DVD Spin Doctor

New DVDs: 'Cuckoo's Nest' on Blu-ray

Warner did right by "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with its 2002 two-disc special edition, and now sweetens the pot with the Blu-ray version.

The "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Blu-ray ports over the extras from the 2002 release. The only new elements are the high-definition presentation and the colorful digi-book.

The images appear to hail from that edition's restoration, which looked outstanding considering the movie came from the mid-70s, that crappy era for film stock. The Blu-ray images seem smoother with better contrasts, more detail and perhaps less grain, but owners of the previous version could sit tight and not miss too much.

The audio isn't much of an issue -- dialogue is clear and the mix is front-centered.

The extra features are quite good, including eight extra scenes that could well have appeared in the movie. For fans, these are essential viewing. "There was never a bad take," producer Michael Douglas recalls. "It was all a matter of choices."

Unfortunately, star Jack Nicholson doesn't participate in any of the bonus features.

The commentary comes from producers Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz, as well as director Milos Forman, who broke into the big time with this project. They are recorded separately. The commentary track is on the dry side, more informative than entertaining. The decent making-of docu comes from 1997.

Kirk Douglas bought the rights to Ken Kesey's book in 1961 and played the anti-hero Randall P. McMurphy in a short-lived stage version of the tale about a fairly sane nar-do-well who finds himself in a mental institution. The elder Douglas actually met the young director Forman on a cultural ambassadors trip to Czechoslovakia and promised to send him the script, but it was seized by Polish censors.

A decade later, Douglas' actor son Michael talked his father out of selling the property and went looking for a "cheap director." In a coincidence, Douglas and fellow producer Zaentz approached Forman after seeing one of his early films.

Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando passed on the McMurphy role, so they turned to Nicholson despite reservations that he'd been marked as "the sensitive young man, or the intellectual badass." Douglas was convinced by an early look at Nicholson's work as a tough sailor in "The Last Detail."

The rest of the actors worked cheap, of necessity. The low-budget casting, of course, proved brilliant: the mental patients included Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli and Brad Dourif.

Louise Fletcher found her work-life's peak with the role of Nurse Rached, for which she quite rightly won an Oscar. (Turning down the part were Geraldine Page, Angela Lansbury and Anne Bankroft.) Fletcher recalls getting weary of playing the tight-ass authoritarian while the free-spirited male cast bounced around the location shoot. "Every day I was so jealous of them." At one point, she tore off her dress and pronounced to her co-workers that "there was a real woman in here." Crazy, man.

The mostly-indoors film was shot at the Oregon State Hospitals, where the administrators gave the filmmakers a wing to themselves. The actors mingled with the patients and engaged in preshoot therapy sessions. The real superintendent ended up playing himself, a great job.

Douglas recalls that Nicholson arrived late to the shoot and found himself having lunch with the cast. No one broke character, freaking out the unflappable star.

The 37-page digi-book comes glued to the case, as they all do, making it tough to view the pages. (After just reading Criterion's outstanding booklet for "Vampyr," I'm tough to please.) The "Cuckoo" booklet reads like a roadshow handout but adds nothing to the literature about this fine American classic.

* * * * *

Another double-disc Blu-ray (and DVD) of the week is "Bank Job," with Jason Statham. Critics hailed it as a return to the golden age of heist movies, but I wasn't buying it. The movie played flat and formulaic. Extras on the Lionsgate discs include a 15-minute look at the real early-'70s bank robbery in London. Disc 2' vault contains a digital copy.

Also circling the DVD blog's players this week are "Robbie Coltrane: Incredible Britain" a roadtrip TV series featuring the "Harry Potter" actor, from Acorn Media; Jacques Tati's "Trafic" from Criterion; and Brazil's "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation."

New and notable:
The Bank Job (Lionsgate)
Beau Brummell: This Charming Man (Acorn)
Insanitarium (Sony)
Reno 911! season 5 (Paramount)
Robbie Coltrane: Incredible Britain (Acorn)
Shutter (Fox)
Swamp Thing, Vol. 2 (Shout! Factory)
Trafic (The Criterion Collection)
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (City Lights Home Video)

Complete list of this week's releases on my pal Harley's site, onvideo.org

Blu-ray review: 'Step Into Liquid'

Having spent my life in Florida and California, I know a lot about surfing. Learned it all from the classic songs written by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, who never shot a curl in his life.

