Search form

Avatar and Minority Report Arrive on Blu-ray

Cameron and Spielberg on Blu-ray in the same week: this is just the boost that the HD format needs.

Cameron and Spielberg on Blu-ray in the same week: this is just the boost that the HD format needs.

Avatar, of course, goes Blu today from Twentieth Century Fox Home Ent. on Earth Day (the movie only yet utilizing every bit of disc storage space to show off the Oscar-winning cinematography, production design and vfx by Weta Digital). Blu-ray specs are AVC encoded 1080p image with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.

But to bridge the gap between the movie-only release and the November ultimate edition Blu-ray, Fox is launching the interactive "Avatar Program." Through a unique code found inside the Avatar Blu-ray/DVD, consumers can register at avatarmovie.com and gain exclusive access to first-look bonus materials, special content and money saving offers (including an e-coupon good toward the purchase of the future special-edition Blu-ray). They can also adopt one of the 1,000,000 trees being planted on behalf of Earth Day and receive a virtual home tree to represent the actual tree.

The ultimate four-disc set will offer three cuts: the theatrical version; an extended cut with 6 minutes of fully finished footage seamlessly added back in (including the Na'vi school run by Dr. Augustine and Jake's training as a Na'vi, which Weta Digital is working on); and an earlier preview version that has 30 or 35 minutes of additional footage, some of which will be in unfinished form.

Meanwhile, Minority Report has never looked as detailed and gritty than on Paramount Home Ent.'s Blu-ray edition: AVC encoded 1080p image with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Spielberg collaborated with our old friend, production designer Alex McDowell, on this futuristic thriller adapted from a Philip K. Dick short story, with vfx by ILM.

And there's more than an hour of HD special features, including "The Future According to Steven Spielberg," "Minority Report: Future Realized" and Previs Sequences.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.