Hancock Blu-Ray Premieres in Germany this week

Just a short note to let you know that the Hancock Blu-Ray release is actually making it’s debut this week (November 6th), courtesy of a worldwide exclusive from Amazon Germany. That’s almost three weeks before it’s available in the US (November 25th) and almost a month ahead of its UK debut (December 1st). The German edition comes in an exclusive metal case only available via Amazon for 24.95 Euro or in a regular plastic keep-case for the same price. The film itself is a special extended edition and features a full English TrueHD soundtrack, so if you can’t wait to see this one, head on over to Amazon Germany.

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UK Blu-Ray Releases for Monday November 3rd 2008

Partly because it has been a few weeks since we last did a Blu-Ray release post, and partly because there are a lot of titles out this week, I have decided to do separate posts for the two main markets we typically cover. Today we’ll take a look at the UK releases coming out tomorrow (Monday) and then I’ll follow that up tomorrow with another post to cover the new releases for the US market that will be hitting the shelves on Tuesday.

First up is Mad Detective. This is a Hong Kong police movie with a twist. It has received great critical acclaim, including Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong film awards 2008 and was nominated for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. The detective Bun, who has been thrown off the force for slicing off his ear as a gift to his boss at the chief’s farewell party, has a special gift that leads him to be called back into action… This release is also interesting as it is (as far as I am aware) the first release on BD for Eureka!. Their Masters Of Cinema series is a kind of UK equivalent to Criterion Collection, specializing in international cinema.

Next, there is the final feature-length episode of Ricky Gervais’ comedy series Extras. This final episode features cameos from George Michael and Clive Owen.

I’ll cover the releases that are common to both the UK and the US this week in tomorrow’s entry, but some other UK exclusives this week are:

The Colour Of Magic (This was a TV adaptation based on the first of the popular Discworld series of fantasy novels)

Zulu (The 1964 film starring Michael Caine about the Anglo-Zulu war in South Africa in the nineteenth century)

And Paramount finally get up to speed on the back catalogue and release the Mission Impossible Trilogy, The Italian Job and Babel amongst others.

These were the main titles that caught my eye, but you can check the full list of UK releases for this week at Amazon UK.

Red Reader now available in UK via John Lewis

The Sangria Red edition of the PRS-505 Reader will be making its debut in the UK very shortly courtesy of an exclusive deal with department store John Lewis. The red version of Sony’s second-gen Reader has been on sale in the US for a couple of months now and comes with a slimline red case  (shown above) or an alternative thicker red leather case available to purchase separately. The only color available to date in the UK has been the silver model. The retail price for the red edition will be £199 (the same price as the silver variant currently available).

Meanwhile in the US the exclusive 007 edition of the PRS-505 we announced a while back should now be on sale via SonyStyle. The Ian Fleming Limited Edition comes with an exclusive 007 embossed cover and a download code for two free ebook Bond titles in addition to the 100 free classics available with every edition of the Reader. The store link can be found here.

Blu-Ray Releases for Tuesday 7th October 2008

This week looks to be fairly non-eventful in terms of big new releases. The majority of the US releases are re-issues or classics. Don’t get me wrong, there are some excellent titles in there such as The Omen Collection or Beetlejuice, but just nothing that really stood out for me. Of the new releases, we have The Visitor which is a pretty moving tale of the friendship between a retired widowed college professor and some homeless illegal immigrants that are living in his apartment. I couldn’t make my mind up about this movie and found it maybe just a little labored and too heavy for its own good. – Maybe a second viewing would change that. At the other end of the spectrum we have the latest Adam Sandler movie You Don’t Mess with The Zohan. I have no idea whether this is any good, but the premise just sounds so ridiculous there has to be at least a couple of good moments in there. Besides, my wife was bugging me for ages to take her to see this and I never got round to it, so I figure I will at least get her the BD as she is a big Adam Sandler fan.

Worldwide there was nothing major of note released that I could see in other markets this week, although Amazon France is listing a Ghostbusters Box Set due out tomorrow.

Here’s the US release list for this week in full:

• The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (Sony)
• The Amityville Horror (1979) (MGM)
• Beetlejuice (Warner)
• Body Heat (Warner)
• Carrie (1976) (MGM)
• Faces of Death (Gorgon)
• The Happening (Fox)
• Korn: Live on the Other Side (Image)
• The Omen (1976) (Fox)
• The Omen: The Collection (Fox)
• Otis: Uncut (Warner)
• Ray Harryhausen Collection (20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, It Came From Beneath the Sea, 7th Voyage of Sinbad) (Sony)
• Rest Stop (Warner)
• Rest Stop: Don’t Look Back (Warner)
• Sleeping Beauty (Walt Disney)
• Stuck (Image)
• The Visitor (2008) (Starz)
• You Don’t Mess with The Zohan (Sony)
• Young Frankenstein (Fox)

Sony Completes Bertelsmann Buy-Out

Sony has completed its take-over of the Sony BMG music joint venture from partner Bertelsmann, the German media company said Thursday. Originally it was an equal joint venture, set up four years ago as a way for Bertelsmann to withdraw from the troubled music recording business. Bertelsmann said Sony had paid the purchase price for its 50-percent stake and that the takeover had cleared all anti-trust hurdles and was finalized Wednesday.

Blu-Ray Releases for Tuesday 30th September 2008

The big release this week is without doubt Iron Man. I haven’t yet seen this so cannot offer an opinion, but I will maybe import it given that it is region-free. There are some comedy offerings in the form of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and from the same team, also released are The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. All three are available as a set or individually. Re-releases include The Sixth Sense and a clutch of horror / slasher movies such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Day Of The Dead.