That's no handicap when it comes to appreciating great surfing movies. 2005 saw the DVD release of Z-boy Stacy Peralta's "Riding Giants" -- about the steeled men who stalk the planet's biggest waves -- and now we have the Blu-ray rendition of "Step Into Liquid," a 2003 film from the "Endless Summer" legacy team.

Neither of these films demands much from its audience beyond a sense of awe. The movies aren't made just for surfers -- they take time to explain what's going and preach to the unconverted with a loose evangelical tone. After watching these artful docus, it seems like a good idea to get out there and take a lesson or two.

LionsGate Entertainment's "Step Into Liquid" looks quite good on Blu-ray, sometimes sensational, although the HD disc is well shy of reference quality. The film was shot on both HD and on film, with the priority on action, so the quality of source materials varies. The DTS-HD front-centered audio is strong and sure-footed.

Surfing stars as well as regular guys (and gals) personalize each of the segments. Director Dana Brown (pictured), whose father created the seminal surf pic "The Endless Summer," sounds a lot like his dad when he's doing the narration.

The ratio is 1.85:1, as shot. The surf-porn visuals are all you'd expect -- but in this film they're half of the draw. The video-wow shares the ride with the dramatic content, which comes in a series of human interest stories.

There's the profile of Dale Webster, a somewhat athletic aging hippy out of Northern California who has surfed every day for 30 years. The brothers Malloy find the forbidding seas of their ancestral Ireland worthy of surfing; while not riding, they share their watery passion with kids from both sides of the troubles. A guy who was paralyzed while surfing still rides with the help of his loosey-goosey pals.

In Costa Rica, we're reunited with "The Endless Summer" star Robert August and his senior sidekicks. On the Gulf of Mexico, surf's up in the wake of oil tankers. Oahu's North Shore and this primo spot a hundred miles off the California coast provide the big-wave action -- and the jaw-dropping HD visuals. Don't stop the movie before the skyscrapers-of-water finale. Surf is about as up as it gets.

The Blu-ray extras are OK; some are pretty basic. There's a visit to a custom surfboard factory, a borderline-worthless surfing 101 video and an extended chat with amateur Webster. Deleted scenes include "Surfing Rabbi." Two featurettes and some clips look at how the movie was shot. The extras were ported over from the DVD.

The casual commentary comes from director Brown, who talks mostly about what's happening onscreen, and what it was like traveling the world to make "Step Into Liquid."

Both of these films come with killer surf-music soundtracks, as we've every right to expect.

"Riding With Giants" first wanders through the history of the sport through the eyes of 1950s and '60s surf legend Greg Knoll, rider of what is considered the mother of all 20th century waves. The amateur footage takes us back to the days before (and after) "Gidget" made surfing a commodity. Then there's a lengthy visit with the loons who surf the rocky coast of Northern California, a potentially fatal challenge that felled a top rider from Hawaii.

The "Giants" are on full display in the film's final act, in which surfers are towed into the deep waters where the waves get up to 80 feet or so. The story is told via a life of big-wave tamer Laird Hamilton, whom we meet as a sun-bleached island boy in need of a dad.

Generous extras include a commentary with director Peralta, best known for his outstanding skateboarding documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys." The other track has Knoll, Hamilton and some other stars swapping stories. Sony has the rights; let's hope a Blu-ray will surface soon.

Criterion Collection sets Blu-ray editions

The Criterion Collection is going Blu-ray.

The big news, long-awaited by high-definition buffs, came in a company bulletin late this afternoon.

Criterion lists these dozen titles as "in the pipeline," with the rollout set to begin in October.

• The Third Man
• Bottle Rocket
• Chungking Express
• The Man Who Fell to Earth
• El Norte
• The 400 Blows
• Gimme Shelter
• The Complete Monterey Pop
• Contempt
• Walkabout
• For All Mankind
• The Wages of Fear

I count three black-and-white titles, which should be interesting. The studios have only released a couple of B&W titles.

"These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions," Criterion said.

"The Last Emperor" also is coming in a (cheaper) stand-alone theatrical version on Blu-ray and DVD. "Walkabout" updates an older Criterion title. The Nicholas Roeg film gets new extra features and a new transfer. An updated DVD will be updated at the same time.

