Attention "High School Musical" fans...your Zac Efron parties are about to getting a little more exciting. That's because Disney is set to launch something called the Disney BD Live Network, coming soon to a Blu-ray player near you.

The free service (included on every Disney Blu-ray disc starting with "Sleeping Beauty" on October 17) will connect BD Live-enabled movies to the Internet, allowing a variety of interactive features to be downloaded to the disc. Among the most impressive? The ability for folks to sync their players together and (provided everyone owns the movie) watch the film in real-time together with on-screen chatting capabilities. This means the next time a "High School Musical" flick hits Blu-ray, teens can hold a virtual party with friends anywhere in the country, chatting together and pausing to gush over Zac's mezmorizing wink. Or even more OMG-worthy, that Disney can hold a live viewing for fans with Zac and the cast, with everyone's machines sync'd together across America as they provide commentary and respond to questions. Read more...

Well, there goes the high-definition format war. Warner Bros., which lays claim to the biggest film library of them all, has announced that it is dropping support for HD DVD and will support Blu-ray exclusively come May 2008. The news comes a day after I convinced fellow blogger Josh Horowitz to lay down cash for a Toshiba HD DVD player, and a month after I purchased my own unit (the saving grace is it was pretty cheap and it's still good for upconverting regular DVDs).

The decision more or less dooms the HD DVD format which was launched in 2005 by Toshiba and Microsoft (who back it through their Xbox 360 console), and which now counts Paramount, DreamWorks and Universal as its only exclusive supporters (and since Universal isn't under a contract, it has the ability to switch to Blu-ray should it wish to). Blu-ray, on the other hand, will have Sony (who created it), Fox, Disney, WB, New Line, Lionsgate and MGM. The news will hopefully mean a price drop for Blu-ray players which have traditionally been more expensive than their HD DVD brethren. Read Warner and Toshiba's respective press releases after the jump. Read more...

When Eli Roth stopped by to talk about his new "Hostel" DVDs, he had plenty to say about murder, Metallica and pissed-off fans. The only subject that quieted him up seemed to be "Trailer Trash," the top-secret "Grindhouse"-inspired film he's working on.

Which is why we were all the more amazed when we actually got him to spill some significant beans.

"When I made that fake trailer for "Thanksgiving," it was the most fun I've ever had shooting anything. It was just off-the-hook for two days ... I thought, 'God, there are so many ideas that I have, that I don't think I could stretch out to a feature film, but that would make a fantastic trailer or even a fake movie,'" he explained. "You could take your most terrible, terrible idea that you're so embarrassed to tell anybody, and turn it into a trailer for a terrible film - and it would be an awesome comedy." Read more...