special features
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Avatar special edition takes another dip on iTunes Tuesday, brings exclusive extras
If you've made the switch to watching movies delivered via the internet instead of disc, one of the things that you'll usually give up is interactive special features, but Fox is turning that trend around with its latest repackaging of Avatar. The iTunes Extras Special Edition of the movie goes on sale Tuesday and includes "Green Screen X-Ray" features letting viewers deconstruct the extensive special effects during 17 scenes as they watch, as well as an original screenplay from director James Cameron, his scriptment, and a gallery of 1,700 images. You can get an idea of how the X-ray feature works from the images here and a trailer (included after the break), but at $20 for an HD copy, we figure it will be just the most dedicated fans taking a trip back to Pandora before the 3D Blu-ray is freed from exclusivity next year.
Star Wars: The Old Republic talks instanced regions and hubs at NYCC
Last weekend's big convention, New York Comic Con, hosted another panel on Star Wars: The Old Republic. And perhaps to the surprise of the fans, this panel was all about numbers. Specifically, it was all about the numbers for upcoming content in the game, such as Flashpoints, Operations, and Warzones. Stephen Reid took his time to lay out what players can expect from this content and how many different areas players can expect, starting with 15 different Flashpoints at launch. The Flashpoints will not all be story-focused, according to Reid, with some focused more heavily on the puzzle or gameplay aspects. All of them, however, can be replayed at higher difficulties in the endgame. In addition, Reid showed off the upcoming fleet hubs for the game, the central gathering areas for players that feature vendors, auction systems, and a special "VIP Lounge" for people who purchased the Collector's Edition. With only a little over two months remaining until the game's launch, there's not much more time before these promised features become a reality.
Fast 5 Blu-ray arrives October 4 with Second Screen feature in tow (video)
Fast 5 may have dropped "Furious" from the title but we saw it in theaters and can confirm things are just as angry as ever with director Justin Lin at the helm once again, and throwing The Rock into the mix with stars Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. Plot descriptions between fast cars, explosions and Brazil are wholly unnecessary for this flick, although the reason we're highlighting it is because of a bevy of Blu-ray exclusive extras. Beyond the usual set of featurettes and behind the scenes look, Universal is making this the first flick to work with the Second Screen feature of its pocket BLU app, now updated for tablets. We'll have to wait and see if it lives up to previous efforts by Disney or if the flick is just dragging it around like a vault through city streets, but there's a trailer for the feature included after the break if you're interested.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 'Dementors' and 'Golfing with Ron' Blu-ray extras
If you can't wait until April 15th, check out these two clips Warner has posted on YouTube from the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Blu-ray. The first is a Maximum Movie Mode picture-in-picture breakdown of the Dementors and how they've changed in the movies embedded above, while after the break actor Rupert Grint a.k.a Ron Weasley as he takes in a round of golf and reflects on the movie franchise coming to an end later this year.
Fans pick Avatar Extended Collector's Edition special feature to be revealed early
Just can't wait for Tuesday to get yet another peek at one of the many special features included on the Avatar Extended Collector's Edition Blu-ray? Check the embedded video for a featurette and the deleted scene "New Life," we figure with eight hours of new material Fox figured revealing drips and drabs all over the internet wouldn't spoil things too much.
Clips from Kick-Ass Blu-ray show off exclusive special features
Kick-Ass comes to Blu-ray next week, and it seems Lionsgate has been dropping clips of the special features all over the web in preparation for its release. Not surprisingly for a studio with a rep for pushing the technological limits, it has plenty of Blu-ray exclusives planned, including "Ass Kicking Bonus View Mode" to draw together commentary, background footage and graphics along with the movie, and the "A New Kind of Superhero: The Making of Kick-Ass" documentary. Check out the most recent clip from MovieWeb embedded after the break, along with a few others TheHDRoom has found floating around the net, and check out the movie when it's released August 3.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Blu-ray debuts October 20, check out one of the special features now (Video)
You'll have to wait until October 20 to get a good look at Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's IMAX sequences, but you can see an exclusive clip of one of the behind the scenes segments featured on the disc right now. Check the behind the scene pre-vis breakdown after the break along with a list of Blu-ray exclusive specs for this 2 disc set, with Blu-ray fanboy Michael Bay at the helm we have high expectations to this followup to a movie that blazed trails on two different high definition disc formats. even that case at the right is getting in on the augmented reality packaging trend, letting webcam owning users access a special website with even more adventures involving, surprisingly enough, ridiculously large transforming robots from outer space. Check the Transformers ROTF official website for more info.
