Cloverfield Blu-Ray DVD

I've been handling a number of e-mails from people about the upcoming DVD release of Cloverfield. Many are worried about the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray version of Cloverfield after insiders outed Paramount Home Entertainment as rushing a sub-par version of the Cloverfield Blu-Ray to the shelves after Toshiba killed the HD-DVD format.

The next-generation of DVD's were in a format war between HD-DVD (by Toshiba) and Blu-Ray (by Sony). Studios began lining up with Blu-Ray which led to all of the major studios backing Blu-Ray except NBC Universal and Paramount.

Toshiba finally pulled the plug on HD-DVD a week or so back after facing the realization that manufacturers, studios, and distributors were not going to support their format. The big names like Warner Bros. went with Blu-Ray as well as Wal-Mart and Netflix which turned the tide toward Sony.

OK. That's the basic backstory. Now all the projects at Paramount that were being developed for HD-DVD will have to switch horses in midstream. The March 4 releases Into the Wild and Things We Lost in the Fire will be Paramount Home Entertainment’s last titles in the HD DVD format, the studio confirmed.

The rest of the movies slated for March and April have had the HD-DVD version pulled and for now only will have the standard DVD released until the studio can get a Blu-Ray version available. As Paramount Home Entertainment scrambles to get caught up with the transition it is starting to look like one of the first victims will be Cloverfield.

A bunch of interactive and viral goodies were slated to appear on the Cloverfield HD-DVD. When the format was killed Paramount was allegedly still committed to the Cloverfield DVD release date (rumored to be April 15th in the U.S., June 8th in U.K. ) with a Blu-Ray version that may not contain most of the HD-DVD features. The programmers need more time to get the Blu-Ray version ready and they fear Paramount Home Entertainment will not give it to them. Here is one of the original e-mails talking about the subject.

"A lot of people worked hard for over a month creating some amazing extra features for the HD release of "Cloverfield." At first it looked like not many consumers would see these features, as the release was planned for HD-DVD like Paramount's other recent titles. But now that Toshiba's HD-DVD format is dead, Paramount is scrambling to release "Cloverfield" on Blu-ray - on the original HD-DVD street date. As a result, the current belief is that there's not enough time to program all the extra features (including lots of new story stuff, along the lines of the viral campaign's backstory) in time for the Blu-ray release, and all this great work will be scrapped. That would suck! So I'm hoping that if you and others help spread the word, maybe the fans could make enough noise to convince Paramount Home Entertainment's marketing division to postpone the Blu-ray release by a few weeks so the disc can include all the extra materials. Demand it!"

Thank you!

-"Anonymous"

So Cloverfield fans should mull this thought over. Would you like to wait a few more weeks for a complete DVD that might satisfy your tastes? I know that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats are still a minority in DVD sales as most people still have the standard DVD setup but it is a growing technology and a prime candidate for fans to get more than just the movie.

Fans of the movie should be willing to wait as noted with the David Fincher Zodiac DVD release. The studio originally released just the movie with no extras in July of last year and then some 6 months later gave us the Fincher Directors cut loaded with tons of extras. Hopefully for Cloverfield the programmers would not need 6 more months!