'Avatar' special edition will feature iTunes Extras exclusive to Apple
Apple has landed a major exclusive with the highest grossing movie of all time, as a special digital edition of "Avatar" is coming with new bonus features exclusive to iTunes.
"Avatar iTunes Extras Special Edition" will be available on iTunes beginning Tuesday, December 20. Twentieth Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment said in a press release on Friday that the new edition will feature "first-of-its-kind interactive features."
"Avatar" is currently available for preorder on iTunes at a price of $19.99 for the high-definition copy, and $14.99 for standard-definition. The new special features will let movie watchers "deconstruct some of the most memorable scenes to reveal how James Cameron applied special effects to create the breathtaking world of Pandora."
The new features will allow fans to control scene deconstructions in simultaneous views and interact with the performance capture and visual effects levels in 17 of the film's scenes. The new "Green Screen X-ray" feature will give users an interactive look at the visual effects, allowing them to see the original green screen footage used to create scenes in the movie.
"Digital platforms like iTunes usher in new ways to interact with and watch movies like Avatar," said Aubrey Freeborn, senior vice president of marketing and product management for Worldwide VOD and Electronic Sell-Through at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. "These new interactive features enhance the experience and encourage digital ownership."
The iTunes-exclusive edition of "Avatar" will also include an original screenplay from the director, Cameron, as well as a novella with some scenes broken out into dialogue. It will also include a gallery of 1,700 images.
In addition to generating nearly $2.8 billion in worldwide box office, "Avatar" is also the top-selling Blu-ray disc of all time. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won three for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction.
iTunes Extras debuted with the launch of iTunes 9 in 2009, and are intended to allow digital movie sales to compete with traditional DVDs and Blu-rays, which often feature bonus content and behind-the-scenes footage in addition to the film. But iTunes Extras typically replicate the content found on physical discs, while the upcoming release of "Avatar" will feature new and exclusive interactive content.
"Avatar iTunes Extras Special Edition" will be available on iTunes beginning Tuesday, December 20. Twentieth Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment said in a press release on Friday that the new edition will feature "first-of-its-kind interactive features."
"Avatar" is currently available for preorder on iTunes at a price of $19.99 for the high-definition copy, and $14.99 for standard-definition. The new special features will let movie watchers "deconstruct some of the most memorable scenes to reveal how James Cameron applied special effects to create the breathtaking world of Pandora."
The new features will allow fans to control scene deconstructions in simultaneous views and interact with the performance capture and visual effects levels in 17 of the film's scenes. The new "Green Screen X-ray" feature will give users an interactive look at the visual effects, allowing them to see the original green screen footage used to create scenes in the movie.
"Digital platforms like iTunes usher in new ways to interact with and watch movies like Avatar," said Aubrey Freeborn, senior vice president of marketing and product management for Worldwide VOD and Electronic Sell-Through at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. "These new interactive features enhance the experience and encourage digital ownership."
The iTunes-exclusive edition of "Avatar" will also include an original screenplay from the director, Cameron, as well as a novella with some scenes broken out into dialogue. It will also include a gallery of 1,700 images.
In addition to generating nearly $2.8 billion in worldwide box office, "Avatar" is also the top-selling Blu-ray disc of all time. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won three for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction.
iTunes Extras debuted with the launch of iTunes 9 in 2009, and are intended to allow digital movie sales to compete with traditional DVDs and Blu-rays, which often feature bonus content and behind-the-scenes footage in addition to the film. But iTunes Extras typically replicate the content found on physical discs, while the upcoming release of "Avatar" will feature new and exclusive interactive content.
Comments
Not only that, but usually the digital download is missing all the extra stuff that you get on disk. Exclusive content might start to make up for the other stuff that consumers miss by not buying the Blu-ray.
... The new special features will let movie watchers ... allow fans to control scene deconstructions in simultaneous views and interact with the performance capture and visual effects levels in 17 of the film's scenes. The new "Green Screen X-ray" feature will give users an interactive look at the visual effects, allowing them to see the original green screen footage used to create scenes in the movie.
"Digital platforms like iTunes usher in new ways to interact with and watch movies like Avatar," said Aubrey Freeborn, senior vice president of marketing and product management ... "These new interactive features enhance the experience and encourage digital ownership."
