During an interview with a Norwegian home cinema publication, Vincent Marcais, Senior Vice President Marketing at Twentieth Century Fox International in Europe, answered our questions about the studio's Blu-ray plans, including the upcoming release of the
Star Wars films, more titles directed by James Cameron and 3D.
Star Wars
Star Wars: Original Trilogy and
Star Wars: Prequel Trilogy will consist of four discs each – one for each movie and one bonus disc.
Star Wars: The Complete Saga will have an additional special features disc, for a total of nine.
The remastering of the movies has been performed by Lucasfilm and will offer "the most recently updated versions of the movies," with "even more enhancements to the picture quality." When asked about Fox's answer to the fans that want to see the three original versions released, Marcais replied: "The versions that are being released are closest to George Lucas' vision. Other than that, no comment."
There is currently no date for a Blu-ray release of the six
Star Wars movies separately.
Sales expectations are very high. For reference, the
Avatar Blu-ray sold 5 million copies in the US and 4 million in the rest of the world. That's the "ceiling" on what sales to expect from a major Blu-ray release, and
Star Wars is expected to raise that ceiling.
The Abyss, True Lies, Titanic
Marcais confirmed that Fox is working with Lightstorm Entertainment and James Cameron on both
The Abyss and
True Lies and expects to be able to announce release dates for them "in the not too distant future." They can be expeced to come out "either this year or the next." These releases will take their time because they want to offer the very best Blu-ray quality possible."
The studio would "love" to offer both the theatrical and the extended cut of
The Abyss on Blu-ray. Marcais recalled that this movie never got an anamorphic widescreen DVD, and said: "I can guarantee that when it is released on Blu-ray it will
be in the proper aspect ratio."
The only definite plan for
Titanic is that it's coming to theaters in 3D in 2012, the 100th anniversary of the disaster.
However, Marcais didn't have any new information about the Blu-ray release of more James Bond catalog titles, or MGM titles in general.
3D Blu-ray
Marcais wouldn't answer the question of when the
Avatar 3D Blu-ray would be available in stores. However, Fox intends to start offering 3D Blu-ray movies for general release in 2011.
Remastering
Finally, Marcais was asked about the policy when remastering catalog titles and specifically about
Predator. The Fox executive acknowledges that they got a lot of criticism, "but I don't think it was deserved," he countered, because the movie was shot on a film stock that wasn't good enough, and the Blu-ray version "represents what the filmmaker wanted it to look like." He said that Fox discusses the issue of "removing grain or not" with the filmmakers, as long as they are alive.