Avatar

Wow ! Really looks like it could be a defining film in Sci-Fi history, even without the 3D. The trailer looks awesome !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1208038/Avatar-How-James-Camerons-3D-film-change-face-cinema-forever.html

I really want to see this one....if only to see if it stacks up to what its previews are making it look like.

Titanic" producer fearless over latest movie


[url]http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/afp/brand/SIG=ofqlv2/*http://www.afp.com]
[/url]


Fri Oct 16, 5:44 am ET

BUSAN, South Korea (AFP) –
Hollywood producer Jon Landau said Friday he had no doubt that his latest feature with "Titanic" director James Cameron would live up to its billing as the year's most-anticipated film.
The 300-million-dollar "Avatar", packed with computer-generated imagery and 3-D effects, is the pair's first project together since scooping 11 Oscars with "Titanic" in 1998.
"Any fear about this film is long behind us," Landau said on the sidelines of the 14th Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea, after screening 30-minutes of selected scenes from the film.
"When we started it was a little like the people at NASA who first went to the moon," he said.
"When John Kennedy said they were going to put someone on the moon,
they didn't really know how they were going to do it and when we
started we had an idea but we had no idea how we were going to do it
either."
Landau and Cameron have spent the past four-and-a-half years putting the new film
together, promising a combination of computer-generated imagery, 3-D
effects and live action, the likes of which the world has never seen.
The pair seem to be on the money -- just as they were with "Titanic",
which despite doubts from initial test screenings and critics went on
to gross close to two billion dollars worldwide, making it the all-time box office champion.
"Avatar" follows the exploits of paraplegic army veteran who is taken
to another world where his genes are mixed with those of an alien
creature -- the new being becoming the "avatar" of the film's title.
"The excitement for me is that we are finally going to be able to show
something that we have been working on for four-and-a-half years.
Because a film is nothing if no one sees it," said Landau.
"No single movie can revolutionise the movie industry but one film can
be a step in the evolution of movies. What we think we are doing here
is unlocking the door for more filmmakers to tell more stories."
"Avatar" is set for its worldwide release on December 18th.

I like me some real actors....computer generated CGI effects notwithstanding....I have never been moved by dazzle.


Will see the movie...but will hold off on making the "Viva the Revolution" banners just yet.

Well okay, but what about the Viva La Revolucion banners ?

Avatar -- Film Review

By Kirk Honeycutt, December 10, 2009 06:38 ET














"Avatar"



























Bottom Line: A titanic entertainment -- movie magic is back!








A dozen years later,
James Cameron has proven his point: He is king of the
world.

As commander-in-chief of an
army of visual-effects technicians, creature designers,
motion-capture mavens, stunt performers, dancers, actors and music
and sound magicians, he brings science-fiction movies into the 21st
century with the jaw-dropping wonder that is "Avatar." And he did
it almost from scratch.

There is no underlying novel or myth to generate his story. He
certainly draws deeply on Westerns, going back to "The Vanishing
American" and, in particular, "Dances With Wolves." And the
American tragedy in Vietnam informs much of his story. But then all
great stories build on the past (
"Avatar" premiered Thursday in London).

After writing this story many years ago, he discovered that the
technology he needed to make it happen did not exist. So, he went
out and created it in collaboration with
the best effects minds in the business. This is motion capture
brought to a new high where every detail of the actors'
performances gets preserved in the final CG character as they
appear on the screen. Yes, those eyes are no longer dead holes but
big and expressive, almost dominating the wide and long alien
faces.

The movie is 161 minutes and flies by in a rush. Repeat business?
You bet.
"Titanic"-level business? That level may never be reached
again, but
Fox will see more than enough grosses worldwide to cover its
bet on
Cameron.

But let's cut to the chase: A fully believable, flesh-and-blood
(albeit not human flesh and blood) romance is the beating heart of
"Avatar." Cameron has never made a movie just to show off visual
pyrotechnics: Every bit of technology in "Avatar" serves the
greater purpose of a deeply felt love story (watch the trailer
here).

The story takes place in 2154, three decades after a multinational
corporation has established a mining colony on Pandora, a planet
light years from Earth. A toxic environment and hostile natives --
one corporate apparatchik calls the locals "blue monkeys" -- forces
the conglom to engage with Pandora by proxy. Humans dwell in
oxygen-drenched cocoons but move out into mines or to confront the
planet's hostile creatures in hugely fortified armor and robotics
or -- as avatars.

The protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a crippled former
Marine who takes his late twin brother's place in the avatar
program, a sort of bone thrown to the scientific community by the
corporation in hopes that the study of Pandora and its population
might create a more peaceful planet.

