Hollywood cult directors back Blu-ray, describe format potential as 'fantastic'

Two of Hollywood's most influential film-makers have been eulogizing about Blu-ray.

Anarchic Kevin Smith and fantasy king Guillermo del Toro both give the new format the thumbs up, with the latter describing the format's potential as 'fantastic.'

Kevin Smith confesses that he's been a convert ever since Paramount gave him a Panasonic 103in plasma and Blu-ray player as a gift.

'It is the most astounding television I've ever seen in my life; this f***er is so big it looks like one of the small screens at the Beverly Connection,' he told US trade magazine Home Media Retailing.

'It's really big, and it sits about five feet from the end of my bed, maybe even less. Maybe two, two-and-a-half feet.

I lie down in bed when I watch TV, so you're right on top of the screen. You're no longer watching the movie. You're in the movie.'

Smith says the first film he watched on his new system was Die Hard 4.0, in which he co-stars ' I was able to stand next to myself on screen full length and be like, 'Wow, I'm fatter.' It was very, very cool. So I fell in love with Blu-ray. Now I've been rebuying all the stuff I already have but I don't care because now I just want to get high and watch a Blu-ray Disc.'

No Blu-ray for Clerks
However. the writer-director says that he's in no rush to bring his low-budget indie hit Clerks to the format. 'Clerks on Blu-ray would be a total waste of Blu-ray technology, man,' he said.

'That's a movie that I don't feel needs to be on Blu-ray until Blu-ray is the only format. Then, of course, I would like to see it be on there.'

Guillermo del Toro agrees, saying Blu-ray is a 'fantastic format.' The director, who is currently working on a BD remaster of his Spanish language horror The Devil's Backbone, used the BD Live chat facility on the Hellboy 2 release to tell fans online of his plans for Hellboy 3. During a chat with 400 registered users he revealed: 'It's about the end of days - and Hellboy is very involved in bringing down the firestorm.'

Del Toro is a keen advocate of the kind of access the Blu-ray format can bring to movie fans. 'I try to make my DVDs and Blu-rays an all-access educational glimpse into the filmmaking process. We try to keep it very candid and educational.' He says it's not about self promotion, 'we allow you to glimpse our tribulations, the way decisions are affected by budget or an FX that doesn't work, etc.'

While online, the director also talked a little about his plans for the LOTR prequel The Hobbit: 'We will be pushing the goblin kingdom. We will be pushing Smaug, the Spiders of Mirkwood. We will be pushing them to the edge of technology, where we will fuse animatronics and CGI into a seamless new art form in creating creatures,' he enthused.

The Hobbit begins shooting in New Zealand in 2010. To read our review of Hellboy 2: the Golden Army, click here.