CES Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm actually glad we sat on this story a bit today, because now more info has come out of the CES show in Las Vegas. First off, the London Financial Times reported that Paramount was preparing to follow Warner Bros. and drop HD-DVD to sign an exclusive deal with Blu-ray. Should such a move take place, it would leave Universal all alone in the HD-DVD camp, and most likely signal an end to this long, hard-fought format war. How could Paramount do this? Would they be breaking a contract with HD-DVD? According to sources, there's a clause in Paramount's contract that states if Warners goes Blu-ray, they would have the option to do the same. So did Paramount leave? Was there a huge announcement today?

YES! Only it was a different kind of an announcement from Paramount. Basically, they denied all rumors and issued the following statement: "We are still supporting HD DVD." Ah, but then later on in the day, Paramount said they would not be announcing the titles of future HD-DVDs during the CES conference. Hmm. They're sticking with HD-DVD, but they refuse to announce future titles? Seems a bit ... sketchy.

I know what you're about to ask, so let me beat you to the punch -- what does Michael Bay (who, you might remember, threw up a stink when Transformers came out in only HD-DVD) think of all this? Am I right? That's what you were thinking, right? Well, following the Warner Bros. announcement, Bay had this to say over on his official site: "Well another studio down. Maybe I was right? Blu ray is just better. HD will die a slow death. It's what I predicted a year ago. Now with Warner's down for the count with Blu Ray. That makes it easier for Wal-Mart to push Blu Ray. And whatever Wal-Mart pushes - wins. Hd better start giving out those $120 million dollars checks to stay alive. Maybe they can give me some so I can give it to my Make-A-Wish charity, just to shut me up. Have faith people Transformers will come out in Blu-ray one day!"

So how long before Paramount and Universal give in and switch teams?

Just a day after Sony's Howard Stringer bragged  at CES about bagging Landmark as the first customer for Sony's high res 4K projector, Landmark announced (also at CES) the indie chain is ditching the Sony 4K projector in favor of Barco's 2K projectors. Apparently nobody told Stringer. Cinematech reports that in an email to them in December, Landmark's Mark Cuban said Landmark had installed a couple of Sony's projectors and was "battle testing" them. Guess that didn't work out so well. Landmark's announcement leaves Sony in a bit of a lurch, with zero - count 'em, zero - customers for it's projector, which has been plauged with technical and delivery issues.

• The Reeler goes to that James Bond thing at the New York Boat Show, and finds that 007 nerds desperately want you to share their clarity of recollection when it comes to the minor details of all 867 Bond films.
• We'll take on the second person voice to respectfully disagree with Gothamist's Aaron on Bennett Miller's Capote. Though Aaron "found the acting brilliant but the filmmaking boring", he says "it's still worth seeing." We wish we could agree, but we're having trouble remembering a single moment from Miller's dreary and singularly incidental biopic. But Aaron's other weekend picks are pretty much spot-on, so New Yorkers would be wise to check them out.
• Scott from CinemaTech blogs CES: "I'm dubbing it the Year of Video at the Consumer Electronics Show. Will this show soon merge with NAB (the National Association of Broadcasters conclave)? And if it does, how will you ever get a cab in Vegas?"
• Alison from IFC News on one of many problems with Hostel: "We always hoped that director Eli Roth would, like Marilyn Manson, turn out to be a startlingly and pleasantly articulate goth, but we're going to have to concede that he's way not...Also, he's tan."

• Toshiba scored another point in the battle when they announced they'll be able to roll out their players about three months ahead of Sony's Blu-Ray machines.
• Sony, Lionsgate, and Fox, exclusive Blu-Ray supporters, announced their upcoming rollout plans for the format, with Fantastic Four, Hitch, Saw and House of Flying Daggers all set to come out in early 2006. Paramount, who have backed both Sony and Toshiba, plan to High Define Aeon Flux, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and Sahara (which, having just watched it recently, I can safely say was the Best Looking Bad Film of 2005).
• At CES (where, according our friends at Engadget, High Def DVD players are "growing on trees"), Microsoft announced that it'll ship an external HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 sometime this year. Peter Moore said: "The new drive will offer millions of Xbox 360 owners the ability to easily enjoy HD DVD movies and will provide consumers with even more choices for experiencing high-definition content, in either physical or digital form."

Just a day after Sony Chairman Howard Stringer bragged at CES about bagging Landmark as the first customer for its high res 4K projectors, Landmark ditched Sony, opting to go with Barco's 2K projectors instead.  Landmark announced the switch Friday at CES - apparently no one had told Stringer about the move before his speech. Landmark had previously installed a couple of Sony projectors and was "battle testing them", according to an email from Landmark's Mark Cuban to Cinematech back in December. I guess the battle testing didn't work out so well - Sony's 4K projectors have been plauged with delivery issues and technical problems and now they have no customers to brag about.