Without any training, Jake suddenly must learn how to link his
consciousness to an avatar, a remotely controlled biological body
that mixes human DNA with that of the native population, the Na'vi.
Since he is incautious and overly curious, he immediately rushes
into the fresh air -- to a native -- to throw open Pandora's many
boxes.

What a glory Cameron has created for Jake to romp in, all in a
crisp 3D realism. It's every fairy tale about flying dragons, magic
plants, weirdly hypnotic creepy-crawlies and feral dogs rolled up
into a rain forest with a highly advanced spiritual design. It
seems -- although the scientists led by Sigourney Weaver's top doc
have barely scratched the surface -- a flow of energy ripples
through the roots of trees and the spores of the plants, which the
Na'vi know how to tap into.

The center of life is a holy tree where tribal memories and the
wisdom of their ancestors is theirs for the asking. This is what
the humans want to strip mine.

Jake manages to get taken in by one tribe where a powerful,
Amazonian named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) takes him under her wing to
teach him how to live in the forest, speak the language and honor
the traditions of nature. Yes, they fall in love but Cameron has
never been a sentimentalist: He makes it tough on his love
birds.

They must overcome obstacles and learn each other's heart. The
Na'vi have a saying, "I see you," which goes beyond the visual. It
means I see into you and know your heart.

In his months with the Na'vi, Jake experiences their life as the
"true world" and that inside his crippled body locked in a
coffin-like transponding device, where he can control his avatar,
is as the "dream." The switch to the other side is gradual for his
body remains with the human colony while his consciousness is
sometimes elsewhere.

He provides solid intelligence about the Na'vi defensive
capabilities to Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ramrod head
of security for the mining consortium and the movie's villain. But
as Jake comes to see things through Neytiri's eyes, he hopes to
establish enough trust between the humans and the natives to
negotiate a peace. But the corporation wants the land the Na'vi
occupy for its valuable raw material so the Colonel sees no purpose
in this.

The battle for Pandora occupies much of the final third of the
film. The planet's animal life -- the creatures of the ground and
air -- give battle along with the Na'vi, but they come up against
projectiles, bombs and armor that seemingly will be their
ruin.


As with everything in "Avatar," Cameron has coolly thought things
through. With every visual tool he can muster, he takes viewers
through the battle like a master tactician, demonstrating how every
turn in the fight, every valiant death or cowardly act, changes its
course. The screen is alive with more action and the soundtrack
pops with more robust music than any dozen sci-fi shoot-'em-ups you
care to mention (watch the "Avatar" video game trailer
here).

In years of development and four years of production no detail in
the pic is unimportant. Cameron's collaborators excel beginning
with the actors. Whether in human shape or as natives, they all
bring terrific vitality to their roles.

Mauro Fiore's cinematography is dazzling as it melts all the visual
elements into a science-fiction whole. You believe in Pandora.
Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg's design brings Cameron's
screenplay to life with disarming ease.

James Horner's score never intrudes but subtlety eggs the action on
while the editing attributed to Cameron, Stephen Rivkin and John
Refoua maintains a breathless pace that exhilarates rather than
fatigues. Not a minute is wasted; there is no down time.

The only question is: How will Cameron ever top this?

Opens: Dec. 18 (20th Century Fox)
Production companies: 20th Century Fox in association with Dune
Entertainment and Ingenious Film Partners
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang,
Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder,
Wes Studi, Laz Alonso
Director/screenwriter: James Cameron
Producers: James Cameron. Jon Landau
Executive producers: Colin Wilson, Laeta Kalogridis
Director of photography: Mauro Fiore
Production designers: Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg
Music: James Horner
Senior visual effects supervisor: Joe Letteri
Costume designers: Mayes C. Rubeo, Deborah L. Scott
Editors: Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron
Rated PG-13, 161 minutes

No, the question is will the studios be funding any of the small independent films after this or will they make fewer films all geared to this kind of "big haul".

I'm going to see this. I'm sure it will be awesome. But I think it will be bad for movie-lovers and the industry overall.

http://blogs.ktla.com/samrubin/2009/12/new-avatar-movie-james-cameron-will-go-to-the-oscars-as-nominees.html

You could be right but I believe that the movie industry as a whole is moving toward more "blockbuster" films for economic reasons and specifically CGI will play a bigger and bigger role. Will it ever replace live actors ? Probably not, although we shouldn't limit our view to just the next 20 years or so. But I think that CGI even in the short term will become a major player in all types of productions not just SF and action types.

Zoe Saldana as Neytiri in "Avatar."



