Nine years ago, the DVD of "The Matrix" shattered records and catapulted the budding DVD format into the mainstream. Can "The Dark Knight" do the same thing for Blu-ray?
The Blu-ray release of "The Dark Knight" is slated to Dec. 9, and as Video Business [via High-Def Digest] reports, Warner Brothers has more than a million Blu-ray copies of the Batman blockbuster teed up for retailers—reportedly, the most ever for a Blu-ray movie to date.
Indeed, "The Dark Knight" is perhaps the biggest gotta-have Blu-ray title yet, bigger even than "Iron Man" (which has sold about 500,000 Blu-ray copies so far, according to Video Business) and "Transformers."
But here's the big question: Will the popularity of "TDK" translate into a tipping point for Blu-ray, as "The Matrix" (which was the first DVD to ship more than 1.5 million units back ... More »
20th Century Fox said over the weekend that revenues from the new Mark Wahlberg-starring game-movie Max Payne hit $18 million in North America, topping the box office.
Reviews have been roundly terrible, however. Even Scott Miller, CEO of 3D Realms, the producer behind the Max Payne games, found the flick straying significantly from its source material.
"There are several fundamental story flaws ... in the film that have me shaking my head in bewilderment," Miller told Edge.
For instance, he said that one of Max Payne's enemies, the drug distributor Jack Lupino, is "lamely killed by one of the film's non-action characters."
In the first game, Max Payne finishes off Lupino.
Miller elaborated, "...The entire time we're told that this drug makes 1-in-100 people super-human, yet Lupino doesn't demonstrate this in the least. It should have taken a hail storm of bullets to bring him down, plus it should have been Max tha... More »
When it comes to the big screen adventure, Arad said the plan is to mix things up a little bit. In the game, the action moves very quickly to the island, but the film will open things up a bit and add some depth before the island adventure.
To quote: Arad Productions is working with another division of Sony to bring Naughty Dog’s PlayStation 3 hit, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, to the silver screen. Arad believes the game’s protagonist, Nathan Drake, stands on his own and isn’t just an Indiana Jones facsimile.
“The best thing about Drake is he's not an archeologist,” said Arad. “He's not a benevolent guy, but he's certainly not a great guy. Indiana Jones was always a good guy and he relentlessly did the right thing. Drake is a guy who's being hauled over to virtue throughout the game.
One of my favorite scenes is when he finally finds Drake's body and he discovers he was out to hide the statue instead of steal it. Suddenly, after all o... More »
Today Sony Pictures and Capcom announced a new CG-Animated feature film, RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION.
The World Premiere is October 10th at the Tokyo Game Show, with the North American Premiere on November 13th at New York City Horror Film Festival and the Fangoria-Sponsored West Coast Premiere in Los Angeles November 18th, 2008.
Press Release: CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seven years after the destruction of Raccoon City, Leon and Claire are back as the war against the zombies rages on in RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION, a co-production of CAPCOM Co., Ltd. (CAPCOM®) and Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan Co., Ltd. (SPEJ) based on the popular video game franchise.
Making its worldwide theatrical debut in Japan on October 18, 2008, RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION will be exhibited in the US at the New York City Horror Film Festival on November 13th and at a screening in Los Angeles on November 18th hosted by Fangoria.
According to ShowBizSpy (linked above), Hollywood is trying to persuade Angelina Jolie to again play Lara Croft in a new Tomb Raider movie.
To quote: And, with the release of the eighth game, Tomb Raider: Underworld, due this winter, movie bosses are keen to explore the possibility of Angelina bringing the character back to the big screen.
A source says, "Lara is such a fantastic character and the games lend themselves to movies so well.
"Even though the first two movies were not very well received, there is still a lot of confidence in Lara and Tomb Raider as a franchise.
"The producers would dearly love to get Angelina back in the role and the door is being left open to her. This would be a far darker movie with a lot more emphasis on storyline."
Anyone who had been hoping that the big screen version of the hit videogame Max Payne would be a hardcore, R-rated release will be very disappointed by the following news.
GameDaily reports that Max Payne, a 20th Century Fox release, has been re-cut to attain a broader audience-friendly PG-13 rating. The John Moore-directed film had initially earned an "R" rating from the Motion Picture Association of America due to its violent content.
What's notable, however, is that this time it was the director and not the studio forcing the issue of getting the more audience-friendly PG-13 rating.
"I didn't have to change much. We trimmed some frames more for the sake of trimming frames than anything, b... More »
Update: We have received word from Paramount that they will meet the street date, and that the 'Iron Man' Blu-ray will not be delayed.
Blu-ray.com is reporting that the upcoming Blu-ray release of ‘Iron Man’ has been recalled. A few weeks back, some of those receiving review copies reported trouble playing the disc in their Blu-ray players. Apparently, there is an authoring problem with the disc, and distributors have been issued direction to send back all product.
According to those distributors, Paramount is doing everything possible to get enough replacement discs to retailers in time for its September 30th release date, but it may not be able to meet the demand. If Paramount can’t get enough titles onto retail shelves, they may delay the title until October 7th.
Online retailers like Amazon are likely to ship first-come, first-serve, so make sure you have your pre-order in now if you... More »
Sometime in December or at the latest January, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release the first Resident Evil all-CGI movie on Blu-ray Disc, day-and-date with DVD and PSP.
Sony describes what will be the fourth Resident Evil film as follows:
The "Umbrella Incident" that took place in Raccoon City was ended with the eradication of the deadly virus by a missile attack ordered by the government. As its operations were suspended on a global scale, Umbrella Corporation stock plummeted. This serious blow to the business giant resulted in its complete dissolution.
7 years later, at an airport somewhere in the United States. An ordinary autumn afternoon. One zombie is unleashed into this peaceful scene to attack everyone. In the airport starting to fill up with the undead, the horrific disaster is about to be repeat itself...
We've got early Blu-ray specs and extra features to share which include a nod to Resident Evil 5 on Playsta... More »
(5) 
