Hollywood goes back to the future with 3-D films

By Sharon Waxman

May 20, 2007

If some prominent Hollywood directors and an Irish rock band have their way, moviegoers will soon be heading back to the future, wearing newfangled 3-D glasses.

The next phase in the theatrical viewing experience took a leap forward last week, as Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson signed on to produce and direct a trilogy of 3-D movies about the intrepid Belgian comic-book hero Tintin for Paramount's DreamWorks.

Then on Saturday, nearly an hour of footage from a 3-D concert film of the Irish rock band U2 made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival. As "U2 3D" eye-poppingly demonstrates, with the camera swiveling around Bono's face then soaring over and down among the concert-goers while he sings "Sunday Bloody Sunday" to 60,000 fans, this is definitely not the old 3-D. The new and improved version uses double-lens digital cameras, double-lens digital projectors, an actual silver screen and — unlike the old system — does not give viewers headaches, nausea or vertigo. It still requires wearing glasses, although not the old cardboard red-and-green variety but sleek, black ones.

"This is a different experience. It's much more voyeuristic," said Jon Landau, the producer of "Avatar," an ambitious and expensive movie by the director James Cameron about humans and aliens battling one another, which is being shot in 3-D. "The screen has always been an emotional barrier for audiences. Good 3-D makes the screen go away."

That view, however, is not completely clear just yet. Digital and 3-D projection is not available in many theaters. In the United States, for instance, digital projection is installed in only about 2,300 of 27,000 theaters, with 3-D projection in just 700 of those. Theater owners have balked at the cost of upgrading to digital projectors, and the added cost of 3-D could be a further obstacle. Moviegoers might not be so willing to pay an extra dollar or two for tickets.

The 3-D film first flourished in the early 1950s, when movies like "Bwana Devil," "House of Wax" and "Melody" introduced audiences to the delights and annoyances of donning special glasses for a more life-like viewing experience. But a combination of technological complexities, eye fatigue and a lack of compelling, feature-length movies — many of the 3-D films were horror or soft-core adult affairs — kept the filmmaking format on the fringes of the mainstream.

The emergence of large-screen Imax movies and technological advances in the last 10 years or so, however, have piqued the interest of the top directors in Hollywood. Cameron, who made the 3-D IMAX documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss" in 2003, is using motion capture technology and computer graphics to create realistic characters and fantasy worlds for "Avatar."

Twentieth Century Fox plans to release the film, mainly in 3-D, in 2009.

Audiences, which up to now have had a taste of the future in 3-D versions of children's fare like "Monster House" and "Chicken Little," will get another early blast of the experience in the upcoming Robert Zemeckis adventure-drama, "Beowulf," to be released by Paramount and Warner Brothers in November, in 3-D where possible.

And DreamWorks Animation has announced that all of its movies going forward will be shot in 3-D, for release beginning in 2009.

"I believe that this is the single greatest opportunity for the moviegoing experience since the advent of color," Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, said in an e-mail message. "It has been more than 60 years since there has been a significant enhancement or innovation to the moviegoing experience."

The widening embrace of 3-D by leading directors and studios comes at a critical moment for the film industry, which faces ever-expanding competition for leisure time by home theaters, the Internet and gaming alternatives. It also solves, at least temporarily, the ongoing pressures from the thriving trade in bootleg movies. A 3-D film cannot easily be recorded off a movie screen because the images are blurry to the naked eye.

There is already evidence of a box office payoff. "Meet the Robinsons," an animated Disney film, was released in the United States in April in 3,400 theaters, of which 600 were 3-D-equipped theaters. The 3-D theaters brought in 30 percent of the box office revenue from the first weekend, according to Disney.

The new projects aim to be more than mere gimmicks. Spielberg and Jackson have been working on the "Adventures of Tintin" project for about a year.

Part of the decision-making process included a week of motion capture work on the "Avatar" set in the Playa Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles last November, according to one person knowledgeable about the process. That visual information was sent to Weta in New Zealand, where it was mixed with a computer model of Tintin, the young Belgian adventurer of cartoon fame. The results persuaded both directors to push forward. Jackson is expected to direct the first film, Spielberg the second, with the third undecided, according to a DreamWorks spokesman. There is as yet no start date for the first project.

Spielberg and Jackson both declined to comment for this article. Stacey Snider, chairwoman of DreamWorks, also declined to comment. Jackson's manager, Ken Kamins, said the director had long been fascinated with 3-D, but until now had not been swayed by the ability to create a full-length feature experience. "Based on various tests he's seen, he believes in the future of 3-D," he said.

Soon after 2009, Katzenberg predicted, "consumers will own their own 3-D glasses in the same way they have sunglasses for going outside, wear sneakers for running, own tennis rackets, golf clubs and bowling balls for those activities."