“Island Fever 3” in HD-DVD ships next week, followed by “Pirates,” “Jack’s Teen America 3” and “Island Fever 4” later this month.
“I love the high definition experience and committed to using the format exclusively in February 2004,” Digital Playground founder Joone said. “Our entire library of movies produced since then has been filmed and mastered in this resolution and we will eventually re-release everything in HD. We’ve been waiting for the delivery technology to be available and now that it is you can expect to see our HD product dominate the market.”
Joone has long been a supporter of the high-definition revolution. Digital Playground’s first movie to be shot in hi-def, but released on a standard DVD, was the September 2004 release of “Island Fever 3.”
Developed by Toshiba, HD-DVD has not only sparked a format war among consumers, but also has divided camps among the Hollywood movie studios, with some backing both formats while others are releasing titles for both HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
Joone also announced that the company will premiere the trailer for “Pirates II” this Wednesday at the Adult Entertainment Expo. The teaser will run in the Digital Playground booth (number 7012), as well as on all the TVs surrounding the entrance to AEE.
“There’s a lot more involved in [the sequel] than the last one,” Joone told XBIZ. “We started the special effects work well over a year in advance.”
With the blockbuster success of “Pirates,” Joone admitted to his desire to wow critics with the second installment.
“When people saw the first ‘Pirates’ they didn't know what to expect,” he said. “There was a certain level of quality. With the second one, it’s important to get the same level of escalation — to try and make it a lot better than the first one.”
“Pirates II” hits stores in fall 2007.