Earlier today, Steven Spielberg's spokesperson and current member of the
Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
Marvin Levy, was kind enough to speak to Blu-ray.com regarding
Paramount's recent decision to exclusively back the HD DVD format and Mr.
Spielberg's future involvement with high definition media. Mr. Levy did
confirm for us that Mr. Spielberg is "certainly a supporter of Blu-ray" and
communicated the Spielberg camp's excitement over the upcoming release
of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', exclusively on Blu-ray.
In speaking with the technical team behind the release, Mr. Levy confirmed
that 'Close Encounters' "looks absolutely great" and will feature, "a new
interview for this piece looking back and looking currently at Close
Encounters and how Steven feels about the film today."
When asked about the apparent cancellation of the HD release of
'Poltergeist', Mr. Levy responded: "Frankly, that's news to me" and that
the Spielberg team had been "looking at materials" for the release.
Mr. Levy made it very clear the Mr. Spielberg's production efforts for
Paramount and Dreamworks (including '
Transformers') will be HD
DVD exclusive for the time being. Mr. Spielberg's neutral stance in HD
media only applies to works that he has directed.
The staff of Blu-ray.com would like to thank Mr. Levy for taking the time to
speak with us today. Text and interview by Ben Williams.