[Update: The President of Universal Studios, Craig Kornblau, has dismissed the following rumor as "totally false". Read on for fun, though!]Now here is a piece of news worth getting excited about. Wait, wait ... it's just a rumor, so let's not all get up in arms yet. The news is this: apparently, at a press conference, Pioneer spoke to some individuals about Universal's exclusive ties to HD DVD and how they might just be breaking. Universal, they said, is going to go neutral and distribute on both formats. That would mean we get to see our lovely Children of Men on Blu-ray after all.
This statement hasn't been confirmed by Universal themselves, but if they've not yet issued a statement that points in the exact oppposite direction, it's fairly clear that they're just stalling with silence until the exclusive ties actually do break and they come out of the closet, so to speak. If the rumors of compensation for staying an HD DVD exclusive company were true, this means they see more benefit in passing on that "free money" and selling their movies on Blu-ray. That's a kick in the pants if you're the one paying off Universal. But that's just a rumor, too. We'll keep you posted on this event as it may dictate the end of this meaningless war.
