Universal's first Blu-ray Disc cover revealed
It won't be long now, folks. July 22nd is just around the corner, and now, you won't even have to wonder what The Mummy Returns cover art will look like. This first shot of the box sees Universal's logo shrunk down and slapped on the spine, while "The Perfect Hi-Def Movie Experience" will presumably be pasted on every single BD release from the studio. Riveting, no?

















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jon @ Jun 13th 2008 9:06AM
Why not King Kong or something , Why the Mummy returns .. Odd
TLoganK @ Jun 13th 2008 9:50AM
Because they are releasing a new Mummy movie in the theater's....the same reason they redo half the other catalog titles in Blu-Ray.
SAMe @ Jun 13th 2008 9:12AM
Jurassic park would have been a good first in line title.
Big Wizz @ Jun 13th 2008 9:23AM
"The Perfect Hi-Def Movie Experience"
should really read
"The Perfect Hi-Def Movie Experience only after we decided HD-DVD wasn't good enough for you"
rezor @ Jun 13th 2008 10:05AM
@Big Wizz
My reaction to your post was exactly like your avatar
why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 13th 2008 9:54AM
So there's a new Mummy coming. So why not release the first Mummy on BD instead of the inferior 2nd Mummy?
I guess it could have been worse, it could have been Scorpion King.
Steve @ Jun 13th 2008 9:35PM
The Mummy and The Scorpion King will also be available that day.
DavidB @ Jun 13th 2008 10:03AM
How about
"The Perfect Hi-Def Movie Experience"
instead being
"The Perfect Hi-Def Movie Experience once we figured out we couldn't make money on HD-DVD"
As for choice of "launch" title, come on Universal. The Mummy Returns? You've got FAR better titles with FAR more market appeal than this stupid movie in your catalog.
JimC @ Jun 13th 2008 10:18AM
First thing I want from Universal is Battlestar Galactica all seasons...blu-ray....stat!
Then Serenity....
Mark @ Jun 14th 2008 5:53AM
Heroes series 1 & 2 is coming out on blu ray so BSG can't be far off. Heroes has less disks too, coming on 5 discs instead of 7 due to the superior storage space.
Darren @ Jun 13th 2008 10:26AM
Universal on Blu-ray. Sweet.
Every new title (regardless of what it is) I see in one of those cute little blue cases, warms my heart.
But I just wish it would all happen a little faster.
DrXym @ Jun 13th 2008 11:12AM
The Mummy was watchable. The Mummy Returns was pretty dire. The Scorpion King spinoff was even worse. I can hazard a guess what the straight-to-video Scorpion King 2 will be like.
Sam @ Jun 13th 2008 11:22AM
Welcome to three weeks ago. The art for Doomsday and the other two mummy releases were revealed then also.
Dark Morford @ Jun 13th 2008 11:54AM
"The Perfect Hi-Def Movie Experience"...
Apparently, "The Look and Sound of Perfect"—as Universal used to tout HD DVD—isn't enough anymore.
Mr. E @ Jun 14th 2008 6:01PM
How about "Universal now on Blu-ray: Perfecter than ever!" Ugh.
med1320 @ Jun 13th 2008 11:57AM
Who gives a crap!!!!
TrentD @ Jun 13th 2008 11:57AM
Nooooo...it's...unnatural!!!!
Just kidding. I have both formats, and I'm glad Universal is onboard.
Now start churning out Battlestar Galactica on Blu-ray! If I have to buy another DVD boxed season set, I'm going to scream.
EvilWaterman @ Jun 13th 2008 12:26PM
At least is doesn't cover up most of the cover art like the swooshes did on HD DVD's. The two Mummy covers do look dull to me though. Surely they could have done something better than putting the standard cover art in a little box surrounded by orange. I was thinking this may be the first HD DVD I replace with Blu if the picture quality improves (We already know the audio will be DTS-HD MA), but I'll definitely want new artwork!
RockinOscar @ Jun 13th 2008 12:30PM
anything else being released by universal on June 22nd, or for the weeks to come?
superklye @ Jun 13th 2008 12:46PM
Thank God they dropped that retarded "Beyond high definition" tagline.
