Los Angeles, April 7 (Reuters): If luminary directors George Lucas and James Cameron get their way, a new wave of three-dimensional movies may soon replace goofy, 1950s flicks like Bwana Devil that played to bug-eyed audiences wearing blue-and-red glasses.
Titanic captain Cameron, Stars Wars master Lucas and even Lord of the Rings head hobbit Peter Jackson want fans to forget those odd spectacles.
This new 3D wave, they say, converts their old titles to in-your-face entertainment that may reignite box office fire for movies being re-released, and it puts audiences directly in the action of new films like Cameron?s 2007 science fiction adventure Battle Angel.
The new 3D movies do not replace traditional films. Audiences will get two versions of the same movie for different experiences, and studios and theatres get two movies to market. Glasses are needed to view the new 3D, though the cardboard cut-outs with blue and red lenses are replaced by plastic frames and clear lenses.
Behind the push for 3D is a major industry overhaul called ?digital cinema,? which means projecting movies onscreen from digital files, as opposed to filmstrip and showing them with projection systems that cost up to $100,000 a unit to install.
Digital Cinema is supported by Hollywood?s major studios who will sharply cut film-releasing costs because they no longer have to ship thousands of filmstrips around the world. Rather, they can transmit cheap digital files via satellite that are then stored on computer networks inside the theatres.
But the transition will be expensive ? perhaps costing as much as $3.6 billion over the next several years, industry watchers said.
Theatre owners are demanding the studios pay, and they want new types of content and movies to help pack houses for the digital cinema systems. The directors say they have one answer ? updating an old idea, 3D.
?We?re making these movies, and we believe in the technology,? Cameron said at a recent convention of theatre owners in Las Vegas called ShoWest. ?People are seeking out that premium 3D experience.?
Lucas, whose Star Wars: Episode III ? Revenge of the Sith hits theatres next month, wants to re-release the entire Star Wars series in 3D starting in 2007, and Peter Jackson hinted that a re-release Lord of the Rings movies might be coming.
At ShoWest, Cameron had this to say to thousands of theatre owners. ?I?m giving you guys plenty of warning,? he said. ?You?ve got two years to get ready.?
