’s but on lots more movies and slightly more discounting
- Deep Discount has plenty of HD DVDs under $20
January 17th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I am kinda of worried Pravin, I was expecting a boatload of cataloge titles to help balance out the Warner effect, hopefully Paramount will make another annoucement.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
If you look back at 2007, this is just about the regular pace that each studio puts discs out. It’s really slow, isn’t it? Many HD DVD supporters think that Universal and Paramount could unleash more from their catalogs, and we’ll have to see if there’s any movement towards that in the following quarter.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
The one piece of good news that I recieved today, well two pieces actually were that American Gangster has a release date, and more importantly HD-DVD exclusive backer StudioCanal has over 12,000 movies that can be released. So a lot of importing might be done with Stargate, Total Recall, and T2.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
We’re lucky about Studio Canal, but there are some other European disc distributors that might choose to follow Warner’s footsteps and importing might eventually become less of a solution for those titles that are Blu-ray here, but HD DVD overseas.
On the other hand, the installed base might buy enough discs to keep many studios right where they are. For example, a couple of porn studios that had been quoted as saying they’re leaving HD DVD came out to say they’ll actually keep making HD DVD discs since there is a demand.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Well hopefully Paramount and Universal stay with us. I figure if Toshiba can reach the two million standalone mark, it would be safe to assume HD-DVD would be here to stay, but I also think they need to focus in Europe as well as the US to ensure that Studio Canal has the demand to remain exclusive.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Luckily (from my point of view) Studio Canal is also moving into the Blu-ray territory with their release of the “Les Bronzes” box-set in Blu-ray.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Jonsson, that’s pretty much the last comment from you that’s going to be approved at this site. You’re only here to speak about Blu-ray, and this site is really more about HD DVD.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:26 am
I see, you’re not seeking a balanced debate where all opinions can be heard? That’s somewhat disapointing.
But I guess the way things go now the HD-DVD camp needs to take such measures to try and keep up the illusion. I said it before and I say it now, HD-DVD is rather liberal with their description of the real world.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:34 am
I’m not here to debate, and I’ve already had trolls come by in the past under the guise of “debate” and “discussion” who are really only here to talk about the glories of their format. There’s already a site for that and it’s not this one.
January 18th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I am glad that Paramount is putting out some movies but the true test of Paramount’s faith in HD-DVD is how many they put out in the coming months. I hope so, because I am loving the sale on HD-DVD’s, though at an unhappy point. Keep them coming studios…I support you!
January 18th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Just got back from watching Cloverfield and man thats gonna be a great buy on HDdvd when it comes out ^_^
January 19th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I see where Warner will release HDDVD titles some weeks after the BluRay version until they complete the break from HDDVD altogether. I am not sure why they would do that other than to push those of us who have both types of players to buy thise disks on BluRay rather than wait. I do have both types of players but I will wait the extra few weeks. I don’t have a thing against BluRay. They make a fine product, but not as fine in the small things as HDDVD so when I have a choice I fall towards the Red end of the spectrum. I was somewhat dismayed about Warner’s decision a few weeks back but HDDVD is far from dead. For those of you who are thinking about making the jump completely to BluRay let me just say that no matter what happens your HDDVD player will still work fine and there are over 800 movies available for it already. PLUS it is a fine upconverter for your SD DVDS. Heck *I* still use my laser disk player from time to time!
January 19th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
If Paramount would like to help push HDDVD sales I have two words for them….THE GODFATHER. If the Godfather and Godfather II were released to HD DVD, they migh possibly break all records for HD sales even though they are “catalogue” titles.