We reported here a couple of weeks back that in the US an underestimate of how vigorous the uptake of the Iron Man BD-Live special features would be caused connectivity problems with some users unable to download content. Iron Man's out next week on Blu-ray (date in date with DVD) complete with all that lovely extra content and we were concerned the same thing would happen over here. So we gave Paramount a shout to ask them what was going on and here's the response:

"We are delighted with Iron Man’s success in the US and are confident of a similar result when Iron Man releases in the UK on 27 October, on both DVD and Blu-ray.  To ensure that our customers continue to get the best home entertainment experience possible, we have added more servers to satisfy the demand for BD-Live, which is also available on the Transformers Blu-ray, which released in September.  As the first day-and-date Blu-ray release for Paramount, Iron Man looks set to pave the way for a great Q4 for the studio, which also includes Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skill and Kung Fu Panda.

Richard Clarkson, Marketing Director, Paramount Home Entertainment UK"

So there you go. Extra servers. If you're buying this or any other BD Live enabled disc we'd love you to have a go at the BD-Live stuff and come and tell us about it, either at dvdbr@futurenet.co.uk or on our forum...

Disney is promoting this rather lovely Jack Skellington bust with the 2 disc collector's edition of The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's much bigger than it looks in this picture (it's about as big as a breadbin), it's hand-painted, it's wicked cool and apparently there's only about 1000 of them made. It's also kind of expensive at about £118....

So Patrick and Helen from Disney's press office came to visit us this morning, fully in the spirit of it. Bearing in mind journos are a notoriously grumpy, socially awkward bunch of people who spend much of their professional lives pissing on other people's chips we think it was very brave indeed of them to go all out. We are a nice team and we were not mean to them. Two thumbs good.

One of my favourite designers is Robert Brownjohn. He was a strikingly creative force in New York in the 50s and London in the 6os, perhaps best known for his opening title sequence’s of From Russia with Love and Goldfinger. Projected moving images glide effortlessly over bikini-clad models, painted head to toe in gold. Ingenious typography combine with audacious imagery to produce opening Bond Film titles that for me have never been bettered. The last Bond film, Casino Royale, opted for animation in the opening titles and fell woefully short of Brownjohn’s benchmark. The next Bond, Quantum of Solace is imminent. I am eager to see it and I hope that the opening titles deliver once again.