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Official Trailer of the new Batman movie. Check it out!

You’ve already bought the DVD to enjoy on your big-screen TV at home. But you also want to watch the flick on your portable media player or on your laptop without using the disc.

Until now, you had two options: Rebuy the movie digitally (an expensive, often limited proposition), or circumvent the copy protection on the disc and make your own digital copy of the movie. Two film studios are taking baby steps toward offering a third, legal alternative, permitting you to copy the movie to your device from the DVD itself.

Twentieth Century Fox is first out of the gate. With the two-disc Live Free or Die Hard Collector’s Edition DVD, out today, Fox debuts Fox Digital Copy, the studio’s fledgling infrastructure for allowing consumers to transfer digital copies of a movie from the disc to a PC and to a portable device.

Warner Brothers follows suit on December 11, with the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Similarities Between the Two Digital Versions

The Fox and Warner initiatives share several similarities. Both include the digital-copy feature at no extra charge on the special-edition DVDs, which run at about a $5 premium over the standard editions. Both studios are using Windows Media DRM and require Windows Media Player 10 or above. Both offer two digital versions of the films, one for PC and one for a portable device.

Fox says that its PC version of the Die Hard sequel is encoded at 1.6 megabits per second (taking up about 1.5GB of space), while the portable version runs at 768 kilobits per second (about 1GB of space). Warner says that its PC version of the latest Harry Potter movie averages about 1 mbps, while the portable version averages about 700 kbps.

The two studios have chosen a similar strategy for their initial digital-copy transfers, placing the digital versions on the second disc of the two-disc special-edition DVDs. (An interesting side note: Warner says that industrywide only about 20 to 25 percent of buyers opt for the more expensive special editions of DVDs, a point that underscores that the studios are slowly easing into this brave new digital world.) The studios also cite the same reasoning for including the digital movies on the disc: Doing so offers a more immediate experience as compared with a download via the Internet.

Warner experimented with Internet downloads this past summer, on the epic battle movie 300. DVDs of 300 sold in Target and Wal-Mart, for example, came with a download code for accessing the film via the Internet. For Harry Potter, though, Jim Wuthrich, senior vice president of electronic sell-through for Warner Brothers, says that the studio chose to put the movie on the disc instead.

“It’s because of the superior consumer experience; you don’t have to wait for the bits to be downloaded,” he says. “The transfer time is dependent only on how fast your DVD-ROM drive is. It’s not tied to your broadband speed.”

Danny Kaye, executive vice president of global research and technology strategy at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, says that the inclusion of digital copies on-disc is a precursor to broadening the digital movie downloads business beyond the niche that it occupies today.

“That’s the vision,” he says. “We have to start somewhere and we’re starting right here.”

Hands-On: Live Free or Die Hard–How the Copy Works

I had the chance to test Fox’s Live Free or Die Hard copy functions, and I found much to like. But not all was rosy.

Accessing the digital copies was easy. Pop the second disc into your PC, and it comes up with a menu that lets you choose between accessing special features or going to Digital Copy. I selected Digital Copy, and waited a few moments while the disc verified the state of my Windows digital rights management software; turned out I needed an update, a situation Microsoft remedied in just a few seconds.

Once my DRM was up-to-date, the disc prompted me for a 16-digit code that’s printed on an insert that came with the DVD. Fox’s server quickly validated the code; once I was approved, the Digital Copy Manager launched. I selected my movie from column A, chose the destination (hard drive, portable device) from column B, and clicked the ‘Start Sync’ (odd choice of nomenclature) button. The transfers were fast, taking 2 minutes for the PC version of the film and 2 minutes, 20 seconds to transfer it to a portable device.

The PC version’s image quality looked surprisingly good on my 19-inch LCD monitor. The image appeared on a par with movie download-to-buy options (such as Apple’s iTunes Music Store).

I didn’t have the opportunity to view the portable version. For starters, I learned the hard way that the Digital Copy Manager isn’t smart enough to recognize that the Samsung YP-P2 isn’t a Windows PlaysForSure device: I ended up copying the portable version of the film directly to the YP-P2. Oops.

For now, the Die Hard digital copy will work only with Windows PlaysForSure devices. This is a notably odd choice, given that even Microsoft has backed off from PlaysForSure, and the company’s own new Zunes don’t support the standard. Fox’s Kaye says that other formats may be supported in the future.

The system is set up to allow only one transfer each of the PC and portable versions. If something goes wrong–for instance, your hard drive fails or you lose your portable device–Kaye says that Fox’s customer service will provide a one-time-only disaster-recovery exception for a second copy. Warner has not established any parameters for such scenarios as of yet.

Warner’s Harry Potter DVD wasn’t yet available for me to try its digital-copy functionality, but from what Wuthrich describes, it’s very similar to how Fox’s implementation worked. Two small differences: One, the portable version transfers to your PC hard drive first and then moves to your portable unit. Two, Wuthrich says the portable version will work on any device that supports Windows Media digital rights management, including media players and some mobile phones.

source: PC World

This one came out of left field! Mark Wahlberg will star as Max Payne in a live-action adaptation of the video game to be directed by John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, Flight of the Phoenix, and The Omen). The video game is a bestselling hit from Rockstar that first debuted in 2001 and followed up with a sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, in 2003. The game is a third-person shooter noir crime thriller and is one of my all-time favorite games, so without a doubt I’m already looking forward to this.

