Just as the Internet gets excited for a 3D Blu-ray release of Avatar this November, Fox Home Entertainment comes along to shut down that excitement… for now.
Yesterday director James Cameron told The Wall Street Journal to expect a bare bones DVD and Blu-ray release of Avatar on Thursday, April 22, which coincidentally enough also happens to be Earth Day. He then added, “And then we’ll do a value-added DVD and a 3D Blu-ray in, I think, November sometime.”
Such a move looks to take advantage of upcoming home theater 3D technology with companies like Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba announcing 3D Blu-ray players at this year’s CES and Sony’s PlayStation 3 rumored to be releasing a firmware upgrade later this year enabling 3D Blu-ray playback. But don’t get too excited, an update to the WSJ article reads, “A spokesman for Fox Home Entertainment said on Thursday night that the ‘3D is in the conceptual stage and Avatar will not be out on 3D Blu-ray in November.'” Sounds like they’re leaving the door open for a triple-dip release if you ask me.
We are likely looking at a barebones release in April, a special edition release in November and what is likely to be a 3D Ultimate Blu-ray edition sometime in 2011, most likely around the same time we will be hearing about the inevitable Avatar 2 and perhaps the DVD/Blu-ray will even include a teaser trailer for the follow-up — just spit-balling here.
Keeping on that 3D on Blu-ray theme for just a second, Blu-ray.com reports the Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory is up and running with a “fully operational” Blu-ray 3D Advanced Authoring Center upgraded and equipped with the latest 3-D technological innovations. I assume Fox is currently holding off on confirming any kind of 3D Blu-ray release as the marketplace for such media is entirely untested and actually doesn’t exist at the moment seeing how 3D televisions are still very new technology and quite expensive. The site, however, does report Dreamworks is planning on releasing Monsters vs. Aliens on Blu-ray 3D this year as well as Disney is planning on a BD3D release of A Christmas Carol and Sony will release Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on BD3D with the hardware launch of 3-D compatible Sony Bravia displays and Blu-ray players.
The site also gives us the video you see just above from AVForums.tv detailing the whole Blu-ray compression and authoring process, including a brief commentary on the 3-D component at the end. It’s well worth a watch for those interested and has quite the snazzy musical intro.
In other DVD and Blu-ray news, Paramount has announced a pair of upcoming releases with the Best Picture contender Up in the Air hitting DVD and Blu-ray on March 9th and then on April 23rd, Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones will also arrive on DVD and Blu-ray.
Criterion is also setting out to make sure you have no money left in May with the announcement of Fritz Lang’s M, John Ford’s excellent western with John Wayne Stagecoach and Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout all on Blu-ray. Stagecoach and Walkabout will also be released on DVD.
You can always stay up-to-date with all the latest DVD and Blu-ray release dates at the RopeofSilicon DVD homepage and every Tuesday I include all the latest additions to the database in my This Week On DVD and Blu-ray columns.