Sony's movieIQ BD-Live feature attached to Silverado, The Quick and the Dead Blu-ray discs
With Angels & Demons still without a U.S. release date (September 14 in the U.K.) and Easy Rider set to debut September 15, there's a possibility Sony Pictures new BD-Live powered movieIQ feature could find its debut on a pair of western movies: The Quick and the Dead & Silverado. Both are set to hit the streets September 8, while Silverado promises a never-before-seen featurette sure to interest fans in this collector's edition, neither is quite The Man with No Name-series material or packing other notable Blu-ray exclusives beyond movieIQ. Still, it's interesting to see Sony pitching connected features to these audiences, looks like we should expect movieIQ on most titles from here on out.
Universal bringing BD-Live integration to the iPhone, irony to starving children
Although Apple still hasn't managed to achieve feature parity with any of its competitors by enabling Blu-ray playback in OS X, it looks like Universal's bringing the mountain to the Mac -- or at least the iPhone. At first, the upcoming special edition of Fast and Furious will feature integration with a special iPhone / iPod touch app that'll allow viewers to control 360-degree models of the cars in the "Virtual Car Garage," but later Universal releases will feature the ability to control movie playback, read annotations while watching your flick, and even download ancillary video content for later playback on the go. Sounds like pretty nifty stuff -- let's hope El Steve reconsiders his whole "bag of hurt" stance when he gets the demo.[Via AppleInsider]
Transformers Blu-ray owners get an early peek at the sequel via BD-Live
So many months later, new downloadable content is arriving for those Transformers Blu-ray discs, with Paramount planning to unleash a ton of promotional content for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen on June 16. Owners of the DVD version can use their access key to log on to a special website, while BD-Live connected Blu-ray owners can view the 25~ minutes of special features directly through their players. Video Business wonders if Blu-ray owners without BD-Live will be able to log in to the website but hasn't heard back yet, we'd ask there will be any treats for HD DVD but Michael Bay probably put the kibosh on that.Read - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Sneak Peek via Blu-ray and DVDRead - Paramount loads Transformers with sequel specials
Poll: Have you been impressed by BD-Live?
It's been a little over a year since we got our first look at BD-Live in the home, so ow do things look now? That first experience was certainly quite disappointing, but in the intervening year there's been at least a few small steps forward, along with some notable failures. With all the director's chats, promotional networks and the like behind us, and the possibility of video on-demand and live video updates from Star Trek conferences in our present and future, have you seen anything impressive yet, or anything that bodes well for the future of BD-Live?%Poll-29733%
Sin City Recut, Extended and Unrated Blu-ray special features previewed
A highly stylized flick like Sin City is sure to look great in high definition, so you're probably already planning to grab when it the Recut, Extended and Unrated version hits Blu-ray this week. For those who can't wait or are on the fence, MovieWeb has this quick snippet (embedded after the break) of Cine-Explore Bonus View special footage from the home version that shows off how the special effects were done while the movie plays on in the background. Other than that, the disc packs a couple commentary tracks, a 5.1 audio track including audience reaction (apparently so you can pretend you're at one of those movie theaters you no longer go to) and an interactive comic book.
Disney considering raising Blu-ray prices?
We predicted drastic measures in Blu-ray pricing, but Disney might be going the wrong way. CEO Robert Iger indicated on a conference call with analysts today that since the company's Blu-ray releases are packing all sorts of extra features like Digital Copy and BD-Live, it might be able to raise prices following a Q1 profit drop of 64%. The scariest part is that Disney's economic shortfalls were consistent with the overall home entertainment downturn, so it might not be the only studio with this reaction to shrinking profits, looking to squeeze an extra few bucks out of the customers willing to spend the most.
U-control picture-in-picture makes a comeback on The Mummy Returns Blu-ray disc
When Universal releases The Mummy Returns July 22 on Blu-ray, expect a return of the studio's U-control features with exclusive content not seen on the previous HD DVD release. Accompanying all the previously seen extras, Blu-ray viewers get a special picture-in-picture track with behind the scenes footage and filmmaker interviews.The 50GB disc will also have a DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio track, whether or not any of this makes it a better movie this go-round remains to be seen.
Warner Bros. keeps pumping out HD DVD movies
A couple of titles we already knew were coming to HD DVD but didn't know when, have gotten a date. May 16 the few, the proud, the...$800/$500 lighter in the wallet can look forward to high definition copies of Unforgiven and Full Metal Jacket coming to stores near them. The price is set to $28.99, and will include the bonus features in SD just like previous HD DVD releases. Since these titles are also slated for Blu-ray release, it will be interesting to see if bonus features for that format will be included in HDTV resolutions as some Blu-ray supporters have suggested.
