You may have heard this already, but just in case: Netflix and Best Buy announced yesterday that they’re going to offer just Blu-Ray and start phasing out HD-DVD. Sorry HD-DVD, but it’s game over. You gave it a good shot.

Now bring on the HD download war! Ugh.

In a statement, Netflix (NFLX) said it based its decision on the fact that four of the six major studios are going give exclusive backing to Blu-ray, made by Sony (SNE). It plans to phase out its offering of HD-DVD disks, from Toshiba , by the end of the year.

The move by Netflix follows a similar move by rival Blockbuster (BBI), which announced its support of Blu-ray last summer.

Later Monday, Best Buy (BBY) said it would recommend Blu-ray hardware and software as the “preferred” format for high-definition. The company said its decision was made to address “consumer confusion.”

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With the release of the “New Frontier” animated movie imminent, Kyle MacLachlan, Superman’s voice in the movie, did the following interview for the DVD’s PR. The rest of of the interview is after the jump, the new images, full of vintage-style superhero goodness, are in the gallery, accessible by clicking the thumbnail below.

From his head-turning debuts in “Dune” and “Blue Velvet” to his iconic Special Agent Dale Cooper in “Twin Peaks” and his current plum primetime role on “Desperate Housewives,” Kyle MacLachlan has had a memorable career.

Now you can add a new benchmark for the actor: MacLachlan makes his animation debut as the voice of Superman in the highly-anticipated direct-to-DVD film, “Justice League: The New Frontier.”

“Superman stands for so many things that I believe in – strength, justice, fighting for what’s right,” said MacLachlan. “You just can’t turn down the opportunity to play a guy like Superman.”

MacLachlan is an integral part of an all-star cast that includes Neil Patrick Harris, David Boreanaz, Brooke Shields, Miguel Ferrer, Jeremy Sisto, Kyra Sedgwick and Phil Morris. Casting for the film focused on finding actors that could channel the tones of the Korean war era of the mid-1950s without sounding corny or old-fashioned.

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Thought the OG DVD was dead? Film studios have started to use direct-to-DVD movies as a way to cheaply continue, enhance, or jump-start franchises, which sounds like something that wouldn’t work, but it’s turned into something of a cash cow.

The idea didn’t really go that well for Disney after a while, and they kind of started the idea a number of years ago. But modern day Police Academy and Porky’s-esque garbage franchises like Bring It On and American Pie are reaping the benefits.

Once a dumping ground for movies considered virtually unwatchable, the direct-to-DVD pipeline is becoming increasingly important to mainstream film franchises.

Hollywood’s new direct-to-DVD strategy rests on calculating a sequel’s chances at the multiplex. Three big-screen “American Pie” movies rained money on Universal, selling more than $750 million of tickets worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. But Universal had a decision to make when it came to approving a fourth installment for a theatrical release. The third film, “American Wedding,” cost $55 million plus tens of millions more to market — far more than its predecessor. Yet its ticket sales were 28 percent lower.

In previous years, the studio would have either pulled the plug on the series or continued to serve up sequels in theaters to increasingly smaller audiences. Opting for diminished returns was typically the industry’s course — why leave money on the table? — which is how wince-inducing films like “Police Academy 6: City Under Siege” ended up at the multiplex.

But studios have realized that the power of the DVD market gives them another option. They drop everything but the franchise concepts and the titles, and hire cheaper acting talent. Add a marketing campaign of decent weight to increase the size of the audience that remains and — presto — more profit, pound for pound, than some big action flicks. Oh, and get rid of that pejorative-sounding direct-to-DVD term. Call it DVD Premiere.

You know Hollywood is going to run this idea completely into the ground, so expect a glut of lazy, cash-in sequels to movies that don’t deserve them.

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For far too long, El Cid was one of those big classic Hollywood road-show epics people heard more about from old school cinephiles than actually saw. Relegated to wrecked pan-and-scan prints on cable and broadcast TV for decades (I’m not even sure if it was ever on VHS), Anthony Mann’s massive-scale melodrama finally gets the release it deserves in this digital age: a superbly restored, remastered, special edition DVD courtesy of, of all people, the Weinstein brothers.

