How To Paint Rachel Nichols Green, Watching A Director In Love With His Lens Flair Almost Makes Up For The Blinding Shots, And Leonard Nimoy Is A Class Act: A Behind The Scenes Feature

If you don't watch anything else, watch this. It's an amazing insight into how they made the movie, from J.J. acting like a fanboy over his lens-flare technique, to Leonard Nimoy getting choked up on his final day of filming.

Simon Pegg's Accent Was Kept In Check By The Scottish Police

Nero Is Really Just Misunderstood

Quinto Was Urged By Fans To Audition For The Role of Spock

The Klingons Were Kids

As we mentioned recently, in some of the long shots involving Klingons, they were replaced by child actors wearing replica Klingon guard costumes — and filmed at an angle that made their corridor sets look even larger and more impressive than they otherwise would have.

Filming The Drill Platform Looked Even Cooler Than In The Movie

Even Spock Can Lose His Cool

Quinto Helped Bring In Pine For Kirk

Victor Garber Is A Klingon

According to our old reporting, it seems like a scene merely meant to show some cool Klingons costume updates and tell us what the heck Nero was up to for all those missing years, as well as clue the audience into the passage of the 25 years before we get to see grown-up Kirk. But it does have Nero's most quotable line from the trailer: "The wait is over."

The Star Trek DVD and Blu-Ray is out tomorrow. And our final say on which is the superior purchase? Definitely the Blu-Ray. The Blu-Ray version of Star Trek is leaps and bounds ahead of the DVD, packed with a tremendous amount of proprietary extras - essentially, it's the big brother of the two, with over three hours more footage.

The three-disc Blu-Ray version also includes a Starfleet Vessel Simulator which allows you to interactively explore the U.S.S. Enterprise and the Romulan vessel Narada, with 360˚ views and awesome close-ups. For example, on both ships, you can actually fire their on-board weapons, getting a chance to see and hear them. Inside the Enterprise, you can take a brief tour of the bridge — although it does look to be the same views we got on Paramount's Star Trek page before the film, the detail on the Blu-Ray is simply outstanding enough to warrant another look.

The release itself could quite possibly be one of the best recent examples of this newfangled Blu-Ray technology becoming more than just a "better picture" DVD, as we've seen with so many releases before. And with its double digit additional "branching pods," this Blu-Ray is the only option for people who actually care about watching all the special features available - you know, true fans.

Here's is the Vessel Simulator we mentioned:

Additional reporting and writing by Caitlin Petrakovitz.

Tedious, no? This is one of the bonus features on theCoraline DVD, out July 21st. But there's a lot more from director Henry Selick and even original creator Neil Gaiman on the disc. Plus both the Blu-ray and DVD will have the 2-D and 3-D versions of the film.

BONUS FEATURES EXCLUSIVE TO BLU-RAYTM HI-DEF:

• U-CONTROL ON 2-D FEATURE – Universal's exclusive signature feature allows viewers to delve into the making of the film with the click of the remote without ever leaving the movie. Through picture-in-picture, fans can enhance their understanding of how the movie was made by viewing tours of the sets, animatics and behind-the-scenes moments, including voiceover sessions.

• CREEPY CORALINE – Director and screenwriter Henry Selick and Coraline author Neil Gaiman take fans deeper into the darker intricacies of Coraline's alternative worlds.

• BD-LIVETM – Fans can access exclusive online and interactive features through their Internet connected Blu-rayTM player, including:

• MY SCENES SHARING – Show your BD-LiveTM friends your favorite scenes from the film.

• THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HENRY – In this feature, director Henry Selick discusses his approach to the film adaptation of the award-winning book and what he loves about Coraline.

BONUS FEATURES AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAYTM HI-DEF & THE 2-DISC COLLECTOR'S EDITION DVD:

• DELETED SCENES

• THE MAKING OF CORALINE – Director and screenwriter Henry Selick hosts this behind the scenes feature about how this hand-crafted, stop-motion animated film was made.

• VOICING THE CHARACTERS – Coraline's acclaimed cast and filmmaker Henry Selick talk about their experiences working on the film, including defining the perfect voice for their characters.

