Nerdology

Buy a movie once. Watch it on any device. Share it with friends.

That’s the idea behind Ultraviolet, a connected media download service.  What does that mean exactly? It means that the film industry has finally decided to loosen its grip, ever so slightly, and they are finally allowing people who purchase their movies to watch them wherever they want… as long as it’s on a pre-approved device.

People who buy content from Ultraviolet digital retailers, which include Best Buy, Comcast, Microsoft, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba, will be able to share it with up to six friends or family members, transfer or stream the movie on up to 12 devices and create copies on DVDs and portable flash drives. It’s intended to alleviate one of the major impediments to the sales of digital copies of movies: that files are typically limited to a single device and thus are less usable than a DVD. - LA TIMES

According to the press release you can expect the service to go live in several months with applications for PC’s, smart phones and, yes, even game consoles coming by the end of the year.  In 2012 expect Ultraviolet to be in even more hardware like “connected Blu-ray Disc players, set-top boxes, Internet TVs and other devices.”

The biggest concern with new formats or platforms is content. You’re not going to buy into this eco system if you can’t get the movies I want right?  Ultraviolet seems to have it right though.  Warner, NBC Universal, Fox, Sony, Paramount and Lions Gate are all on board from the start. With that many partners we should not be wanting for content.

I slowed my purchasing physical copies of music, movies and television to almost a complete stop (Star Wars excluded).  To own a copy of something and have it stored in a cloud allowing me to access it wherever I am is a dream I have been talking about for a long time.  I like it because it challenges how we think of ownership.  Not we.  It challenges how the studios think of ownership. Being able to say ‘I own this, forever, and I can put it on all these devices’ is powerful.  I will definitely be following this story throughout the year as it begins to launch on hardware and we get to see what it’s actually like to use.

-Creighton

[via LA Times photo from Engadget] 

Word’s recently got around that Zack Snyder, director of Watchmen, 300 and that one with owls wearing helmets, will be helming the new Superman movie and it’s sparked some pretty heated debate. While it’s true that all Snyder’s films aren’t as strong as they really could be, he’s definitely not the biggest problem this new Superman movie faces. The more interesting thing about the film is that it’s being written by David Goyer and Jonathan Nolan and being “Godfathered” (whatever that means) by Chris Nolan himself. Goyer and the Nolans have been the team behind the latest Batman franchise which it’s fair to say is doing pretty well.

The good news is that, with the strong writing the Nolans are known for (Not so much Goyer, his IMDB page minus Batman reads like a tragedy) and the great action/visuals Snyder is extremely capable of producing, we’re already halfway to an excellent, modern Superman film. The bad news is that it sure seems like Warner Brothers are heaping all of their eggs into one basket in Nolan(s). They’re not going to be involved forever, Chris has already confirmed that his third Batman movie will be his last. Where does that leave the Superman franchise beyond “The Man Of Steel” (That’s what Snyder’s version will be called)? The last thing any Superman fan wants at this point is to be left out in the cold after a promising start, which is exactly what happened in 2006 with “Superman Returns”.

What about the story? Very loose, early leaks report it being about “Clark Kent traveling the world deciding whether or not he actually wants to be Superman”. It’s an interesting concept, sure, but we’ve already had a slower, character-driven Superman film this decade. With a director like Snyder at their disposal, I hope Warner Brother’s push the film into slightly more… dynamic territory. Origin Stories are soooo 00’s. The description also sounds a little too similar to Batman Begins for my liking. This is all just speculation, mind. At this stage, the story could be anything.

The “reboot” is the hot topic around Hollywood right now. Nothing gets a crowd excited like seeing established, familiar characters refreshed and presented to them anew. It can go too far, though. Think of all the superhero films you’ve seen this decade. How many of them were origin stories? How many of them just got on with it and gave you a full movie with the character you know? The X-Men franchise has now exclusively started telling origin stories. While that’s good for the more obscure, interesting characters (God, I hope they get that Deadpool movie made), an average audience will probably already know most of what’s being told. Superman is the most recognised hero in the world, fact. People know who he is. Why not, then, as the writer of the film, just go with it and present a broader, longer, more interesting journey without the baggage of all this background? A film about Clark Kent debating being Superman would be as much a Smallville movie as it would an addition to the Superman franchise.

While there are many reasons to be cautious about getting excited for the rebirth of the Superman franchise yet again, there are also some excellent reasons to be optimistic that, at the very least, we’re going to get another solid superhero movie out of an extremely promising team of filmmakers.

Superman: The Man Of Steel is due out Christmas 2012.

-Tom