Big Picture Big Sound

Return to the "Blu" Lagoon

After several months of controversial HD DVD exclusivity, until that format was ultimately axed by Toshiba, Paramount Home Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation SKG are back in the Blu-ray business. On May 20, look for the Nicolas Cage thrillers Face/Off and Next plus the Jerry Seinfeld cartoon comedy Bee Movie. Two weeks later, on June 3, the monster mash Cloverfield and Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood make their high-def disc debut. New release The Spiderwick Chronicles will be released day-and-date on both Blu-ray and DVD June 24.

Cloverfield promises to be the first Paramount title with a Blu-ray-exclusive feature of substance, offering a new “Special Investigation Mode” throughout the movie. Most of the other titles listed above will port over bonus features from the previously released DVDs.

All of this of course fuels speculation of which beloved catalog titles are in the pipeline. When Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hits home video this later this year (we assume), will all four of the Indiana Jones movies be released on high-def disc? A new restoration of The Godfather has long been buzzed about: Will it debut on DVD and Blu-ray at the same time? And then there's that movie about the ill-fated cruise ship. (No, not Speed 2. That's over at Fox). And what of DreamWorks' Transformers, publicly lamented by director Michael Bay for not being released in his preferred Blu? Other DreamWorks' titles, including the Shia LaBeouf-starring Disturbia, had been released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray before the studio went HD DVD-only on August 20th of last year.

Movies directed by Steven Spielberg, a DreamWorks' founder and one of the most respected filmmakers in Hollywood, were never bound by the studio's HD DVD exclusivity.