Magnolia Home Entertainment Releases First Wave Of Titles On HD DVD

Three Groundbreaking Films And Two Original HDNet Programs Debut On HD New Format May 2006

May 3, 2006

Magnolia Home Entertainment announced today the release of its first five titles on the new HD-DVD format. Magnolia’s HD-DVD slate includes award-winning full-length feature films produced by HDNet Films and spectacular original programs from high-definition television networks HDNet and HDNet Movies. Arriving May 2006, Magnolia Home Entertainment’s initial wave of HD-DVD titles includes the Academy Award® nominee for Best Documentary Feature and Independent Spirit Award winner Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, Steven Soderbergh’s mesmerizing feature film Bubble, the controversial Independent Spirit Award nominee The War Within, the HDNet series “Bikini Destinations” and HDNet World Report Special: Shuttle Discovery's Historic Mission, HDNet’s exclusive high definition coverage of Space Shuttle Discovery’s launch in 2005. Hailed as “an amazing piece of work” (Richard Roeper, “Ebert & Roeper”) that is both “shocking and chilling” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times) as well as “terrifically entertaining” (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal), Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room delves inside one of history’s greatest corporate scandals unveiling a story of epic greed and deception that is “as riveting as a Shakespearean drama” (Claudia Puig, USA Today). The true story of how top executives at America’s seventh largest company walked away with over $1 billion, Academy Award® Nominee, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room also earned a Grand Jury Prize nomination at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The HD-DVD Special features include an audio commentary by Writer / Director Alex Gibney and the Higher Definition: Enron Episode Highlights. Brought to life with startling realism by Academy Award®-winning director Steven Soderbergh, Bubble focuses on three workers in a small town doll factory whose lives are overturned when a murder occurs. The film is the first of six movies Soderbergh is directing for HDNet Films that will be shot in high-definition. The Bubble HD-DVD includes an audio commentary by Steven Soderbergh and Mark Romanek and the Higher Definition: Bubble Episode Highlights. “A knock-out nail biter” (Richard Corliss, Time), garnering two Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best Screenplay (Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo, Tom Glynn) and Best Supporting Actor (Firdous Bamji), The War Within explores the harrowing transformation of a Pakistani man into a suicide bomber and the moral dilemma he faces over acting upon the demands of his destructive mission. With an unflinching look at the complex moral, religious and political decisions behind a terrorist act, director Joseph Castelo “deserves credit for staring hard at difficult subject matter (Ned Martel, New York Times). The War Within HD-DVD contains an audio commentary by writer/director Castelo and writer/actor Akhtar. On “Bikini Destinations”, HDNet combines some of the world’s most beautiful women with some of the world’s most beautiful locations into a fascinating, high-definition travel experience. The series takes viewers around the world with top bikini models as they set sail on a series of sexy adventures. In HDNet World Report Special: Shuttle Discovery's Historic Mission, HDNet provides exclusive high-definition coverage of Space Shuttle Discovery’s launch in 2005. The special also includes extensive live coverage of events surrounding the launch. The highest quality coverage of a Space Shuttle launch ever recorded, HDNet World Report Special: Shuttle Discovery's Historic Mission contains riveting footage from mission control completely uninterrupted by commentators. About Magnolia Home Entertainment Magnolia Home Entertainment is the home video division of Magnolia Pictures. Launched in November 2005, the company releases a diversified slate of films, including Alex Gibney’s critically acclaimed and Academy Award® nominated documentary “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Bubble” and Joseph Castelo’s terrorism thriller “The War Within.” Magnolia Home Entertainment is part of a vertically-integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that includes distributor Magnolia Pictures, the Landmark Theatres chain, production companies HDNet Films and 2929 Productions, high-definition cable networks HDNet and HDNet Movies. For more information visit http://www.magpictures.com.

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