Lions Gate releasing 12 UMD movies

Fears that the only films available on the PSP's universal media disc would be Sony Pictures were further allayed today. Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Lions Gate Entertainment president Steve Beeks said his company would release a dozen films on the 50-centimeter, 1.8 gigabyte discs to connect with the gamer audience.

"The typical buyer of the machine--a young male gamer--also happens to be the core demographic to whom our films generally appeal," he said. "So it dovetails nicely not only with out past and current theatrical releasing, but also with our library, where we have a lot of action/special effects films."

Indeed, among the initial batch of Lions Gate films are a number of titles tailor-made for 18- to 35-year-old males. Recent films, such as the low-budget thriller Open Water, the horror film Saw, and the comic book-inspired actioner The Punisher--which itself inspired a game--will be among the 12 films. They will be joined by muy macho classics from the Lions Gate's library, including Total Recall and Rambo: First Blood. The remainder of the titles were not named as of press time.

"When we first saw the machine and started talking to Sony, we immediately decided it was going to be a winner, both from the gaming perspective and from the perspective of people watching movies on the go," Beeks said.

For all its kind words for the PSP, Lions Gate has actually sided against Sony in the battle to succeed the DVD. It is supporting the HD-DVD format over the Blu-ray Disc media, which the PlayStation 3 will use.