...
It has to be said that this is total bullshit.
This is almost word for word the same as the "new features" of DVD's when they came out. Multiple camera angles, layering, scene deconstruction, all this is currently possible with DVD's and yet at the same time actually isn't done at all because no one cares about this stuff.
Over all the years and multiple thousands of DVD's that I have owned, I have only seen one movie (an old David Bowie movie) that ever used multiple camera angles and alternate scenes. It's just a gimmick like 3D is a gimmick, but this is a gimmick that's rarely even used and seems to be of little interest to the public as well.
Too bad the film's only strength is visual, the plot is the same as 1000 other movies. Maybe there should be en extra where dances with wolves has all the skin tones made blue?
Love it.
I have tried to watch this movie a bunch of times but it's so bad I just can't sit through it. I have never made it past the first reel of Dances with Wolves for the same reason.
Too bad the film's only strength is visual, the plot is the same as 1000 other movies. Maybe there should be en extra where dances with wolves has all the skin tones made blue?
Cool, you care so little about the movie that you took the time to read an article about it, log in, and then post a comment on said article.
Too bad the film's only strength is visual, the plot is the same as 1000 other movies. Maybe there should be en extra where dances with wolves has all the skin tones made blue?
And what better way to way to experience a visual-only movie than in glorious 720p?
Still the reason I'm buying Blu-Rays.
This is almost word for word the same as the "new features" of DVD's when they came out. Multiple camera angles, layering, scene deconstruction, all this is currently possible with DVD's and yet at the same time actually isn't done at all because no one cares about this stuff.
But people here will claim that Apple finally cracked it, and so they watch the gimmicks and love them. Hell, people here claimed that iAds were worth watching!
Too bad the film's only strength is visual, the plot is the same as 1000 other movies. Maybe there should be en extra where dances with wolves has all the skin tones made blue?
Very funny. And the movie's only visual "strength" was the 3D, otherwise it's just an ugly blue-tinted movie. Even though it's supposed to be about machine worshippers against Nature, there's no green on Cameron's planet. The animals are all ugly, and so is the skinny-hipped "romantic interest." In 2D, it's a bunch of adolescent battle scenes with a doctrinaire anti-corporate, anti-American axe to grind.
I hate to be so negative, but releasing this in 2D is nothing to brag about. Maybe it's aimed at the anti-3D snobs, and those who have dodgy stereo vision, which turns out to be maybe 10% of the population. But then Cameron should have made a better 2D movie for them.
to bad the iTunes Extra's don't work on the 2nd Generation AppleTV so pretty much useless...
Or the iPad. Then again if this sells well perhaps it will push a change in that situation
...Why anyone would buy inferior quality film content they can't use across the Apple ecosystem is baffling.
Because (unfortunately), convenience trumps quality. I'm with you though, I thoroughly enjoy watching my movies using "bag of hurt" technology.
If they'd offer it in a Mac mini I'd have bought two of them already...
Think about it, if you could watch Blu-ray movies on a Mac, then you'd have at your disposal a medium that would provide a direct comparison to iTunes HD movie content. With such an A/B comparison, I don't think they'd ever sell another iTunes HD title again. Especially when they want $19.99 for a 720p copy.
Why anyone would buy inferior quality film content they can't use across the Apple ecosystem is baffling.
I agree Blu Ray is superior to an iTunes download. But nevertheless I continue to buy/rent movies form iTunes because:
(1) It's more convenient
(2) I suspect 1080p is not the end of the story for movie res. Resolution will continue to increase over time, such as when the new 4k x 4k panels start coming out. Perhaps Apple will let me upgrade my movie collection for $1-$2 per file, like they did with songs (128kbit -> 256kbit for 99c), but with Blu Ray I would have to pay full price again.
Then the next movie will come out and we will see multiple DVD, 3D, Blu-Ray, iTunes versions he and the distributors can possibly come up with.
So this would be a bad time to mention the 3D rerelease of Titanic?
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/titanic/
"Avatar" is currently available for preorder on iTunes at a price of $19.99 for the high-definition copy, and $14.99 for standard-definition.
oddly, i see only the $14.99 SD pre-order option...