Although it’s not quite the classic masterpiece of lore some would have you believe — Lawrence of Arabia and Spartacus remain the high watermarks of 60s Hollywood epics — this 3-hour-plus tale of Spain’s 11th century hero knight remains a remarkable example of the kind of panoramic, cast-of-thousands entertainment that will never exist again thanks to the astronomical cost of production and advances in computer graphics.

Easily superior to more widely celebrated and, quite frankly, somewhat tired epics like Ben-Hur, Gone With the Wind, The Ten Commandments, and Titanic, El Cid distinguishes itself through a number of Mann’s raw stylistic approach, honed during years spent making brilliantly tough and brutal noir and western films. The director’s economical, driving sense of pacing along with his penchant for gritty action set pieces and a peculiarly haunting end, help create a lengthy film that’s a blast to sit through instead of a chore.

A strong script from Diego Fabbri, epic vet Fredric Frank, and the fascinating Philip Yordan, and a great Midlos Rozsa score add up to forge legitimate emotional intensity between Charlton Heston (who actually works here unironically) and a jaw-droppingly attractive Sophia Loren. On-location shooting, outdoor scenes with natural lighting, and apparently highly authentic period costumes and props (the swords are real!) give the whole piece a legitimate aura of realism.

In short, it’s a lot of fun.

Grade: A-

Pick it up from Amazon if you’re so inclined.

So, what else can you find on this DVD?

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What with the future being fairly inevitable and all, I’ve slowed my DVD purchases to a crawl for the most part, opting not to buy certain titles that I know for a fact I’ll be watching again and again in the future and would really like to see in hi-def Blu-Ray. Of course, every once in a while something comes along and I don;t know what to do about it - enter this Chuck Jones Collection featuring what is quite possibly my favorite cartoon ever, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. My question is simple: is there a truly honest and compelling reason for me to hold off on buying this if/until it’s available on Blu-ray, or are older animated features really not that likely to benefit enough from the newer tech to sweat it?

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This is a little more popular than most Depths of YouTube that we post, but it’s much too brilliant to pass up.

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Critical and commercial flops of megaton magnitude, the notorious Uwe Boll’s “films” (which include Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, and most recently, In the Name of the King) are shameless, infamous crap adaptations of marginally popular video games that feature below-budget computer graphics and hilariously thrown-together casts (Jason Statham! Leelee Sobieski! And Burt Reynolds! Together again!).

Whether they’re fun ironically or not — and I know ironic fans of Boll have to be out there — Boll is widely derided by many, and yet, keeps making films that get wide release year after year. So, how the hell is this possible? Thanks to The Escapist, here is one person’s complicated but fascinating theory.

Ever wanted to learn weird minor details about German tax codes and shelters? Now’s your chance!

Germany has, or had until 2006, the most generous shelters for filmmakers. Many other Western countries have similar filmmaking tax incentive programs, extolled by funding consultants such as Peacefulfish.

Blogger Stuart Wood, among many others, speculates Boll’s films are intended to lose money. Were this theory true, it could help explain egregious expenses such as the accidental (?) shipment of 5,500 excess prints of BloodRayne. From a studio’s perspective, might “Hollywood accounting” make it desirable to push a given film from break-even to tax write-off? Not so, Epstein tells The Escapist. “No, it is never advantageous to lose money, though a tax shelter may time-shift tax losses to a later year.” Given Boll’s career to date, and his likely performance ahead, that is weak consolation.

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If you can indulge my film nerd leanings for a moment, I’d just like to tell you that one of Hollywood’s finest epics is finally coming to DVD.

El Cid, the 1961 Charlton Heston/Sophia Loren vehicle about an 11th-century Spanish knight directed by the great Anthony Mann, will be released in a two-disc and a fancy pants collector’s edition on January 29. Curious to see what dim-witted modern duds like Troy, Alexander, and Kingdom of Heaven were reaching for? Check this one out. It’s old school Big Time filmmaking at it’s finest.

I’ve only seen it in scratched/spotty/wrecked pan-and-scan prints on TV that’ve been circulating for decades, so I’m excited to see a nice, cleaned up print in the original aspect ratio…because I’m a dork like that. Anyway, we’ll have a review up for you in a week or so.

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