New Line Cinema is the last major studio to enter the format war. They have close ties to Warner, and were expected to be format neutral. This was confirmed when they announced their first HD release of Hairspray on both Blu-Ray and HD DVD back in July.
However, when New Line announced the official details of the Hairspray release back in September, it was revealed that the Blu-Ray version would be released on November 20th alongside the DVD, yet the HD DVD version wouldn't be released until an undisclosed date sometime in 2008.
This by itself means nothing, however, New Line recently announced that it's second HD release, Rush Hour 3, would be released day-and-date on Blu-Ray and DVD on December 26th, yet the HD DVD version would, yet again, not be released until sometime in 2008.
Both these movies are coming out day one on Blu-Ray and DVD, with the HD DVD version coming "sometime in 2008." These are the only titles that New Line has announced for HDM thus far.
What does this mean for LotR? Could this be an ace up the sleeve for Blu-Ray in 2008? Or is this just a fluke that New LIne will soon rectify, making all future releases day-and-date Blu-Ray/HD DVD?
However, New Line attributes these staggered release dates to HDDVD's lack of region coding. Will this be an issue for an older catalogue title like LotR?