• DIGITAL COPY OF CORALINE – Transfer the included digital copy to your iPod, Mac or PC and experience Coraline anywhere, anytime!

BONUS FEATURES AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAYTM HI-DEF, 2-DISC COLLECTOR'S EDITION DVD & SINGLE DISC DVD:

• FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR HENRY SELICK & COMPOSER BRUNO COULAIS

At the Potter press conference, producer David Heyman and director David Yates filled us in on what we have to look forward to. Before the release in autumn 2010 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, with Part 2 coming in the summer of 2011 (at least that's what the producers said they had planned for right now).

Says Heyman: One of the things that's going to be on BluRay is that we've created some additional material in regard to the kids taking you around certain departments [behind the scenes], and interviewing people in those departments. Photographers and editing and [editor] Mark Day talking about [his work]. And that's in the 6th Blu-Ray. And other such things.

Adds David Yates: One of the things we've included I'm sure it will be on the DVD and Blu-Ray, we had all these photographs of [Horace] Slughorn taken for the movie. You know the photographs in Hogwarts move and Jim Broadbent who is a very gifted comedian as well as an actor did all these improvisations for us. We cut them together in a montage which is really fun and entertaining.

Harry Potter will be in theaters July 15th while the DVD is rumored to be out December 7th.

Say what you will about where Snyder "dropped the squid" in his Watchmen movie translation, you can not argue that the director pored over each shot, set, costume, prop and reference. The attention to detail is borderline unhealthy, but delightful to revisit.

The special features on the new Blu-Ray DVD release are most likely going to be the saving grace for Watchmen. This is where Zack's abilities as a director and fan boy panderer will shine. Who wouldn't get excited listening to him talk about the Ridley Scott references, and how they made the Comedian punch through the wall.

Still, it should be very interesting to see what he has to say about the meddled-with ending. I hope he has the stones to just pull David Hayter on camera and say, ask this guy! Ask him why he handed the most important line of the book from Dr. Manhattan to another character? Ask Hayter why he left out all the destruction and carnage from the last few shots. Oh wait, we did, and we're still not happy with the answer. Trot Hayter out there during the ending scene to answer these questions, I double dog dare you, and I'll be first in line with my fist full of cash for the Blu-Ray.

All in all, it's a cool thing that they are attempting to do with all this new fancy DVD technology, and I think it's marvelous for a film like Watchmen where there was so much detail you almost need a tour-guide to get through the film — and who better than the director? The DVD will be released on July 21st.

[Hollywood Reporter and Slashfilm]

News broke earlier this week that G4 would be broadcasting Lucasfilm's Saturday afternoon Star Wars panel as part of their five-hour SDCC coverage, and that news was immediately followed by Warner Bros' announcement that a special SDCC Watchmen screening (also on Saturday) will be streamed as a live interactive BD-Live event for everyone in North America who bought Watchmen on Blu-Ray, allowing them to hear director Zack Snyder's commentary and ask the director questions. Snyder is excited about the event:

Comic-Con, it isn't just [for] comic book fanatics, it's cinephiles as well. It'll be cool to discuss what people are thinking.

With the con already sold out - although Comic-Con has hinted that returned or unclaimed passes may be sold closer to the event this year - and the show's schedule still officially unannounced, we're wondering if these two events are special stunts, or the start of a new way to experience the con without the heat, discomfort and awkward chance of meeting your heroes in the restroom before their panel.

San Diego Comic-Con runs July 23rd through the 26th, with Preview Night on the 22nd.

Did you know the Xindi on Star Trek: Enterprise were wearing the costumes from Star Trek: Nemesis' Remans, just slightly recut? I didn't. I'm now imagining all sorts of theories about how Xindi fashion trends traveled across the galaxy, and a couple centuries later, there was a retro-Xindi fashion trend among the Remans.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Collection Blu-ray came out on May 12 and is available wherever crisp-looking, obsessively completist video box sets are sold.

