A crowd has gathered in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center, where a security guard is about to unlock the main entrance. It’s less than a minute before 9 am, the official opening of the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Show—typically a sleepy sales and marketing event known more for schmoozing than buzz. But as the glass doors open on this April morning, a hundred people race toward a large crimson tent in the center of the hall.

The tent is home to Red Digital Cinema and its revolutionary motion picture camera, the Red One. Standing nearby is the man who developed it—a handsome guy with a neatly trimmed goatee and a pair of sunglasses perched atop his clean-shaven head.

(Wired)

Starting in 2009, all of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc’s films will be in next-generation 3-D.

“This is the next innovation for the movie industry,” Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, said in an interview. “It impacts how we make our movies, how movie theaters present our films and how audiences experience our films.”

Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation and No. 1 chipmaker Intel Corp announced a 3-D movie image brand called InTru 3D at Intel’s Developer Forum in San Francisco on Wednesday.

The first movie from DreamWorks Animation to use the brand and logo will be “Monsters vs. Aliens,” coming out next March.

(Reuters)

Intel and DreamWorks Animation SKG have formed a strategic alliance to work together on 3-D filmmaking technology, the companies said Tuesday.

The fruits of their collaboration will first be seen in the animated film “Monsters vs. Aliens,” which is scheduled for domestic release March 27, 2009. DreamWorks has said that all of its feature films will be in 3-D starting next year.

(Information Week)

But Hollywood’s enthusiasm for the technology is behind the formation of a task force to help bring stereoscopic 3-D home — we hope, sans those goofy special glasses.

(Los Angeles Times)

This summer marks the 75th anniversary of the first drive-in movie, which opened in Camden, N.J., in 1933. But after becoming virtually extinct, drive-in movies are suddenly appearing all over the country–this time, in America’s backyards.

While movies change titles all the time — Will Smith’s “Hancock” used to be called “Tonight, He Comes” — rarely does a name switch hint at a looming crisis for the film business at large. But that’s exactly what’s behind the changed title of “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”

When the Brendan Fraser adventure film, which opens Friday, was first shown to theater owners at their annual ShoWest convention in March, the movie was called “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D.” The film’s producers were confident back then that there could be as many as 1,400 North American theaters equipped to show “Journey” in its intended 3-D format by the film’s premiere, so that the film’s startling sea creatures (among other eye-popping effects) really would jump out of the water.

But as July approached, theater owners were converting their auditoriums to 3-D at a much slower pace than “Journey’s” makers anticipated, meaning there would be only about 800 domestic theaters ready to show the film in 3-D. Warner Bros. (which recently absorbed “Journey” maker New Line Cinema) was forced not only to shorten the film’s title by eliminating “3D,” but also had to tweak its advertising campaign to make clear that many theaters — about 2,000, in fact — would be showing the movie in the traditional two-dimensional format.

(LA Times)

Director James Cameron’s upcoming “Avatar” must rank as one of the most anticipated film projects in recent memory. His first narrative film since making the No. 1 box office hit of all time, 1997’s “Titanic,” “Avatar” will be the realization of Cameron’s long-held dream of melding digital 3-D stereo with epic bigscreen storytelling. Variety’s David S. Cohen conducted this email interview with Cameron; it is the director’s most extensive exploration of 3-D to date, however he is keeping specifics about “Avatar” under wraps.

(Variety)

Now is the time to put on your glasses. 

Once known as a headache-inducing screen gimmick of the 1950s, 3D is roaring back into movie theaters - thanks to new digital-cinema technology and Hollywood studios eager to exploit the format. 

“It’s a force that cannot be ignored,” actor Brendan Fraser told reporters during ShoWest, the convention of movie-theater operators earlier this month in Las Vegas.

Fraser was promoting his summer movie, “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D,” an update of the Jules Verne story that bills itself as the first-ever live-action film shot in digital 3D.

(The Salt Lake Tribune)

Tags: 3-D, movies

The marquee topic was 3-D on Tuesday at the movie industry’s ShoWest conference, as DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg teased exhibitors with footage from next year’s “Monsters vs. Aliens” and four studios announced deals that could enable 10,000 more theaters to show films in the format.

“It is nothing less than the greatest innovation that has happened to all of us in the movie business since the advent of color 70 years ago,” Katzenberg said in his keynote address to theater owners, echoing comments he had made previously on the subject.

Pointing to the success of Walt Disney Co.’s “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour,” which this year opened to an impressive $31.3 million in ticket sales on only 683 screens, he said, “Our customers are more than willing to pay a premium price when we’ve got a premium experience for them.”

Katzenberg showed a clip from next spring’s “Monsters vs. Aliens,” an action comedy whose voice cast includes Seth Rogen, Reese Witherspoon and Stephen Colbert. Starting with “Monsters,” all of DreamWorks Animation’s movies will be made in 3-D, he said.

The 3-D commitment will cost about an extra $15 million per production, Katzenberg said in an interview after his speech.

(Source: LA Times)

Sony and Warner Bros. this week plan to start streaming films online in Gaia, a popular teen virtual world.

On Gaia, a 2D Japanese anime-like world with about 2.5 million monthly users, people can hang out in virtual movie theaters, which offer movie screenings at set times. They can watch the film with others, chat about it at the same time and even throw virtual popcorn at the screen.

San Jose’s Gaia has already offered old films such as “Night of the Living Dead” for free. The deal with Sony will introduce films such as “Spider-man” classics and “Gattica,” as well as mini version of old television shows such as “Facts of Life” and “Different Strokes.” Sony, which also announced it was investing an undisclosed sum in Gaia, did not disclose a price for the viewings.

Warner will start showing films such as “The Matrix,” “Batman Returns,” and “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” as early as Tuesday. Some films will be free, but new releases will cost $1.99 per screening.

“We think it’s a big step ahead for virtual worlds,” said Gaia CEO Craig Sherman. “It’s the next revolution of video on the net.”

(Source: San Francisco Gate)