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Amazon backs Marie Curie biopic starring Rosamund Pike
Amazon's latest Prime Video production won't just rely on star power to reel you in -- it should also appeal to science fans. The internet giant is teaming with France's Studiocanal on Radioactive, a biopic covering the work and romance of pioneering radioactivity scientist Marie Curie (and by extension, Pierre Curie). Produced by Persepolis' Marjane Satrapi, it's the adaptation of Lauren Redniss' graphic novel Radioactive and will star Gone Girl's Rosamund Pike. The star of the show may be the science itself, however.
'Terminator 2' is returning to theaters in 3D
Let's be honest: no matter how many times studios try to revive the Terminator franchise, its peak is (and possibly always will be) Terminator 2: Judgment Day. And James Cameron knows this too, it seems. The director is teaming with DMG Entertainment and Studiocanal to release a digitally remastered 3D version of Terminator 2 in summer 2016. It's a bid to cash in on the movie's 25th anniversary, as you might have guessed, but it's also about bringing Ahnold's blockbuster to audiences that might never have had a chance to watch on a big screen. China never got the original run, for example.
Lionsgate, Studiocanal to distribute Miramax movies, Pulp Fiction Blu-ray coming in June
Lionsgate and Studiocanal have signed a deal with Miramax to distribute its library of movies around the world, with Lionsgate handling things in the US while Studiocanal takes over the UK and Europe. Most specifically, Miramax CEO Mike Lang reveals in a blog posting that the first three Scream movies will be rereleased when Scream 4 comes to theaters in April, and the long awaited Pulp Fiction Blu-ray will finally be released in the US in June. All the rest of the details are in the press release after the break, check the blog post for more of his thoughts on DVD extras and the future of digital delivery -- Ultraviolet isn't mentioned by name, but clearly he thinks the digital locker concept is the future of video.
StudioCanal to support Blu-ray?
After Paramount unceremoniously dropped Blu-ray from its HD plans, at least for a while, we've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. While this might not affect things in the U.S., European distributor -- and so far HD DVD only -- StudioCanal has apparently released Blu-ray box art for its upcoming series of Les Bronzes films. With the third largest film library in the world this is a pretty major shake up...if true. It seems DVDRama has posted StudioCanal-to-Blu-ray info in the past and the promised discs never followed, so we'll keep this one on "rumor" status pending an official announcement out of IFA before preparing our import PS3s for Brotherhood of the Wolf.[Via Blu-ray.com, thanks Dominic & ag23]Read -Les bronzes en hd-dvd et blu-ray! - DVDRamaRead - HDM Rumor Thread - AVSForum
Studio Canal decides to support Blu-ray as well
The American audience may not be as familiar with Studio Canal as the European crowd and that's okay. Fact of the matter is, they were an HD DVD exclusive studio since the beginning of the format scuffle (calling it a war has become a bit disingenuous). Until now. They've listed for release a 3-disc Blu-ray box set of the "Les Bronzes" films. If you check out something that lists all the major motion picture rights and releases from Studio Canal, you'll see that this may just be the beginning of yet another extensive library of movies that Blu-ray consumers will have a choice to pick up.
Toshiba's HD-E1 HD DVD player launches in Europe
HD DVD has finally touched down in Europe with the release of Toshiba's HD-E1 HD DVD player. For all intents and purposes identical to the second generation HD-A2 recently released in the U.S. it carries an MSRP of £450 and of course shares the HDMI 1.2 connector, slim design, 1080i output and lack of analog 5.1 outputs from its American cousin. The official Toshiba site mentions that at launch, the player will not be compatible with 25fps or 50hz encoded HD DVD titles, but will later after a firmware update, but its not clear if any such discs are available yet. A quick look at Amazon shows titles like V for Vendetta and Superman Returns ready to ship. Europe may have had to wait quite a while for HD DVD to hit but all in all are starting off with a much more refined product and pool of available titles to choose from. The high end HDMI 1.3-equipped 1080p-capable HD-XE1 is still set to ship in January, but we're really waiting to see what happens when Blu-ray movie exclusives in the U.S. become available on HD DVD in Europe via Studio Canal.[Via HDTV UK]
StudioCanal HD DVD releases encoded at 1080p 24p = easy imports of Blu-ray exclusives?
StudioCanal, not well known in the US but one of the largest distributors of movies in the world will be releasing films on HD DVD, and now we have confirmation from Microsoft's Amir M. that they will be encoded in VC-1 at 24p, theoretically removing any possible barrier for their being played on US HD DVD players. The main benefit of this of course being that StudioCanal holds the European release rights to many movies currently limited to Blu-ray only distributors like Fox here in the U.S. Unless region coding is adopted by HD DVD, it could be very simple for aficionados to obtain copies of their favorite movies simply by importing them, and perhaps put additional pressure on distributors here to go multiformat to avoid losing sales to importers.We are not aware of any plans yet announced by StudioCanal to release movies on Blu-ray, and with their Vivendi Universal connection plus Blu-ray region coding that may not give US buyers access to Universal content anyway. Of course we have to wait until the titles are actually released and whether or not region coding for HD DVD is finalized, but this could provide a big boost to HD DVD supporters who don't want to be locked out of some of their favorite movies.[Thanks for the tip Glenn!]
HD DVD international: StudioCanal announces 20 movies
Quick: Who has the third largest film library in the world?Now if you didn't cheat and read the title then you may have been like me and never heard of StudioCanal until five minutes ago. If you have, the fact that this French distributor has just announced they are releasing 30 HD-DVD titles in the near future is no surprise because you're probably well aware they are the French arm of Vivendi Universal. French HDTV owners can look forward to titles like Million Dollar Baby, Traffic, or The Graduate as well as French flicks like La Haine and Brotherhood of the Wolf.We've had some updates on Japan-only high definition releases but very little information about Europe. Maybe some of our European readers can tell us what kind of splash next generation DVDs are making over there, or not.All of this is of little consequence to those of us in the U.S., the real question is when can we start importing foreign HD-DVDs and looking down on people who dislike subtitles?[Via MovieWeb]
HD-DVD gets exclusive support from The Weinstein Company
Former Miramax heads Harvey and Bob Weinstein have decided to join Universal in exclusively supporting Toshiba's HD-DVD format. Our friend Warren Lieberfarb (he of the "Sony is using tactics from the Art of War" statement) is a consultant to their distribution company, Genius, so this is not entirely surprising. No word on what titles to expect or exactly when, but apparently they will probably release in summer rather than spring with the launch of the first HD-DVD players. Also, Studio Canal has pledged to release 30 titles in europe, while Toshiba is expecting more than 200 HD-DVD discs available before the 2006 holiday season. Will that be enough to stave off the Blu-ray/PS3 behemoth bearing down on them?The Passion of the Clerks, Sin City 2, Scary Movie 4, Michael Moore's "Sicko", all on HD-DVD only apparently.