At last, the Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country Blu-Ray set will include two Klingon Hamlet scenes, complete with Klingon skull. So you'll be able to judge for yourself whether Chancellor Gorkon was right about it coming across better in Klingon than English. (Now if only they could get David Tennant to do the Klingon version, I can die happy.) [SliceOfSciFi]

The Hollywood Reporter explained that the Academy member screener disc offers a preview of what the rest of the world will be able to see when the movie makes it to homes towards the end of the year:

"We really tried to do a lot with the film technically to give audiences a real reason to go see the film in theaters," including shooting sequences in large-format Imax, the "Dark Knight" director said in an interview.

But for Academy members who haven't seen it in theaters, or simply want to view it again, he said, "the Blu-ray version is vastly superior to DVD. You can actually see the things we did in Imax, and it will give Academy members the best possible chance to see what we did technically." ...For "Knight's" Blu-ray incarnation, the director said he was able to approximate the changing aspect ratios of the film's Imax edition. The sections shot in 35mm will play in a letterboxed format, and for the Imax sequences, the image will expand to fill the entire widescreen. While that doesn't capture the complete Imax image, "it still gives us more of the way it was projected in Imax," Nolan said.

Shifting from letterbox format to fullscreen for special sequences? I can't tell if that'll be distracting or awesome, but you can't really fault Nolan - who's already mastered the Blu-Ray edition of the movie - for his ambition. You know that he'd include Christian Bale jumping out of your television, looking around with his Batcellphone vision and then huskily whispering "If anyone asked, I killed Harvey Dent," before leaving the room through a window if only it were possible.

Update: MTV's Splash Page blog is reporting that the Blu-Ray and DVD release date has been confirmed for December 9th, and will offer more than three hours of special features split across two discs, including six episodes of fake news show Gotham Tonight, a documentary into the psychology of Batman, and behind-the-scenes features. They also offered the following images of the packaging:


Awards screeners feeling Blu [Hollywood Reporter]

Video Business is reporting that, while not confirmed, the 9/30 date makes a lot of sense to Paramount and Marvel:

Anticipating an onslaught of blockbuster movies coming to shelves throughout the holidays, retailers believe Paramount is smart to release Iron Man early in the season.

“I think retail is delighted to have a wealth of product coming, but the concern is how the title releases will cannibalize the one prior,” said one source. “Last year, Spider-Man [3] kicked off [the fourth quarter] at end of October. Now we’re excited that Paramount is coming out early. They will have a couple of weeks to themselves. That’s good for Iron Man.”

Amazon is currently offering three different flavors of Iron Home Entertainment: A single-disc DVD, a 2-disc special edition, and a single Blu-Ray disc. If you're wondering what may be so special about the 2-disc version, how about the fact that the packaging looks like Iron Man's helmet? That's what an Australian DVD site is taking orders for, at least. Sure, it's no Roddy McDowell's ape head, but what is these days...?

Iron Man to kick off fourth quarter [Video Business]

Bay has been bizarrely outspoken about his desire to have Transformers released on Blu-ray since Paramount decided that they were betting on the (wrong) horse known as HD-DVD. When the announcement was made, Bay reacted in the only way he knows how to - Loudly, and in a rather scattershot manner:

For Paramount to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They are progressive by having two formats. No 'Transformers 2' for me.

The Blu-ray edition of "Transformers" that [Paramount] is preparing will include extensive extras and special features, including a commentary from Bay and two docus about the film's human and robotic stars. Segments include exec producer Steven Spielberg discussing his love for the franchise and a detailed look at the casting process and real-world weapons provided by the military.

It looks stunning and really allows you to engage with this movie in new ways... Remember, I told everyone Blu-ray was best.

Transformers headed to Blu-ray [Hollywood Reporter]

The remote control - produced by Toshiba in association with Paramount, to promote the HD-DVD release of the first season of Star Trek Remastered - skirts the fine line between appalling cash-in and must have; sadly, it was only available for a limited period, and even more sadly, it only worked with what has already become known as the Betamax of high definition DVD players. Check the garage sales in years to come for this one.

Toshiba Phaser Promotion for HD-DVD Release [Star Trek.com]