Terrific list and a thoughtful mix. I'm especially interested in Blu-rays of "The Man Who Fell to Earth," "The Wages of Fear," "Chungking Express" and "Contempt."

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Universal unwrapping 'Mummy' on Blu-ray

Universal enters the Blu-ray age in late July with the three contemporary "Mummy" movies. The studio was the strongest backer of the vanquished high-definition format HD DVD.

In late August, Universal plans a global release of "Heroes: Season Two." The first season of "Heroes" was one of the most successful HD DVD box sets.

The studio plans to release about 40 Blu-ray titles later in the year. They include the new "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" with Brendan Fraser (pictured) as well as "The Incredible Hulk," "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" and "Mamma Mia!"

All of the new Blu-rays will go out day-and-date with the DVD versions, Universal said, taking a logical step the other studios need to follow.

Catalog releases in Blu-ray include "American Gangster," "Miami Vice," "Knocked Up," and "End of Days," all to be ported over from HD DVD.

Update: Fox, meanwhile, plans a Blu-ray salute to high-disposable-income dads with the releases of "The Longest Day," "Patton" and "The Sand Pebbles," all outstanding films. Extras for the new high definition discs are being ported over from Fox's spit-shined DVDs of 2006 and 2007.

Also hitting the Blu-ray beach on June 3 are the lesser "The Battle of Britain" and "A Bridge Too Far."

For anyone looking for some combat experience, I continue to recommend Sam Fuller's "The Big Red One," which was "reconstructed" a few years back. Warner holds the rights.

New DVDs: 'Baron Munchausen,' 'Dewey Cox'

Baron Munchausen will never get far on "hot air and fantasy," the villain hisses as our adventurer ascends in a balloon. Fooey. Never bet against the Baron.

Those of us enchanted with Terry Gilliam's wonderful yet storm-struck film can celebrate Sony's rousing rerelease of the title on Blu-ray and standard DVD. Both are "20th Anniversary Editions" with nearly identical new extra features.

The "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" Blu-ray is something special, unspooling mostly superb visuals. Some scenes have a distracting amount of grain, a sharp contast to the nearly flawless imagery seen on most of the high-def disc. (This grain has been present throughout the film's home video history, notably on Sony's 1999 release.)

The high definition betrays a few of the "Munchausen" sets and visual effects, though, as modern viewers see a bit more than the filmmakers intended. Whatever. The old parlor tricks are part of the charm. And it's a good thing to view Dante Ferretti's production work in such detail. Gilliam is all about strange whimsy and startling visuals.

The Blu-ray also features handsome animated menus, while the DVD version's interfaces are flat. The pop-up trivia track, more active than most, also is exclusive to the BR. (The pop-ups repeat a lot of info from the other extras.)

What's quite clear from these extras is that ex-Monty Python member Gilliam remains plenty pissed over the treatment of this film after 20 years.

Almost all of the making-of docu is dedicated to Gilliam and the other production veterans fussing and fighting over how the project became such a nightmare.

If the names Dawn Steel and David Puttman don't mean anything to you, this could be too much Hollywood inside ball. The grousing continues in the feature-length commentary, from Gilliam and his co-writer Charles McKeown ("Brazil").

You wonder if the director even appreciates how marvelously the fantasy has held up over the years. To me, this is by far the best of the fantasies in the loose trilogy that Gilliam and McKeown built during the 1980s.

The film stars John Neville as the legendary bullshitter Baron Munchausen. Neville and his supporting players -- such as Robin Williams, Sarah Polley, Peter Jeffries and Eric Idle -- all are delightfully in tune with the outrageous tales and Gilliams' fever-dream visions.

The other films, "Brazil" and "Time Bandits," always felt technically and visually successful at the expense of any heart.

"Munchausen" "was quite sentimental for Terry," says ex-Python mate Eric Idle, who plays a speedster servant. "Often his films lack emotions. He doesn't trust himself with emotions."

Idle, who says the shooting was the worst experience of his professional life, goes on to bag on Gilliam for his offputting way of creating movies.

"Terry's approach to filmmaking is always a battle. The metaphor of a battle isn't really a useful one (in that business)." Idle does proclaim Gilliam "an artistic genius."

