Last week's Blu-ray titles provided us with some fright fest which is better watched alone. This time around, teamwork is at a premium with highly-lauded titles Golden Compass, Ocean's Eleven, and Ocean's Twelve headlining this week's fresh releases for your Blu-ray home entertainment system. Find the rest of the Blu-ray titles to be released this week in the full article.

This week's goodies for your Blu-ray home entertainment system will have you cowering behind your bowls of popcorn. (Come to think of it, it'll be a good idea to watch these with a very very jittery girl friend or boy friend.) Curious? We've got The Orphanage, One Missed Call, Sublime, and Six Degrees Could Change the World lurking at the full article.

This week's dose of Blu-ray releases differ greatly from the previous week's themes of action and zombies. This week, we've got a courtroom drama, a drama set in Coney Island, and three comedies. Check out the full article for more info.

Another slew of diverse titles are going to the shelves this season and you'll surely find something for you in the list. There's action (Rush Hour 3, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and Blade Runner), fantasy (Pan's Labyrinth), kiddie fare (Underdog), and family fun-filled The Simpsons Movie among others.

Check out the full version for the complete list of goodies for your Blu-ray entertainment systems for this week and the next.

Pyro Studios is now all fired up, now that they're tasked to develop games based on Planet 51, a yet-to-be-released animated film about an astronaut who unwittingly lands on an alien planet. Aside from working on secret Wii title, it looks like the game studio of Commandos fame is going to be a bit busy for a while. Details in the full article!

This week's list of Blu-ray releases will have you either at the edge of your seats or sitting comfortably on your couches sipping cider. We've got action from Die Hard's John McClane and Pathfinder's Ghost. We also have some holiday fun from Santa Claus and Jack Frost, plus some Hairspray to complete the list.

Check out the full article for the complete list of Blu-ray releases.

Sega and New Line Cinema are pulling all the stops in promoting their upcoming cooperative effort The Golden Compass which debuts in cinemas and game systems this December. The Japanese game publisher says that they're hoping to succeed to the degree that The Lord of the Rings franchise did in both the movie and video game markets. Based on the book Northern Lights, this film tells the story of a girl named Lyra who sets out on a journey with her Daemon Pentalaimon.

For movie companies, profit is profit. And Warner Bros. Pictures is no exception to the rule. Be it HD-DVD or Blu-ray, movie firms distribute their movies both ways and have increased their overall sales per picture by doing so. But news from the Los Angeles Times reports that Warner might lean more heavily to HD-DVD - "might" being the operative term here.

Talks of a "lucrative offer" being considered by Warner Bros. have streamed off to several entertainment sites, and even while it may seem like speculation, the news story quotes from several "Hollywood insiders." Paramount and Dreamworks were also approached with similarly interesting offers by the HD-DVD camp, which resulted in the two firms staying exclusive to HD-DVD.

It's not to say that Warner will be hopping off the fence to HD-DVD just yet. Official word has yet to be given, and Warner might not want to leave the profit edge it has just gained by sitting neutral between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. More developments on this as they roll in.

*Article's original title: Warner Bros. to dip into HD-DVD? originally posted on Sep 11, 2007 at 9 PM.

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Update: True to our beliefs, Warner Bros. isn't going to give up its unique position to distribute movies on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Perhaps in an effort to control rumor flames, the firm released a list of movies that were going to both formats.

Aside from the fact that Warner announced Blu-ray movie bundles (the same titles were claimed to also come out in HD-DVD), New Line Cinema (under Warner) would also an HD-DVD version of "Hairspray" right after the Blu-ray version is out. Matt Lasorsa, New Line EVP of marketing, told Home Media Magazine:

Clearly, there isn't a format winner at this point, so we’re going to adopt the strategy from Warner, our sister company, and mirror what they are doing. And by supporting both formats, we are giving consumers the ultimate choice.

Thanks to Quixand, DJ Natas, and bigshynepo for the additional information. Another load of credits goes to HighDefDigest for the facts.

 

Sega of America has announced that it will be bringing a new action-adventure video game for the platforms of PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, PC, and PlayStation 2.

The Golden Compass is based on Philip Pullman's best-selling novel, and is, in fact, also a major motion picture from New Line Cinema. But here in the game, you expand the experience as Lyra Belacqua, who is on a mission to rescue her uncle that's in prison, as well as her kidnapped best friend. To aid her in her quest are her friends Pan the spirit daemon, Iorek the armored bear, and of course, the Golden Compass -  that one source of truth that will help Lyra find the correct path.

The Golden Compass game guarantees that it will remain true to the movie, bringing to video gaming life the characters, locations, and scenes, as well as creating the characters in the movie actors' likeness, like Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, and Dakota Blue Richards.

The platforms PlayStation 3 and Wii will specifically utilize to the fullest their motion control capabilities, while the DS version will deliver unique and different gameplay mechanics, including a multiplayer mode.

For now, these are all the information we have on Sega's The Golden Compass, but not to worry. We do have some screenshots for you to view, and we do promise to keep you posted on more details as they come.

 

The game Mortal Kombat has developed such a large following that a movie was made. Unlike some of the other games turned into movies, this had a certain pair of movie critics give it a "two thumbs up". Unfortunately, the second movie didn't receive as much acclaim as the first. The third movie hasn't even been started because of certain problems.

Threshold (the people who hold the rights to MK) had to wait for their contract with New Line Cinema to expire. They are apparently blaming New Line Cinema for the less than stellar performance of the second movie. Another reason for the delay has to do with the script.

The people at Threshold and the director have been constantly writing drafts which they send to Midway (the makers of the game). This is to ensure that Ed Boon (the creator of the game) can give his inputs on the draft. Only after all of those steps will the script be passed on to the studio. It's pretty understandable why the movie is taking long.

With all of the said people lavishing attention on this, we hope that it turns out more like the first movie and not the second. You can see the director's comments on the movie via the read link.