Paramount marries up with Blu-ray again: 37 titles coming next month
Posted Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 12:51 PM Central
by Tim Briscoe
At first they were the perfect couple. Then, a wealthy suitor stepped in and broke up the pair. Now these two are back together and this time it seems like it will be permanent.
No, this isn't the latest news from a celebrity gossip column. It's the story of Paramount and Blu-ray.
In the beginning Paramount Home Entertainment happily released its films in both the Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD formats. That was, until Toshiba reportedly offered them some big bucks to go exclusively HD-DVD. Then a flurry of events like Warner Bros. and Wal-Mart siding with Blu-ray forced the end of the hi-def format war.
Now, several months later, Paramount has announced they are set to once again release movies in the Blu-ray format. Hopefully it'll be a marriage that lasts.
Here is the initial set of 37 (in a row?!) movies being released by Paramount on May 20.
- Aeon Flux
- Babel
- Bee Movie
- Black Rain
- Black Snake Moan
- Blades of Glory
- Coming to America
- Disturbia
- Dreamgirls
- Face/Off
- Failure to Launch
- Flags of Our Fathers
- Four Brothers
- Freedom Writers
- Hustle & Flow
- The Italian Job (2003)
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
- The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
- Mission: Impossible
- Mission: Impossible 2
- Mission: Impossible 3
- Nacho Libre
- Next
- Norbit
- Payback
- Reds
- Sahara
- Shooter
- Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
- Sleepy Hollow
- Trading Places
- U2: Rattle & Hum
- Ultimate Missions Collection
- Untouchables
- The Warriors
- We Were Soldiers
- World Trade Center
These will be followed up with Cloverfield and There Will Be Blood on June 3. The Spiderwick Chronicles will be the studio's first day-and-date release with DVD in the new relationship.
According to Home Media Magazine, here are some of the exclusive Blu-ray bonus features you can expect:
- For Bee Movie, a pop-up “Barry’s Trivia Track,” a Build-A-Bee avatar creation feature, changeable menus, alternate endings and lost scenes.
- For Face/Off, a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, an alternate ending and several commentaries.
- For Next, several featurettes and an interview with Jessica Biel.
- For Cloverfield, an exclusive, feature-length "Special Investigation Mode" including added details about the film; a director's commentary; several making-of featurettes; deleted scenes; and alternate endings with commentaries.
- For There Will Be Blood, a featurette, deleted scenes and a slideshow with vintage photos set to the score of the film.
- For The Spiderwick Chronicles, behind-the-scenes featurettes, an exploration of the Spiderwick world and a look inside the field guide of Arthur Spiderwick.