FOX Things are looking up

[tazpc]

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment today is expected to announce an ambitious slate of Blu-ray Disc (BD) titles, becoming the last of the five big studios supporting the next-generation optical-disc format to unveil specific releases and release dates.

The nine titles will be released worldwide, not just in North America. Topping the list: Ice Age: The Meltdown, which will be released the same day as the standard DVD, Nov. 21 in the United States and Canada and the week of Nov. 13 in Australia and select European countries.

Also on the list: the director’s cut of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, due Nov. 14 in North America, Australia and Europe and June 10 in Japan. The release will be one of the industry’s first dual-layer BDs, to accommodate the nearly four-hour running time.

“I reviewed [the film] on Blu-ray Disc, and I was astounded,” Scott said. “It was like looking through a window of clarity. It was the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen.”

Coming to stores on the same day are the seven other Fox titles: Behind Enemy Lines, Fantastic Four, Kiss of the Dragon, The Omen (666), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Speed and The Transporter.

In the United States, all titles will list for $39.98 — about $10 more than initial BD releases by Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video. Unlike most of the early Blu-ray releases from other studios, a number of Fox titles take full advantage of the format’s high-definition technology and Java-based interactivity, with AVC (MPEG-4 compression) and HD “Lossless” Audio.

Fox titles with AVC are Behind Enemy Lines, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Speed.

Only one other studio, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, is releasing BD titles with the advanced codec: Eight Below and Great Raid, both due Sept. 19.

Fox also is expected to announce today the release of four BD titles from MGM, which it is now distributing. The Usual Suspects and Windtalkers are due Nov. 28, followed on Dec. 5 by Rocky and Bulletproof Monk.

The timing of the Fox and MGM releases coincides with the expected release of the Sony PlayStation 3 video game console, which Blu-ray backers believe will give the fledgling format the momentum to soar past rival HD DVD.