Today, 20th Century Fox announced their plans for releasing Avatar on home video. To get right to the point, the Blu-Ray and DVD will be out on Earth Day, April 22. However, they also revealed some other interesting tidbits.
First of all, this first release will be a bare-bones, film-only disc. There won’t be any special features or even an animated menu. Producer Jon Landau said, “Everything that is put on a disc takes up room — the menus, the extras, the trailers and studio promotions — and we got rid of all of that so we could give this movie the best picture and sound possible.” This is a good approach, as the visuals are the best part of the film.
Secondly, Avatar will not be available in 3D. At least for now. Director James Cameron is holding back the 3D until the at-home 3D market reaches his standards. This also makes sense. He waited for the technology to advance far enough to be able to make the film, he shouldn’t release Avatar in a brand-new 3D version for home televisions.
So when can we expect all those extras? There’s got to be loads of special features for this enormous science-fiction extravaganza. The special edition Blu-Ray will be coming sometime in November. This will once again not be in 3D, but will contain multiple discs filled with goodies.
The 3D release is still up in the air. Cameron had hoped to get it out this fall, but apparently that’s not going to happen. I guess we’re looking at next year sometime. However, Fox is still looking at a possible theatrical release of the “extended version” this fall. There are apparently five or six minutes of finished footage that hit the cutting room floor and another 15 of rough stuff. In any case, that should feed your appetite for good 3D come later this year.
Cameron and Landau will personally unveil more specifics at a press event on March 23rd.
I loved Avatar and I like Cameron but this is ridiculous. Wait for TVs to catch up to his desired technology? Most of us who have bought HDTV’s in the past few years are NOT going to go out and spend thousands of dollars on 3-D TVs just so we can watch Avatar. It will be at least a decade before the majority of people start replacing their current TVs so I guess we can expect the 3-D release of Avatar in 2020.
This strikes blatently as “milk it for all it’s worth” With the (supposed) $500 million dollar budget this film hasn’t grossed as much profit, despite the overall take. (Where does that extra $4.00 per screen from 3D go? I’m thinking most of it goes to the theaters, but I could be wrong.)
After 10 years there should be discs worth of DVD bonuses and the fact that the studio is “demanding” their supporter to double dip is really insulting.