People are talking more about interactivity and network based features (BD Live) with respect to movie releases these days.

In the latest Home Media Magazine I read a couple of interesting articles in this vein.

During the Comic-Con in San Diego, Sony pictures held a panel for the release of Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. This session will be available to owners of the disc for download via BD Live. To my mind, this is exactly what BD Live should be used for - an interesting event that occurs way too close to (or even after) the disc release, making it impossible to include on the disc.

The download will also be available with the original Starship Troopers Blu-ray. Kudos to Sony for enabling this.

On the same page there is a report about the new X-Files movie that has just been released to theaters. The producers of the film have been very active in preparing a great Blu-ray release with features including the usual gag reels and featurettes but also video Bonus View commentary and BD Live features (which were not specified).

The presentation is also expected to have both an extended version of the movie (hopefully using seamless branching) and deleted scenes. I might find myself skipping the theatrical release and just getting the Blu-ray for this one!

There is also an article over at Video Business that highlights the extras that are being included in order to get people to upgrade to Blu-ray Disc.

The upcoming Planet of the Apes box set from Fox will include five exclusive features not included on any previous releases.

For 2009’s 30th anniversary of Being There, Warner will include more than 10 minutes of deleted scenes and alternate endings that no one has seen before - only on the Blu-ray version. Warner has also sweetened the Blu-ray release of The Matrix Trilogy by including Animatrix in HD for the first time.

Sony will try to improve on the current Casino Royale Blu-ray release with a new special edition Blu-ray version with a peer-to-peer trivia game using BD Live.

It will be interesting to see if the studios are on the money and all this will help to sell Blu-ray Discs.

Personally I think that multiple versions (unrated or extended editions) using seamless branching is something that interests me greatly, as well as alternate endings and deleted scenes - the other stuff perhaps not so much. Though I do also like the idea of the Starship Troopers panel presented via BD Live.

What kind of features make you consider the double dip? Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 10:45 am and is filed under BD Live, Studios, US Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.