While competing studio Paramount Pictures has its bets riding on HD DVD, 20th Century Fox is focusing on Blu-ray Disc as its next-generation home video format and has announced plans to release the summer vfx spectacle Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer on Blu-ray in North America on Oct. 2. The title will hit retail internationally on Oct. 9 as part of Fox Home Entertainment’s aggressive global Blu-ray roll-out strategy that will see 29 new releases and catalog titles from Fox and MGM hit retail through the end of the 2007 calendar year.
Mike Dunn, president worldwide for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, claims that worldwide Blu-ray Disc is averaging nearly 70% market-share per week of all high-definition titles sold this year and is out-performing HD DVD two to one in the U.S. “Given the retail landscape this holiday season, we expect the sales gap between Blu-ray and HD DVD to grow significantly wider as the most anticipated films of the year debut exclusively on the Blu-ray format,’ he remarks. “In fact, once our Blu-ray consumers, and those still on the fence, experience the advanced BD-J interactivity games available on Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Live Free Or Die Hard, they’ll realize what we’ve been telling them all along’Blu-ray is really the only way.
The Blu-ray release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer will include hours of bonus content including deleted scenes, a making-of documentary, multiple behind-the-scenes featurettes and commentaries with two exclusive high-definition BD-Java bonus features: Who Dares Defy Galactus?, Fox’s first multi-player strategy game, and a Saving the World One Question At a Time trivia game.
“I’m thrilled that both of my Fantastic Four films are available on Blu-ray,” says director Tim Story. “You can really see spectacular detail in the CGI visual effects we used to create the Silver Surfer character. Plus, fans of the Fantastic Four will have the added bonus of continuing the battle between Galactus and the Silver Surfer through the really cool interactive games that are only available on the Blu-ray release.”
Overseen by Oscar-winning vfx supervisor Scott Squires, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer‘s visual effects were created by Weta Digital, The Orphanage, Gentle Giant Studios, The Hatch, Hydraulx, Image Engine Design, Lola VFX and Soho VFX. supervisor. The movie was released to theaters on Jun 15 and has grossed approximately $273 million worldwide.
