Roadshow has sent me a list of its forthcoming Blu-ray releases. Good interesting range of titles there:
| The Mist | N/A | 2 October 2008 |
| 1408 | N/A | 2 October 2008 |
| Sex & The City: The Movie | $49.95 | 16 October 2008 |
| Music and Lyrics | $34.95 | 2 November 2008 |
| March of the Penguins | N/A | 6 November 2008 |
| Halloween 2-disc | N/A | 6 November 2008 |
| Oceans 11 | $34.95 | 2 6 November 2008 |
| Oceans 12 | $34.95 | 2 6 November 2008 |
| Swordfish | $34.95 | 2 6 November 2008 |
| Training Day | $34.95 | 2 6 November 2008 |
| Get Smart | $39.95 | 13 November 2008 |
| The Wrong Man (aka Lucky Number Slevin) | N/A | 4 December 2008 |
| Death Proof | N/A | 4 December 2008 |
| Planet Terror | N/A | 4 December 2008 |
| Austin Powers Goldmember | N/A | 4 December 2008 |
| Constantine | N/A | 4 December 2008 |
| The Matrix | N/A | 4 December 2008 |
| Matrix Reloaded | N/A | 4 December 2008 |
| Matrix Revolutions | N/A | 4 December 2008 |
| The Ultimate Matrix Collection Blu Ray 7- Discs | $199.95 | 4 December 2008 |
| The Wedding Crashers | N/A | 4 December 2008 |
| Speed Racer | $49.95 | 10 December 2008 |
The Matrix was the title that became an early best seller DVD. In fact, I seem to recall that for quite a while it was the biggest selling DVD. Its release on Blu-ray has got to be welcome. I thought it was only going to be part of the massive collection, but it now seems that it (and the sequels) are going to be available separately as well.
But if you are a big fan of the movie, you may want to go for the Ultimate pack. From the blurb:
Loaded with over 35 hours of Bonus Features from the 10-disc standard definition release of the Ultimate Collection, exclusive In Movie Experience (IME) and the three films newly presented in hi-def clarity. And now for the first time ever see The Animatrix on Blu-Ray!
This looks remarkably like the Warner Bros release scheduled for October in the US (Roadshow has distribution rights for this movie here). If it’s based on the same encode as the Warner release, and the Warner encode is similar to, or better than, that used on its earlier HD DVD release, it ought to be excellent quality.
It may even be better since Warner could actually provide more encoding space for the movie, given the greater capacity of Blu-ray over HD DVD. Not that they necessarily will.
UPDATE (Tuesday, 5 August 2008, 6:38 pm): The release schedule has changed already, it seems. I’ve updated the above: overscores are deletions, red marks the additions.
Halloween appears to be the Rod Zombie remake, not the John Carpenter original. Pity. But the original is available from the US on a region free Blu-ray. It looks pretty good to me, but it has attracted some criticism for incorrect colours.
The Mist looks interesting. It’s based on a Stephen King short story I read in a volume of his, oh, twenty or twenty five years ago. It’s an odd one because, if I recall correctly, there is no setup for what happens. It just does. Yet, of the dozen or more stories in that volume, this is the only one I can specifically recall because this is the one that my mind has returned to from time to time over the years.
The movie is directed by Frank Darapont who has experience with Stephen King stories (he directed The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile), and it does score 7.5 on IMDB, so I reckon it might be pretty good.
Hah, turns out that 1408 is also a Stephen King movie!
Death Proof (written and directed by Quentin Tarantino) and Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez) were a matched pair originally released as Grindhouse, complete with pretend trailers for other movies. I hope these releases include some of those extras.