PS3 News

New Line follows Warner Bros in Blu-ray defection

By Stevie Smith Jan 9, 2008, 8:17 GMT

New Line Cinema joins Warner Bros in shifting HD focus to Sony\'s Blu-ray format. Credit: Time Warner Inc.

Following hot on the heels of the shock news that Warner Bros is abandoning its format-straddling business plan and, from May of 2008, will be offering its movies exclusively on the Blu-ray high-definition format, New Line Cinema has also announced its Blu-ray defection.

While the move is perhaps not wholly surprising – insofar as New Line is owned by Time Warner, which is also the parent company of Warner Bros – HiDefDigest reports that New Line’s decision is effective immediately and sees all scheduled HD-DVD releases cancelled in favour of Blu-ray exclusivity.

Those cancellations include all upcoming HD-DVD releases of existing Blu-ray titles, which include the likes of Rush Hour 3 and Hairspray. Therefore, the only New Line Cinema title successfully released onto HD-DVD prior to the studio opting for Blu-ray is the critically acclaimed Pan’s Labyrinth. New Line has outlined that Guillermo Del Toro's Oscar-winning masterpiece will be discontinued on HD-DVD as soon as current retail supplies have been exhausted.

Unlike the intense media reaction prompted by the Warner Bros’ recent Blu-ray shift, New Line has said that no official press release will announce its decision – not least because its HD-DVD presence is virtually non-existent anyway.

Bearing that in mind, the studio has elected not to trumpet the arrival of fresh Blu-ray titles at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, although new releases and back-catalogue titles will be unveiled during 2008.

New Line Cinema is responsible for movie titles such as The Golden Compass, Rendition, the Austin Powers series, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.