Paramount DVD Decision Riles Michael Bay

Joseph Laszlo | August 21, 2007, 07:52 AM

Paramount created a stir yesterday by announcing that it (and Dreamworks) would go HD DVD only for movie releases.

This bucks an industry trend; while Jupiter hasn't made a call on which format we think will win, with Blockbuster and Target Blu-Ray only, and Blu-Ray disks outselling HD DVDs 2 to 1, the momentum seemed to be in the other direction. I think smart consumers are going to be all the more reluctant to buy both Blu-Ray AND HD DVD after Paramount's announcement.

And it's not just consumers who are in a bad way; Paramount has also apparently ticked off director Michael Bay as well, who posted on a message board yesterday:

"I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!"

Creative types are SO sensitive about these things! There's hope for Michael Bay, though: Spielberg's movies for Dreamworks will still be available in Blu-Ray. Perhaps other directors will be able to negotiate similar arrangements.