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American Beauty Blu-ray joins Paramount's Sapphire Series on September 21
It should be good news that American Beauty is seeing a "Sapphire Series" Blu-ray release, but given the issues faced by Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator, we'll wait until the reviews are in to buy this one. If all goes well, buyers can get the quintuple Academy Award winner with 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio tracks, though the only HD bonus feature announced is the theatrical trailers. Still, if your most memorable Sam Mendes production isn't the iPhone 4 FaceTime ad, it may be hard to pass this one up when it arrives September 21.
Paramount launches Sapphire Series line of premium Blu-ray releases
Promising the finest Corinthian Leather picture and sound, Paramount is launching its Sapphire Series, two disc high definition releases of some of its greatest films, starting with Gladiator and Braveheart September 1 followed by Forrest Gump in November. That means a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track for Braveheart and DTS-HD MA for Gladiator, while both will have a slew of exclusive new extras. For Gladiator that includes the ability to tag elements while watching the main disc, which will then automatically queue up more information once the second supplemental disc is loaded into the player, while Braveheart's extras focus mostly on the history of the Scottish Rebellion with 3D models and interactive timelines. Paramount didn't mention how much viewers would be paying for these new feature packed editions but they both show a $39.99 MSRP / $27.99 preorder price on Amazon. The press release runs down the extras, though we suspect you'll have to be a pretty big fan (of which there should be plenty for these multiple Oscar winning flicks) to pay the premium over typical catalog releases instead of waiting for them to hit the bargain bin.[Via The HD Room]
