My HD DVD Release Speculation Post

With more than 40 HD DVD titles from major studios already available at retail, what are the other upcoming titles that may appear soon? What I'm about to say in the subsequent paragraphs are purely speculation based on my own observation.

Both The Break-up (Universal) and T3: Rise of the Machines (Warner) already have their release information made available. But no release dates are attached. My take is that The Break-up is scheduled for an October release while T3 may be out before holiday season.

Looking at the trend of Universal Studios' HD DVD releases, it is likely we may see some or all of the following titles announced for HD DVD soon and most, if not all, may be scheduled to street before the year ends (List taken from TheLookAndSoundofPerfect.com):

• 12 Monkeys
• Accepted
• The Blues Brothers
• The Hulk
• Water World
• Jet Li's Fearless
• Scoop
• You, Me and Dupree
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Meet the Parents
• The Mummy
• Dune
• An American Werewolf in London
• Idlewild
• Field of Dreams
• Miami Vice
• The Return
• Casino
• The Scorpion King

Warner Home Video have mentioned on various occasions (CES 2006, Video Business interviews and on the HD DVD Promotional Group site) that the following titles will be released for HD DVD's launch. Most of them are now very likely to be released on HD DVD before the year is out. Informal sources are actually telling us we can expect Dolby TrueHD audio and In-Movie Experience on some or all of these titles.

• The Matrix
• Ocean's 12
• Batman Begins
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Dirty Dozen
• The Green Mile Special Edition

After Paramount's aggressive first wave of 10 HD DVD titles scheduled for release over a period of 3 Tuesdays, its next most likely HD DVD line-up will include Mission: Impossible Trilogy. Mission: Impossible 3 2-Disc DVD is tentatively scheduled for an October/November release. Hence, the M:I 3 HD DVD would at the earliest be scheduled for an October/November release. It may very well be a day-and-date release with the DVD editions. The trilogy on HD DVD is likely to be announced soon but I would not speculate on the release date here. Here's to hoping Paramount will include Dolby TrueHD audio for Mission: Impossible.

Also, informal sources are indicating the plans and work is ongoing to produce The Ultimate Star Trek Collection on HD DVD but no other "concrete" information that allows for further speculation.

And lastly, based on the information provided from some of my readers, The Weinstien Company (and Genius Products) is likely to release HD DVD titles soon in December. The titles involved will include:

• Clerks II
• Derailed
• DOA: Dead or Alive
• Pulse
• The Matador
• Scary Movie 4
• Wolf Creek

That's all for today... Have a nice weekend ahead!