Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (TCFHE) today announced worldwide Blu-ray new release plans for the $267 million global box-office hit Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Oct. 2 North America/Oct. 9 International) and the $348 million global box-office action powerhouse Live Free or Die Hard (Nov. 20 North America/Oct. 28 International) day-and-date with the BD release of the “Die Hard Trilogy.” The announcement further supports TCFHE’s aggressive global Blu-ray Disc release strategy that includes 29 new release and “must-have” catalog titles from Fox and MGM that runs through the end of the 2007 calendar year.
The only high-definition packaged media universally supported by the film, music, gaming and computer industries, BD is the #1 selling high-definition packaged media.
“On a worldwide basis, BD is averaging nearly 70% market-share per week of all high definition titles sold this year and, in the U.S., it is out-performing HD DVD by 2 to 1; in some territories the ratio is 3 to 1,” noted Mike Dunn, President Worldwide, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
“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.”
“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,” continued Dunn.
The BD release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer includes hours of bonus content including deleted scenes, a full length “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,” noted 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.”
“Who Dares Defy Galactus?” challenges players to an intergalactic battle through a galaxy comprised of 30 planets, 10 of which are colonized and have varying levels of life force. Players compete against each other as either Galactus, who must find the live planets and consume their energy, or The Silver Surfer, who must find the live planets and defend them against Galactus.
If Galactus is victorious, additional solar systems are unlocked and the battle for live planets rages on. If The Silver Surfer defeats Galactus, the power cosmic never dies and will be waiting to consume more planets when players begin the game again.
Fans of “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” will be put to the test to compete for Fantastic Four knowledge supremacy in the “Saving The World One Question At A Time” interactive, pop-up trivia game. Contestants must correctly answer a series of trivia questions related to the Fantastic Four film and Marvel comic book franchise in order to defend Earth from Galactus’ ravenous appetite. A chain of illuminated planets are aligned on the bottom of the television screen. If players fail to answer trivia questions correctly to deter Galactus, one-by-one the planets will fall dark until the World as we know it is destroyed.
Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0 internationally) explodes onto BD day-and-date with the “Die Hard Trilogy” and features an arsenal of bonus content including a “Die Hard” music video by Guyz Nite, a “Making Of” documentary, actor and director commentaries and the exclusive high definition BD-Java multi-level strategy game “Black Hat Intercept!”
“Black Hat Intercept!” begins with a warning from ‘The Warlock’ (cult-classic writer, producer and director Kevin Smith) that a computer virus has been placed inside an unwitting Internet company’s mainframe by the infamous cyber-terrorist, Thomas Gabriel. As the team leader from inside the surveillance van, players must guide an agent into the building, outwit the building’s security systems and personnel without being detected and then wipe the hard drive clean before the virus destroys the U.S.
Additionally, the BD debut of the “Die Hard Trilogy” comes locked and loaded with numerous bonus features including deleted scenes, featurettes, actor and director commentaries, visual effect breakdowns, alternate endings, side-by-side comparisons and much, much more.
All of the BD titles announced today will be authored in BD-J with AVC (MPEG 4) compression and presented on 50 GB dual-layer discs with English 5.1 DTS HD Lossless Master Audio plus English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound. In addition to the highest quality audiovisual elements, each BD release will also feature D-Box compatible motion sensor cues to give D-Box chair equipped viewers a more life-like and intense viewing experience.