Gilliam says the film's reputation as an out of control production "is an extraordinary lie," despite it being $2 million over budget before a frame was shot. The director says the blame falls on the film's producer, Thomas Schühly, who defends his honor in the extras: "I had to play the German, the Nazi, that was my part," he sighs. (Schühly went on to produce another legendarily messy film, "Alexander.")

Yeech. Learn all about about this headache-inducing story on the disc, if you happen to care. I'd rather spend more time with this delightful film.

More extras: A handful of deleted scenes that don't add up to anything, as well as a storyboard animation of scenes that were never shot, hosted by Gilliam and McKeown.

Munchausen was a real guy, the king of the liars. I'm reading the famous book about his exploits, which is great fun.

Sony Home Entertainment also unleashes the good-time bogus bio "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," starring John C. Reilly. Great fun, and an overdue send-up of all those music-business bios we've sat through in the past decade.

The movie comes in several versions, notably the double-disc unrated "Walk Hard" Blu-ray. There's also the standard double-disc DVD version and a bare-bones theatrical edition.

I wish "Walk Hard" hadn't been quite so broad a comedy, but that's just quibbling. Reilly, ever the second banana, carries the movie with ease. He's part Elvis, Johnny Cash and Tony Orlando. Cool.

The movie looks and sounds great on Blu-ray and SD. The all-original music, some of it pretty good, streams out with grace and power.

If that "Walk Hard" song seems a good bit better than the rest, that's because it comes from Marshall Crenshaw, one of the great pop singer-songwriters. The song and the rest of the movie's music is covered in a fairly straight-forward, informative extra that'll be of interest to pretty much everybody.

The other extras continue the Cox joke: "The Real Dewey Cox" has actors and musicians talking about how they met the man and how he influenced them. "The Last Word," from Comedy Central, is a fully produced talk show that reviews Cox's life as he's about to croak. Anyone who's lived in the South will get a kick out of the "Cox Sausage Commercial" and its outtakes.

Extended and deleted scenes are every bit as good as what's in the movie, especially the goofy Beatles sequence. The gang commentary comes from Reilly, director Jake Kasdan, and producers Judd Apatow and Lew Morton.

Also circling the DVD blog's players this week are Warner Home Video's "Classic Musicals From the Dream Factory, Vol. 3"; "Fortysomething," the 2003 British TV series that featured Hugh Laurie; and Paramount's choice "Perry Mason 50th Anniversary" set.

Pick of the week: Baron Munchausen
Dog of the week: No woofer, sorry

New and notable:
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Sony)
The Bette Davis Collection (Fox)
Classic Musicals From the Dream Factory, Vol. 3 (Warner)
The 11th Hour (Warner)
Fog City Mavericks: The Filmmakers of San Francisco (Anchor Bay)
Fortysomething (Acorn Media)
Lions for Lambs (UA/MGM)
Matlock (Paramount)
P2 (Summit Entertainment)
Perry Mason 50th Anniversary (Paramount)
Resurrecting the Champ (Fox)
Sense and Sensibility (Warner)
There Will Be Blood (Paramount)
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Sony)
War/Dance (ThinkFilm)
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (Sony)

From April 1
The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 3 (Warner)
Sweeney Todd (Paramount)
Three films by the Taviani brothers (Fox Lorber)
The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder: John, Paul, Tom, Ringo (Shout! Factory)

Complete list of today's releases on my pal Harley's site, onvideo.org

Blu-ray review: '2001: A Space Odyssey'

"2001: A Space Odyssey" was erected in 1968 by a pair of geniuses, the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and the futuristic writer and thinker Arthur C. Clarke.

Kubrick, of course, died in 1999. Clarke passed this week. Both men left behind giant legacies of thought and creative works, none better-remembered than "2001." The black monolith that looms over this science fiction classic will long be their most visible monument.

Here's hoping that Arthur C. Clarke in his final months was able to see and appreciate Warner's Blu-ray release of "2001: A Space Odyssey," released late last fall.

Kubrick's films have a spotty video history -- several released only in cropped versions because of the director's fear of the visuals losing their power on small TV screens. Last year, his estate finally permitted release of his widescreen masterpieces in their original aspect ratios, and in high-definition. This DVD blog reviewed "Eyes Wide Shut" in October and now catches up with "2001" on the occasion of its storyteller's passing.

