Big Picture Big Sound

The other shoe officially dropped today as former HD DVD champion Universal Studios Home Entertainment finally unveiled their specific Blu-ray plans for 2008.  No mention of the Bourne series or King Kong yet, but many other popular TV and movie titles will be included in the initial roll-out, which begins mid-Summer.    

It will all start on July 22 with the release of The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and The Scorpion King, ten days before the theatrical premiere of the latest sequel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Before year's end we should also expect Blu-rays of the recent catalog titles American Gangster, Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Miami Vice, End of Days, U-571 and George Romero's Land of the Dead.

Further, beginning with the post-apocalyptic actioner Doomsday, Universal plans to street all of its new Blu-ray releases day-and-date with DVD. This means that later in the year we can look forward to a surprisingly comic book-heavy slate highlighted by The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the similarly-targeted Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, as well as the Abba-by-way-of-Broadway musical Mamma Mia.

A worldwide Blu-ray rollout for the second season of the NBC TV series Heroes has already been announced for August 26, again day-and-date with its DVD counterpart. The first season of Heroes will also make its Blu-ray debut that same day. 

So, in terms of the major studios, only Paramount/Dreamworks is left without a clear Blu plan. Can they be far behind?