Max Payne is a cop who is haunted by the tragic loss of his family and has little regard for rules as he investigates a series of mysterious murders. He finds himself up against an adversary bent on destroying Max and the streets he protects. The game used bullet-time as well as a noir and comic like feel to it, which will lend itself great to a film adaptation. The script was written by newcomer Beau Thorne. The film will go into production immediately after Wahlberg finishes The Lovely Bones with Peter Jackson, meaning yet another pre-strike movie.

 

Where I’m confused here is that Marky Mark has consistently stated that he won’t join films that don’t have incredible scripts. He won’t even do a sequel to The Departed because he think it won’t be as good as the first one! Yet he’s joined this, with a director who has had consistent tentpole crap films? I’m confused, am I missing something here? As much as I really, really want this to be great, I just fear for the worst.

I can tell you the path to success with Max Payne is to base it very strictly off of the video game, almost like Zack Snyder and 300 (with its exact frame-to-frame comparisons from the source material). It really needs that Sin City visual style and Matrix flair for it to really succeed. Without it, I can tell you it’s a guaranteed flop. And honestly, Moore is not the best guy for the job. Damn, why can’t the good directors be available more often!

 

Source : FirstShowing

It seems that the anticipated movie, American Gangster has been leaked onto the net one week even BEFORE the theater release. Denzel plays the role of Frank Lucas, heroin druglord from Manhatten. This movie is actually based on a true story. Love these Druglord movies based on true stories. Blow is one of my faves, we’ll see if this one can top it. American Gangster hits theaters November 2, but if you can wait until then, tracking down the leaked copy shouldn’t be too hard. Maybe clicking on an American Gangster Image might help speed up the search.

 

“He is the last man on Earth…and he’s not alone”

A Ridley Scott adaptation was scheduled for production in the late 1990s, but fell through due to an inflating budget. The film was to star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then director Rob Bowman took a crack at a smaller budget version with a rewrite from John Logan. Will Smith will now star in the film directed by Francis Lawrence (Constantine). Filming took place in New York City, and the film is scheduled to be released on December 14, 2007

I saw this trailer in theatres when I went to see The Heartbreak Kid (hilarious by the way). I didnt realize at first that it was all CG. I thought it was live action until halfway through. I thought to myself “Angelina Jolie looks too shiny”. I wasn’t as excited when I found out it was CG, but we’ll see how it is. To be honest it looks more like a “downloader”…oops I mean “renter”

The movie actually boasts quite a strong voice cast including Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, and John Malkovich.

Beowulf hits theater November 16, 2007

Gotta love those dark Tim Burton movies. Just when you thought it couldnt get any darker, you get a singing, murdurous barber who just happens to be Johnny Depp. Sweeney Todd is actually a remake, and is also…a broadway musical!

“Victorian England is the setting for this harrowing melodrama. Benjamin Barker is living a simple life as a barber with his wife Lucy and his daughter Joanna when the lust of a judge throws all of their lives into chaos. The judge has Benjamin Barker deported to Australia, and it is many years later that he returns to England, under the pseudonym Sweeney Todd with revenge on his heart. He wishes to reclaim his family and punish the judge and the society who destroyed it. With the help of Mrs. Lovett, a pie shop owner who had known Sweeney and his family all of those years ago, Sweeney goes about seeking vengeance and reaping the benefits of that bloody journey.”

When I first saw the trailer I was excited. Then I saw what Ironman first looked like and laughed, but ITS OKAY! Watch the rest of the trailer, the first outfit is just an escape plan.

Billionaire Tony Stark AKA Ironman is played by Robert Downey Jr. I didnt think that would stick, but from the trailer it seems pretty close to Stark. It seems that The movies have decided to change the skin colour of a comic book character again (remember Kingpin from Daredevil?). Thats right, Samuel L. Jackson will be playing Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D leader.
Originally they were trying to cast Tom Cruise to play the role as Tony Stark, but I think Downey Jr. actually makes a better fit.

Ironman hits theater May 2, 2008.

Hey all. These are the new release DVD Movies coming out next week (Oct. 23). Click the Pictures for the Synopsis, and click on the Title for a Magic Link. Not sure if it will work, my office is very restrictive in terms of web browsing, so most of these sites dont work. Enjoy! I Didnt have time to check if the links are all working. If not let me know and I’ll do my best to replace them.

                                           

Meet the Robinsons

Eli Roth’s Hostel Part II

 

Mr. Brooks

 

Home of the Brave

Hey whats up world? Not too often am I impressed by trailers, but this movie looks pretty sweet. By the looks of it, these teens with Nightcrawler-like powers can teleport through the world, until Samuel L.”Motherf*cking” Jackson starts hunting them. I havent really dug into the synopsis of the movie, but my guess hes some kinda “Jumper” cop. We shall see on its release February 15, 2008. Check it out