This week’s French exclusives include Walk The Line (excellent film in an extended cut), Rendition (which if the UK release is anything to go by has a great transfer)

Here’s the full list of US releases for this week, as always courtesy of Hi-Def Digest.

• The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Universal)
• Angel in the Family (Echo Bridge)
• Can’t Hardly Wait (Sony)
• A Christmas Visitor (Echo Bridge)
• Daredevil: Director’s Cut (Fox)
• Dawn of the Dead (2004) (Universal)
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Universal)
• Halloween Starter Pack ['The Thing (1982),' 'Land of the Dead,' 'Dawn of the Dead (2004)'] (Universal)
• Iron Man (2008) (Paramount)
• Jethro Tull: Live at Montreux 2003 (Eagles Rock)
• Knocked Up (Universal)
• Land of the Dead (Universal)
• Legends: Live at Montreux 1997 (Eagle Rock)
• The Man Who Saved Christmas (Echo Bridge)
• Roy Orbison: A Black & White Night (Image)
• Salem Witch Trials (Echo Bridge)
• The Sixth Sense (Walt Disney)
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1973) (Dark Sky Films)
• The Thing (1982) (Universal)
• Ultimate Unrated Comedy Collection (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) (Universal)
• When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions (Image)

Sony Reader To Be Launched In The Netherlands in 2009

After a successful launch in the UK, the Reader continues it’s march across Europe over the coming months. Already due to hit France and Germany later this year, Sony’s PRS-505 will now be coming to The Netherlands in 2009 according to Dutch daily De Telegraaf. The article doesn’t give a lot of detail,  but the device will likely initially be sold through an exclusive deal with one of the large chains as has happened elsewhere. It will be interesting to see which chain that is as currently the largest bookseller in The Netherlands – Selexyz – which has stores such as Donner and Verwijs has an exlcusive deal to sell rival device the Iliad Irex. No news on the price, but I suspect it will be similar to that announced for other European markets (~ €299). We’ll keep you posted of any updates, but this is good news for Dutch ebook fans.

Symbian loses out in Sony Ericsson R&D reorganization

Sony Ericsson yesterday announced a company reorganisation with the aim of rationalizing its R&D divisions. 2,000 job losses had been announced back in July,  but the announcement highlighted where these cuts would hit.

User interface development will now be centered in Beijing with significant job cuts due in the company’s North Carolina operation, although there will be new hiring in its California development center where the  focus is primarily on Windows Mobile devices such as the new Xperia X1.

Symbian development hasn’t been entirely abandoned, although there will be a considerable gap until Sony Ericsson’s next Symbian devices appear.

Symbian development will focus on the company’s Lund office, near Malmo, which will become the company’s new Symbian “competence hub”. Symbian application development isn’t a priority, sources suggest, with the focus instead on integration.

Yesterday’s announcement made no mention the UIQ office at Ronneby, Sweden. UIQ is the joint venture with Motorola which began life in the 1990s as an Ericsson R&D lab, and which had invested heavily in system and application development for the UIQ user interface for Symbian devices.

UIQ was the first casualty of the announcement by the acquisition of Symbian by Nokia back in June, as Sony Ericsson decided it would develop new UIs based on Nokia’s S60 instead. UIQ’s London and Budapest offices were closed, and deep redundancies at Ronneby left the office as little more than a stub.

I recently picked up the Sony Ericsson G900 and have to say that after 3 or more years using Windows Mobile, the UIQ interface was actually a joy to use. Let’s hope SE Symbian based devices don’t disappear forever.

(Article extracts courtesy The Register UK)

Blu-Ray Releases for 23rd September 2008

There are quite a few high profile releases this week, but without a doubt the most eagerly awaited is Sex and the City. Yeah right… It is of course The Godfather Collection which comes to BD in an all new “Coppola Restoration” which offers a hugely improved transfer of all three movies in the series. The set of four discs which is fairly reasonably priced at Amazon at $61.95 offers a raft of extras on the fourth disc including many new features in HD plus all of the extras from the previous dvd releases. This set is not out until October 27th in the UK so it’s definitely worth importing as this release is region-free.

As for the other regions this week, the UK has nothing much of note on new release. France always seems to have a couple of exclusives and this week they get The Good Shepherd and my tip for this week – La Haine. I cannot reccomend this hard-hitting film highly enough and it comes with a killer soundtrack, so check it out.

Here are this week’s US releases in full, courtesy as always of High Def Digest.

• Animalia: Welcome to the Kingdom (Porchlight)
• Blow (New Line)
• Cirque du Soleil: Corteo (Sony)
• Deception (Fox)
• The Godfather Collection (Paramount)
• Halford: Live Insurrection – Remastered (Metal God)
• L.A. Confidential (Warner)
• Leatherheads (Universal)
• Madagascar (DreamWorks)
• Re-Cycle (Image)
• Run Fatboy Run (Universal)
• Sex and the City (New Line)
• Shrek the Third (Paramount)

Sony – Asian Shoppers’ Favorite Brand

A survey of Asian shoppers released today, named Sony as the region’s favorite brand. Sony came in ahead of both Canon and Nike and replaced last year’s winner, Nokia in the survey which polled 3600 consumers across 10 different countries including Australia and China. Although not limted to electronics manufacturers, many of Sony’s competitors featured in the top twenty. The survey was conducted by media magazine and market researchers TNS.