Tech Shout!

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is rush-releasing “X-Men: The Last Stand” to Blu-ray Disc on Nov. 14, three days before Sony’s next-generation video game console - the PlayStation 3 (PS3) makes its U.S. debut on Nov. 17. The three X-MEN movies are among the studio’s most popular and successful, collectively grossing over $1 billion at the worldwide box office and selling over 45 million DVD/VHS units. Reigning as one of the biggest films of the year and the industry’s biggest Blu-ray Disc release ever, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND features 100% HD content in AVC (MPEG4) including the film and the bonus features – a first for Fox. It carries a suggested retail price of $39.98 U.S. / $49.98 Canada.

The Blu-ray Disc (BD) release of X-Men: The Last Stand on November 14 joins Fox’s stellar, action-packed line-up of initial BD releases, which includes ‘Behind Enemy Lines,’ ‘Fantastic Four,’ ‘Kingdom of Heaven (Director’s Cut),’ ‘Kiss of the Dragon,’ ‘The Omen (2006),’ ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,’ ‘Speed’ and ‘The Transporter.’ These releases also carry a suggested retail price of US$39.98/CAN$49.98.

The following week brings the Studio’s first day-and-date DVD and BD release with the concurrent release of ‘Ice Age: The Meltdown’ on November 21 in North America. This opening day-and-date release will benefit from the broad, multi-million dollar marketing campaigns already in place for ‘Ice Age: The Meltdown’, which will tout the availability of the title on both DVD and BD.

“The demographics between ‘X-Men’ and PlayStation 3 are a near-perfect match,” said Steve Feldstein, senior VP marketing communications for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. “This is the biggest new release yet for Blu-ray, and we’re working closely with retailers and others to ensure that when people are buying their PS3s, they’re going to know they can get ‘X-Men’ to play on it.

“PlayStation is by far the dominant game platform, and this should put questions about format wars to rest,” he added.

Authored in HDMV with AVC (MPEG 4 compression) and exceptional 6.1 DTS ES HD Lossless Master Audio, the X-Men: The Last Stand BD release boasts two commentary tracks (director Brett Ratner with writers Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg; separate track featuring producers Avi Arad, Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter), 12 alternate / extended scenes presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital audio (with optional director / writer commentary) and enhanced Marvel Trivia Track – with this feature activated, color graphics pop up throughout the film giving inside information from the Marvel universe on characters and events, plus favorite Marvel Comics are referenced and Marvel characters and graphics are incorporated into the presentation.