Producer Joel Silver’s updated version of the classic SF movie “Logan’s Run” is on again over at Warner Bros. with director Joseph Kosinski taking over helming duties from Bryan Singer. The script originally to be shot has been totally revamped by “Children of Men” screenwriter Tim Sexton.
Actor Zachary Quinto, the new Mr. Spock for the next Star Trek film, told USA Today that he is excited to be part of the legacy that is Star Trek, but is also thrilled to be on the ground floor of a whole new era of sci-fi with his landmark television hit show “Heroes.” Quinto gave one small hint about the film when he stated, “”We’re going back to a time before anything [Nimoy and Shatner did]. These characters are in a completely different stage of their lives.”
“National Treasure” director Jon Turtetaub has signed a muti-year deal with CBS Paramount Network Television. The director already showed success by producing “Jericho,” and now the network hopes he can strike gold again with some other new and fresh programming ideas for the Eye network.
Paramount is another huge studio to put the Ki-bosh on Blue-ray and will go exclusively with the HD-DVD format for all future DVD releases. In an announcement made today, the powerhouse studio is confident that the format to end up standing after all the dust has settled is HD-DVD. Why? Two reasons — cost to produce and lower cost of players to the consumer. For those of us who were around during the infamous Betamax and VHS wars, this sounds strangely like deja vu’. This may not hold water though because there are more Blue-ray players in the general public (thanks to gaming consoles like Playstation), thus far in 2007, HD-DVD has been out-sold by Blue-ray dics by the significant margin of two to one. What could be the determining factor is that after consumers have had to lay down some major cash for the Blue-ray player, they need to save up to be able to afford the dics. With Toshiba HD-DVD introducing their latest HD-DVD player for under $300.00 (U.S.D.), it begins to make sense why big boys like Paramount see the writing on the wall. Fact is, just like the Betamax/VHS debacle, quality will not be the overall factor in what the public chooses to purchase, but it will all boil down to price. VHS was cheaper than Betamax and even if the quality suffered a bit, in the end VHS was more affordable. It’s an old business adage –” Money, and saving as much of it as you can, drives the market, not quality.”
Time Warner Cable, COX Cable and Cablevision will launch a new service next month called World Premiere Movies (WPM) in partnership with RHI Entertainment. This premium service will allow fans of sci-fi/horror/fantasy and genre-related movies to feast on a whole array of films a full 3-months before they show up on SCI FI Channel, SPIKE TV and Lifetime.
Some of the films to be featured are “Black Friday,” “Maneater,” “The Sitter,” “Eye of the Beast,” “Deadly Suspicion,” and “Something Beneath.” These films will star genre staples such as Gary Busey, Judd Nelson, Marilu Henner and Kevin Sorbo. Average on-demand price per movie will be the standard $3.95 for conventional viewing and $4.95 for hi-def. RHI is also negotiating with Satellite providers and other cable distributors to have WPM on their service.
Some of the cable retailers will also allow some of the older classics to be seen via the on demand service at no cost. Films such as “Alice in Wonderland,” Captains Courageous” and “The Prince & the Pauper” will be available.
Tad Runkle says
This news from Paramont makes no sense. According to an August 15 Home Media Magazine article “Sales of movies on Blu-ray high-definition discs exceeded sales of films on the rival HD-DVD format by a 2-to-1 margin in the United States in the first half of 2007” and “Blockbuster Inc., the largest U.S. retailer of home movie entertainment, in June set out plans to line its shelves with Blu-ray DVDs, saying Blu-ray rentals were “significantly outpacing” HD-DVD rentals.”
Sam says
Glad you caught that Tad. My dyslecticia is kicking in again — the article meant to say that HD-DVD has been outpaced by Blue-ray 2 to 1 but in the big picture Paramount (and others) are looking at long-run and overall cost to them and consumers.
Rob Cannon says
The other thing wrong with your HD-DVD/BluRay note is the assumption that the more expensive player has the better quality. HD-DVD discs have always looked as good or better than the same movie on BluRay. HD-DVD also has the better interactive layer (look at the differences between the two formats on the 300 movie and tell me which is the clear winner).
BluRay has the advantage in two key areas: BluRay has exclusive support from a couple of key studios including Sony, Disney and Fox. The PS3 has given the format great penetration in to the marketplace. While the PS3 is not the best next-gen console nor is BluRay the best next-gen video format, the combo makes good sense to alot of people and Sony has alot of marketing clout.
John from Jersey says
Ironically, the ones who are most likely to have the right tech to warrant getting HD-DVD or Blu-Ray are the ones with enough extra cash to spend $500-$700 and just get both. After all, there are enough exclusives on both sides these days that the “winning” format will take years to make up for the gaps in the catalog.
Sam says
When it comes to the quality issue I have learned that I don’t have a dog in that fight because, as the old saying goes, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.â€Â
I tend to agree with the experts on this one – price will be the overwhelming force that will eventually drive this whole thing.
I agree with several comments that a reasonably priced combo should be the way to go as both formats have their plus’ and minus’.
And speaking of how actors look in true HD  NEVER watch XXX porno in HD! 🙂
GazerBeam says
Am I the only one that’s perfectly happy with my normal DVDs?
Taomyn says
Unfortunately two winning arguments, from the consumers point of view, for HD-DVD can’t really be used for pushing the format: Encryption cracked so backups easy (BD+ will be added to Blu-Ray soon which HD-DVD doesn’t have) and HD-DVD disks are region-free (it’s not in the HD-DVD spec whereas it is for Blu-Ray).