Friday The 13th 
has been freshly listed by Paramount Home Video, scheduled for a February 3rd, 2009 release.
Perhaps this is timed to coincide with the new Friday the 13th to be released in cinemas 0n February 13th 2009.
The retail price will be $29.99, pre-order at Amazon for $21.95.
I see over at Home Media Magazine that Paramount has bragging rights with their Iron Man Blu-ray Disc release.
The studio said that Iron Man has sold 850,000 Blu-ray units to date, making it the best selling Blu-ray Disc title in Blu-ray history.
Sony Pictures has Lakeview Terrace coming to Blu-ray on January 13th, 2009.
This thriller featuring Samuel L. Jackson was only recently in theaters.
Retail has been set at $39.95, bargain hunters will find it at Amazon for $29.95.
Universal Studios is releasing Death Race on December 23rd, 2008.
The disc features the unrated version of this remake featuring Jason Statham.
Retail has been set at $39.98, find it at Amazon for $29.95.
Lionsgate Home Entertainment has announced the Nicolas Cage movie Bangkok Dangerous for Blu-ray on January 6th, 2009.
This release will also contain a Digital Copy of the movie.
Retail has been set at $39.99, find it at Amazon for $27.99.
Today I am going to start something new.
To my mind, there are four phases of a Blu-ray release. There is the announcement, the pre-order listing, the early copies and the street date, when we all get to enjoy the title.
So far I have largely ignored the announcements and talk about releases when the pre-orders are up. I took this approach since I always found it frustrating to hear about a new exciting release and then not be able to do anything about it!
By discussing the title when the pre-order is up, you can pre-order and forget it or now you can add it to your Wishlist and order it at your leisure.
Today however I want to focus on the early copies of the actual discs, since this is the first time that we get to see the real details of what is truly on the release.
The first post in this theme highlights the release of the most recent title from DreamWorks Animation - Kung Fu Panda.
Due to street in a week on Sunday November 9th, DreamWorks has treated us to a great release.
The movie was both critically acclaimed, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 89% and IMDb score of 7.9/10, and a box office success, hauling in over $215M in the US alone.
The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at almost 21 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
The main audio is Dolby True HD Lossless with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.
The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 44.30 GB used and is coded for all regions.
Special features are numerous (see the High Def Douches review for more detail) and includes Bonus View Picture in Picture and BD Live Network features.
The retail price is set at $39.95, or get it at Amazon for $27.95, saving 30%.
Visit the details page for Kung Fu Panda to see full resolution screen captures taken from the disc.
All in all it looks like a great release from DreamWorks Animation!
I must admit that Fox has made me a very happy man with the latest list of announcements from the studio. There are a lot of great titles and what appears to be some movement in the pricing, which is refreshing to see.
20th Century Fox is releasing the Kiefer Sutherland movie Mirrors on January 13th, 2009.
Something we don’t hear about much is the adult entertainment industry and the Blu-ray releases from that sector.
During the format war we heard that Blu-ray would never get pornographic releases and as a result HD DVD would win - of course neither of those things turned out to be true.
I see over at Digital Audio Video that Digital Playground has now released 50 Blu-ray titles, with the most recent release Jack’s Playground 28.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment has announced the release of Burn After Reading for December 23rd, 2008.
This is of course the latest from Joel and Ethan Coen, with George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt and John Malkovich.
This release will feature My Scene Sharing via BD Live.
The retail price is $39.98, you can pre-order it at Amazon for only $29.95.
One of the more interesting Blu-ray projects undertaken in Blu-ray space is the Neil Young archive release.
While the release has been dogged with delays and rumours of cancellation, I see that the Neil Young Archives Volume 1 (1963 - 1972) 10 disc Blu-ray set is available for pre-order at Amazon.