Nick @ Jun 13th 2008 1:06PM
Took them long enough... Now we need Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on blu. I don't understand why it would take them so long to just convert their HD-DVD titles to blu... If I had the drives, I could do that on my PC. Why don't they just move all their stuff to blu and release it in a huge chunk?
WebDev511 @ Jun 13th 2008 1:22PM
Must have something to do with all the work required to port HDi to BD-Java. If you can do that on your pc, you need to give them a call.
As far as "The Perfect Hi-Def Movie Experience" I want to see it first. They can't do a worse job than Fox, can they?
DrXym @ Jun 13th 2008 1:34PM
Microsoft should port HDi to run over to BD-J or write a tool that translates existing HDi into BD-J. Might make themselves a bit of cash for the middleware which is better than nothing at all.
Steve @ Jun 13th 2008 9:35PM
Universal will be using higher video bitrates and Lossless audio. They probably want people who were "purple" to "double-dip."
Achilles @ Jun 13th 2008 1:12PM
This is the best that Universal can release?? The Mummy? What a terrible movie. I wouldn't have bought this on standard DVD, much less BR. Universal, I expected more from you.
Fred @ Jun 13th 2008 3:01PM
won't buy it because it will cost 30 buck, like all other crappy blu-ray titles. Call me when Iron Man comes out and it is 20 dollars, i need to save the rest of the money for gas.
Achilles @ Jun 13th 2008 3:27PM
I feel your pain on the gas issue.....
shawnmos @ Jun 13th 2008 6:55PM
The real question is: what's going to happen to their cool menus? Will they create an identical menu system for BD-J or will they use a piss poor design like most Blu-ray movies out now?
WebDev511 @ Jun 14th 2008 12:39AM
I'd put money on Universal porting their HD DVD style menus over to BD. They probably wrote the aforementioned HDi to BD-J converter and are using it right now.
If they pull it off, one might classify their menu system as a best practice learned during the format war. Consistent menus don't piss people off.
CDN Crockett @ Jun 13th 2008 9:40PM
Ewwww gross!!!
Woody @ Jun 16th 2008 9:40AM
I'm just glad they're finally releasing again. They should have never left in the first place. SAMe is right though, I wish they released Jurassic Park first.
Geoff Gibson @ Jun 16th 2008 12:46PM
@ ANYBODY who doesn't understand why Universal is releasing the Mummy movies first.
I see many of you questioning why Universal has decided to release the Mummy movies instead of something more to your liking (personally I liked both of the Mummy movies). There are actually a few reasons:
1. Universal is releasing the third installation of the Mummy franchise in early August. Trends show that when a sequel gets released the previous titles also receive a boost in sales and Universal (like Sony, Disney, Warner, etc) wants to capitalize on this to promote their Blu-ray movies.
2. The Mummy movies provide a good test of storage and compression for Universal's Blu-ray movies. The reason why you don't see King Kong on Blu-ray yet is probably because the big U won't be able to get BD50s for a while and therefor sucha long movie may be seen as inferior on a BD25. The Mummy movies are the perfect size to test out the limits of the BD25 discs before moving on to something a bit more strenuous.
3. Like with HD DVD, Universal will not release any of Spielberg's movies without his express permission. I know, it's easy to say that Spielberg is a Blu-ray fan and as such he should be on board, but it's not that simple. Spielberg isn't a Blu-ray fan so much as he is a money fan and selling your new-fangled Hi-Def classic masterpiece to an audience still in the low millions isn't going to be as successful as when he sells it at hundreds or possibly billions.
There I hope this helps anybody confused as to why the Mummy movies are coming first and not King Kong, Jurassic Park, or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Also, give Universal some time to get their act together. They were the only movie company (besides Weinstein, who stills remains oddly silent) that didn't have any practice with the Blu-ray technology. You can't expect them to immediately jump from HDi to BD-J over the course of a few days. It's going to take them at least a year to get caught up to the other BD companies.
D-shan @ Jun 16th 2008 2:09PM
Whatever. I'm trying to shed all my crappy physical media. Who the f$%k wants to buy movies when you can do VOD, netflix, or redbox....why bother with all the clutter?