Paramount to Ride Blu-ray Wave

Delivering on the studio's pledge to support both next-gen high-def formats, Paramount Home Entertainment today announced it will release its first two full waves of Blu-ray disc titles early this Fall.

Included in Paramount's first wave of Blu-ray releases hitting stores on September 26 will be 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,' 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow', 'Four Brothers' and 'Sleepy Hollow,' followed by 'U2: Rattle and Hum', 'Aeon Flux' and 'The Italian Job (2003)' two weeks later on October 10.

With this announcement, Paramount joins Warner as the only two major studios to release titles on both HD DVD and Blu-Ray. To date, Paramount has released a total of ten titles on HD DVD -- with all but two ('We Were Soldiers' and the 2004 remake of 'The Manchurian Candidate') are included in the studio's first two waves of Blu-ray releases.

The news also comes on the heels of Paramount's already announced plans to release 'Mission: Impossible III' simultaneously on DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray on October 30.

While full specs for each of the eight planned Blu-ray titles have not been released, dates and titles have been added to our complete Blu-ray Release Schedule. Stay tuned for more details when they are officially announced.