Windowing experiment... Direct to DVD... 'Toy Stories' in 3-D

- The documentary 'Kicking It,' about a World Cup soccer tournament where all the players are homeless, screened at Sundance this year. It was just picked up by Liberation Entertainment and Red Envelope Entertainment, Netflix's DVD distribution arm, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They're going to try to rearrange the traditional release windows: theatrical first, then simultaneous release on TV, DVD, and Internet streaming on Netflix's Web site.

From the press release:

Under today’s announcement, Liberation will be handling North American and Central American theatrical, DVD and ancillary rights to the film. Breaking with traditional release windows, the ESPN television premiere will follow theatrical release, and the film will be provided by REE to Netflix subscribers to rent on DVD or watch instantly on a PC, day-and-date with the ESPN premiere, when DVD sales via Liberation will begin. REE will also promote the ESPN telecast of KICKING IT to Netflix subscribers via their iconic mailers.

- Even if you're not buying direct-to-DVD movies, someone is, according to the NY Times. The headline of this story says it all: 'Direct-to-DVD Releases Shed Their Loser Label.' Focus is on the 'American Pie' series, 'Garfield,' 'Get Smart,' and 'Scorpion King.'

- Disney/Pixar is planning 3-D releases of 'Toy Story' and 'Toy Story 2' for 2009 and 2010, according to Variety.

Sunday/Monday links: Cellphone entertainment ... Blockbuster picks Blu-ray ... Digital cinema overseas

- Interesting piece in yesterday's New York Times about producing content for cell phones. Much of the focus is on ESPN's efforts.

Funny how everyone mentions the small screen as being the main limitation of working on a cell phone -- for me, it's the slow or stuttery frame rate.

- Blockbuster Video says it'll carry primarily Blu-ray high-def discs from here on out. From Forbes:

Since late 2006, the movie rental company has offered both formats at 250 stores across the country. Both formats were given equal billing, but Blockbuster soon realized that Blu-ray outsold its competitor by 70%.

Blockbuster will continue to rent the HD DVD titles it already offers and may expand its HD DVD inventory in the future but, for now, the company has placed all its chips on Blu-ray.

I still am not sure this is the HD DVD death knell everyone will assume it is. (I certainly can't remember the last time I was in a Blockbuster, and the one near my gym closed last year...)

- Variety has a report on the digital cinema roll-out in Europe.

- My Boston Globe column yesterday covered the use of artificial intelligence in videogames.