Visually, the early high-def hits "Planet Earth" and "Blue Planet" have nothing on "2001" (outside of factual accuracy).

The Blu-ray "2001" images are uniformly stunning -- crisp, color-correct and artifact-free. Contrasts are dramatic and artful. The fineness of detail allows for careful examination of Kubrick's sets. Flesh tones are incredible for a color film from 40 years ago. Watching the movie on a big screen in a properly lighted room proves to be a singular experience.

The audio remains mostly front-centered, thus being sonically friendly to the classical music pieces that Kubrick wisely chose, safeguarding "2001" from premature aging via an outdated score. (Imagine "2001" with the Jefferson Airplane.) What favors the music comes at the expense of the possibilities of the 5.1 audio, of course, but an essentially stereo soundstage would be true to the era.

Via the dynamic range of uncompressed PCM or Dolby, the silence that's so essential to the experience retains all of its drama. "2001" is partially a silent movie. The ambient sounds (breathing, the hum and clicks of machines) are more noticeable and enveloping than in past video releases (or on the new DVD). Almost certainly including the theatrical release, the "2001" audio has never been better.

The "2001" extras are the same on the Blu-ray, HD DVD and double-disc DVD releases. Clarke participated in the "2001" extras via interviews that appear to have been taped a few years back. Presumably he was too old for commentary chores, which were handled by the astronaut actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. Effects wizard Douglas Trumbull also participates in the extras but doesn't do a commentary, a real shame.

Clarke says of "2001": "It is still amusing and interesting. Movies that continue to try to upgrade it are ridiculous."

He calls the film's villain, the world's most famous computer: "My late friend Hal."

Clarke is seen in clips from the mid-1960s discussing his theories about space travel and human evolution. He calculates the first alien responses from man's earliest radio signals would arrive in about 50 years, which would be any day now.

Of interplanetary travel he says: "Just as the first amphibians could not have imagined us, so we cannot imagine the ultimate results of space exploration." Just as Clarke could not have forseen mankind's drastic loss of interest in manned exploration.

The actors' commentary is dominated by Lockwood, who played a relatively small part in the film. He's also known for "Star Trek." Unfortunately, star Dullea's comments are sporadic. Lockwood's talk has its moments but is rather clumsy at times ("There goes the bone!") and not all that interesting in total. (The men are recorded separately.)

Lockwood says of directors who would be Kubricks: "Are they willing to pay the price? Stanley just devoted his life to research and cinema. He never really left his house much."

The making of the film is celebrated in the fine Channel 4 docu "2001: The Making of a Myth," which runs almost an hour.

"Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick" recruits George Lucas, Steven Speilberg and lesser lights to talk about the impact of "2001" on their lives.

Spielberg, who worked with Kubrick on "A.I.," recalls the master saying he wanted to make a movie that changed the form of film. "I said, 'Didn't you already do that with "2001"?' "

Lucas says: "I'm not sure I would have had the guts to do what Stanley did," noting that every effect that appears in "2001" is done physically or chemically, on film. "As far as special effects, it is the pinnacle. ... The whole idea is that space travel is exquisite."

There is also an hourlong audio interview with Kubrick from the 1960s, on which he's on good behavior.

A trio of shorts that clock in at 20 minutes are "The Prophecy of 2001," "A Look Behind the Future" (an archival puff piece with a visit to the set); and "What Is Out There?" about he search for E.T. and such.

Much of the talk in the extras is of the space age's lost momentum.

Trumball says, "We don't look at the stars anymore."

"We're well past 2001 and none of this has come to pass," the effects master says. "We haven't made alien contact, we haven't taken men anywhere beyond the moon. ... There's a kind of disappointment in the air that our imaginations got ahead of our ability to deliver."

Clarke adds: "I'm disappointed that space travel, unlike air travel, did not take off for the simple reason that there's nowhere to go to yet."

Another extra of interest shows the early visual concepts for "2001," many done by Kubrick and his wife. They are of their time -- images drawn from hippie consciousness with objects floating around in outer space, like rejects from a Yes album cover. Had these prevailed, the mighty "2001" might have just been a stepping stone on the way to "Star Wars."

