As part of a yearlong test between Warner Bros., Nippon Telegraph & Telephone and Toho Cinemas, CORPSE BRIDE will be the first film to be distributed over fiber-optic lines. The features will be in 4K format, the highest resolution currently available for digital cinema. The movies will be beamed over NTT's fiber-optic lines from WB's Burbank headquarters to three Toho theaters in Osaka and Tokyo.

WB and NTT have been working on the process for more than a year, but had to wait for Digital Cinema Initiatives to complete its technical specification for d-cinema, which wrapped in August.

"Whereas in the U.S. we are looking at satellites and other potential ways to distribute in huge geographic areas, this type of infrastructure should be looked at in places like Japan that are more compact," said WB technical operations president Chris Cookson.