Apple, soon to officially announce its strategy to deliver movies through the iTunes Music Store (which according to one source is going to be rebranded),and its movie studio partners are working on creating a large library of hits for download within the first six months of making full length films available.
Grapevine time: executives at Disney’s Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a collection of Disney’s main movie studios, have been getting their subsidiary companies to prepare most of their hit motion pictures for digital delivery.
These are just some of the movies to expect within the first six months to a year.
From Walt Disney Pictures: James and the Giant Peach, Pocahontas, The Lion King, Aladdin, Chicken Little, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Sky High, Ice Princess, National Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
From Disney/Pixar: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3 (?), A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars.
From Miramax: Cold Mountain, The Hours, Chicago, Cinderella Man, Scary Movie 1,2,3 and 4.
From Touchstone Pictures: The Royal Tenenbaums, Pearl Harbor, The Sixth Sense (with Hollywood Pictures), Unbreakable, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Shanghai Noon, Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, King Arthur, Hidalgo, Open Range, Signs, Reign of Fire.
Apart from Disney and Pixar, Lion’s Gate Entertainment will make the following, mostly horror, movies available: American Psycho, Dogma, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Open Water, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, The Punisher, Fahrenheit 9/11, Crash, Alone in the Dark, Hostel, Saw 1 and 2.
Not all of the above will be available for download immediately but instead see a slow roll out over the first six months during which they will be joined by ever newer releases. Pricing is expected to be from$9.99 to $14.99. In this writer’s opinion customers might find those prices too dear. Could a subscription model work better?
[iTunes]
[iPodHub]
amazon is doing the same thing with WB an Universal,so LITW will be for download on amazon… 😉
where is the village!?? who wants to sit at their pc and watch movies anyway? i'd rather buy the blu-ray disc with cool inserts and a nifty case with artwork. :oD
A lot of people watch movies/tv shows on their computers or laptops these days. Plus, with new technologies, and some old, you can transmit your computer screen onto just about any TV. The TV can also act as a second monitor with this hook-up.
As far as Blu-Ray Disc, that'd be nice, so would HD-DVD, but there's not enough of a market for either format as of yet. There isn't a big enough difference from DVD to make the leap, like there was from VHS to DVD. It'll be a while before either format finds its' way to the top.