TheDeparted
Latest
Amazon is rebooting Scorsese's 'The Departed' into a TV series
Streaming services continue to gobble up popular titles to adapt and reimagine for their content-craving audiences. But unlike Netflix's recent decision to adapt the timeless children's novel Anne of Green Gables, Amazon Studios has shown that it's willing to go in a bit harder of a direction. After announcing last week they'd be making a series exploring Playboy creator Hugh Hefner's life, the company will be re-imagining Martin Scorsese's 2006 mobster drama The Departed as a TV series, according to a Deadline report today.
The Departed, 007: Casino Royale films snag more awards
As if moving over 100,000 units wasn't enough, those involved with the making of The Departed have yet another reason to celebrate -- right alongside the equally successful crew involved with 007: Casino Royale, of course. At the first Entertainment Merchants Association's Home Entertainment Awards to hand out honors for high-definition titles, Scorsese's latest gem managed to take home the awards for HD DVD Title of the Year as well as DVD Rental Title of the Year, while the latest in the Bond series took home Blu-ray Title of the Year. Unfortunately, these two films (Casablanca notwithstanding, which nabbed the Hall of Fame Award) were the only notable winners residing on an HD format, but we'll be interested to see how all that changes on the next go 'round.[Via HighDefDigest]
Warner plans 'Best Of' HD DVD / Blu-ray box sets
Typically speaking, artists wait a good while before releasing a greatest hits record, but Warner Home Video isn't waiting around for either format to start falling off the map before unleashing a few "Best Of" box sets. Apparently targeting newcomers to the high-definition film realm, the Best of HD DVD and Best of Blu-ray volumes will consist of four movies apiece, and will include a wide variety of titles from relatively new releases to classics like Goodfellas. Reportedly, three different volumes will be available in each format, and all of the box sets are slated to hit shelves on September 18th (just before holiday shoppers crank up the abuse on those credit cards, no less) for $84.99 each.
PS3 European launch helped sell over 180,000 Blu-ray movies
The HD war over real estate in your living room just hit a new milestone with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's recent claim of just how successful the European launch of the PS3 was. Citing a 1000% increase in Blu-ray movie sales since the European launch of the PS3 in March, the boys (and girls) in the Sony camp are certainly smiling. Sony Pictures also mentioned sales of their movies account for 50% of all Blu-ray movies sold in Europe, thanks in large part to the permeation of their strongest release to date, Casino Royale. Other top-selling HD discs include The Departed, which previously enjoyed the top-selling Blu-ray movie slot prior to Casino Royale's runaway truck-like sales growth, and the fantastic BBC documentary Planet Earth. Both highly recommended, no matter what side of the HD fence you happen to fall on.
The Departed: 'Made by a Mac' gets new meaning
The Departed finally netted Martin Scorsese an Academy Award that many felt was long overdue. I personally haven't seen it yet (I know, I know), but the film has just become notable for another reason: Scorsese used iChat to direct one of its final shots. As the monstrous Macenstein tells the summarized story from a Blackmagic Design case study on the film, filming had wrapped in LA, but Scorsese called for a re-shoot of one scene. The only problem was: he was in NY, and the crew was still in LA. The solution? The crew set up a Mac and "aimed iChat at the video tap on the camera" so Scorsese could view the action in NY (note the interesting use of calling the iSight + iChat setup as simply 'iChat'). A microphone and speaker system were also set up so Scorsese could call the shots as he was viewing footage in real time.[via digg]
The Departed HD DVD / Blu-ray disc breaks 100k mark in sales
While it wasn't too long ago that Tom Cruise was jumping off couches after finding out that Mission: Impossible III broke all sorts of HD disc sales records, it looks like there's a new champ in town. Warner Home Video has proudly announced that The Departed has sold over 100,000 units during its short stint on the shelves, making it arguably the largest selling high-definition movie to date. It should come as no surprise that the press release is mum when it comes to HD DVD vs. Blu-ray numbers, but it did suggest that supporting both formats seemed like an amicable solution to appease both camps. So, any guesses as to which format strengthened the final figure most?[Via HighDefDigest]
Video Marketplace top ten TV and Movies (3/12)
In light of the recent announcement of Video Marketplace being hot on the heels of digital distribution of on demand content, Major Nelson posted up the top ten lists for TVs and Movies for the last week rather than announcing the new content. On the TV side, we have South Park, naturally on top, with UFC Fights, Star Trek Enterprise, and Jericho's HD content making the grade, and even the un-aired Mercy Reef/Aquaman pilot got on the list, after being released on the 12th. For films, We have The Departed and Snakes on a Plane in the top two, albeit in 480p. Crank, Saw III and The Illusionist also got proper recognition. For the complete list for both TV and Movies, check after the break.
The Departed Blu-ray disc to feature uncompressed 5.1 audio track
While the mild background screams concerning HD DVD discs getting Dolby TrueHD audio while Blu-ray owners got stuck with a completely uninspiring "standard Dolby Digital" track haven't yet amounted to much, apparently Warner Home Video wants to set the record straight with The Departed. While we knew the film was slated to hit both HD DVD and Blu-ray back at CES, Warner has just now fessed up to the uncompressed audio we can expect to hear from the BD rendition. The HD DVD version will feature the expected TrueHD track, but the Blu-ray flavor will sport a delightfully lossless PCM 5.1 track that should measure up close enough to satisfy all but the most discerning audiophiles. So if you've been enjoying that dual-format BH100, and were leaning HD DVD's way on this one simply due to audio, now you've got one more quandary to solve in the next fortnight.