Update: Toshiba kills HD DVD

Update: Toshiba surrendered in the costly high-definition format war Tuesday, officially killing off the HD DVD platform.

Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida cited Warner Bros.' decision to go Blu-ray exclusive: "That had tremendous impact," he said. "If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win."

Toshiba vowed to support current HD DVD players.

Nishida said the situation with U.S. film studios backing the format was unresolved, the AP reported early today.

"The emergence of a single high-definition format is cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate," said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. "While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray."

(Background)

The HD DVD format will be laid to rest this week, numerous media outlets are reporting. The Wall Street Journal's web site broke the story.

Format creator Toshiba says no decision has been made to surrender, but spokeswoman Jodi Sally told the Hollywood Reporter that, "Given the market developments in the past month, Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players."

Toshiba heavily subsidizes the price of HD DVD players, which have long been sold cheaper than Blu-ray machines.

Wal-mart dumped HD DVD on Friday, days after Best Buy and Netflix pulled back on the dying format. The HD DVD collapse began in January, when Warner Bros. decided to go Blu-ray only -- just days before CES.

Bargain hunters may want to keep track of HD DVD player and disc prices in coming months -- there are many fine-looking HD DVD titles out there, some of which may not show up on Blu-ray for years.

Netflix, Best Buy play the Blu's

More proof the HD DVD apocalypse is upon us: Netflix, "citing a clear signal from the industry," says it is going with Blu-ray exclusively.

Meanwhile, big-boxer Best Buy says it is "taking a step forward in addressing consumer confusion about high-definition formats." That means the consumer electronics retailer will "showcase" Blu-ray hardware and software, instead of providing the equal space they seem to get now.

"Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way," Best Buy president Brian Dunn said, apparently straight-faced. HD DVDs apparently are headed for Siberian shelf space, but the leader didn't mention what's what with that format.

(I thought Blockbuster was out of the HD DVD business, but the one on my block just gave the reeling format some prime shelf space. Go figure.)

Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, actually provided content in his canned statement:

"We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means."

Netflix said it stocks over 400 Blu-ray titles, but notes that "only a portion" of subscribers are renting them.

The mail-rental specialist said it won't take on new HD DVDs but the current HD DVD inventory would continue to rent until "the discs' natural life cycle takes them out of circulation in the coming months."

Netflix is leading the way in another distribution area: most subscribers are able to view unlimited streaming video on the company's web site. (The $4.99 a month subs and Mac owners are out of luck.) The streaming library has something like 6,000 titles.

From the bunker: The Downfall of HD-DVD

This is funny and sad and weird all at once. The images come from the great movie "Downfall." This player doesn't fit all that well on the DVD blog, so if you want the full effect check out the HD DVD satire here.

glumbert - The Downfall of HD-DVD

Paramount: 'Current plan' still HD DVD

Paramount was busy today denying published reports that it was bailing on HD DVD.

"Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format," Brenda Ciccone said in an e-mail to Bloomberg news wire.

The Financial Times of London reported that Paramount was ready to make the move in the wake of Warner Home Video's decision to go Blu-ray exclusive. FT said Par had a contract clause allowing the studio to dump HD DVD if Warner left the format.

Paramount, Universal and DreamWorks Animation are the remaining HD DVD-only studios. Actually, it would be surprising if there wasn't speculation about Paramount and Universal bailing, with the media trying to get the jump on what seems inevitable.

Team HD DVD hastily canceled its dog-and-pony show at CES. Format creator Toshiba went onstage with a shaken exec. The L.A. Times reports that retailers at CES voiced continuing support for HD DVD.

The Blu-ray trade group celebrated its perceived format victory with a flashy TV ad during the college football championship game Monday, declaring "the future is Blu."

Meanwhile, the past two days have seen speculation that Microsoft's Xbox 360 could have built-in Blu-ray in its future. The new-generation Xbox consoles have an optional add-on HD DVD drive. Most Blu-ray players in consumers' hands are built into PlayStation 3 machines.

"It should be consumer choice; and if that's the way they vote, that's something we'll have to consider," Albert Penello, group marketing manager for Xbox hardware, said today at CES. Start considering, tribe of the Great Northwest.