Avatar



var addthis_pub = 'rebert_addthis';



</td></tr></table>






Watching "Avatar," I felt sort of the same as when I saw "Star Wars" in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron's film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his "Titanic"
was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an
extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who
knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely."Avatar" is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is
that. It's a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and
anti-war message. It is predestined to launch a cult. It contains such
visual detailing that it would reward repeating viewings. It invents a
new language, Na'vi, as "Lord of the Rings" did, although mercifully I
doubt this one can be spoken by humans, even teenage humans. It creates
new movie stars. It is an Event, one of those films you feel you must
see to keep up with the conversation.

The story, set in the year 2154, involves a mission by U. S. Armed
Forces to an earth-sized moon in orbit around a massive star. This new
world, Pandora, is a rich source of a mineral Earth desperately needs.
Pandora represents not even a remote threat to Earth, but we
nevertheless send in the military to attack and conquer them. Gung-ho
Marines employ machine guns and pilot armored hover ships on bombing
runs. You are free to find this an allegory about contemporary
politics. Cameron obviously does.

Pandora harbors a planetary
forest inhabited peacefully by the Na'vi, a blue-skinned, golden-eyed
race of slender giants, each one perhaps 12 feet tall. The atmosphere
is not breathable by humans, and the landscape makes us pygmies. To
venture out of our landing craft, we use avatars--Na'vi lookalikes
grown organically and mind-controlled by humans who remain wired up in
a trance-like state on the ship. While acting as avatars, they see,
fear, taste and feel like Na'vi, and have all the same physical
adeptness.

This last quality is liberating for the hero, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington),
who is a paraplegic. He's been recruited because he's a genetic match
for a dead identical twin, who an expensive avatar was created for. In
avatar state he can walk again, and as his payment for this duty he
will be given a very expensive operation to restore movement to his
legs. In theory he's in no danger, because if his avatar in destroyed,
his human form remains untouched. In theory.

On Pandora, Jake begins as a good soldier and then goes native after his life is saved by the lithe and brave Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). He finds it is indeed true, as the aggressive Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang)
briefed them, that nearly every species of life here wants him for
lunch. (Avatars are not be made of Na'vi flesh, but try explaining that
to charging 30-ton rhino with a snout like a bullet head shark).

The Na'vi survive on this planet by knowing it well, living in harmony
with nature, and being wise about the creatures they share with. In
this and countless other ways they resemble Native Americans. Like
them, they tame another species to carry them around--not horses, but
graceful flying dragon-like creatures. The scene involving Jake
capturing and taming one of these great beasts is one of the film's
greats sequences.

Like "Star Wars"
and "LOTR," "Avatar" employs a new generation of special effects.
Cameron said it would, and many doubted him. It does. Pandora is bevy
largely CGI. The Na'vi are embodied through motion capture techniques,
convincingly. They look like specific, persuasive individuals, yet
sidestep the eerie Uncanny Valley effect. And Cameron and his artists
succeed at the difficult challenge of making Neytiri a blue-skinned
giantess with golden eyes and a long, supple tail, and yet--I'll be
damned. Sexy.

At 163 minutes, the film doesn't feel too long.
It contains so much. The human stories. The Na'vi stories, for the
Na'vi are also developed as individuals. The complexity of the planet,
which harbors a global secret. The ultimate warfare, with Jake joining
the resistance against his former comrades. Small graceful details like
a floating creature that looks like a cross between a blowing dandelion
seed and a drifting jellyfish, and embodies goodness. Or astonishing
floating cloud-islands.

I've complained that many recent films
abandon story telling in their third acts and go for wall-to-wall
action. Cameron essentially does that here, but has invested well in
establishing his characters so that it matters what they do in battle and how they do it. There are issues at stake greater than simply which side wins.

Cameron promised he'd unveil the next generation of 3-D in "Avatar."
I'm a notorious skeptic about this process, a needless distraction from
the perfect realism of movies in 2-D. Cameron's iteration is the best
I've seen -- and more importantly, one of the most carefully-employed.
The film never uses 3-D simply because it has it, and doesn't
promiscuously violate the fourth wall. He also seems quite aware of
3-D's weakness for dimming the picture, and even with a film set
largely in interiors and a rain forest, there's sufficient light. I saw
the film in 3-D on a good screen at the AMC River East and was
impressed. I might be awesome in True IMAX. Good luck in getting a
ticket before February.

It takes a hell of a lot of nerve for a man to stand up at the Oscarcast and proclaim himself King of the World. James Cameron just got re-elected.







</div>

Computer animation is an art in of itself....I think this will be an amazing film. The actors get to use their voices, just like in all of the animated cartoon films......many enjoy the change of pace in a whole different approach to acting.

The reviews say we will "care" about the characters and what happens to them....somthing not all films do these days.

Did you guys see Bones from Friday? the guys took turns waiting in line to get in to see Avatar. It was too funny!

Funnier still when you realize that the guy with the tent is actually IN Avatar. Sort of an inside joke I would guess.

nice! I love it. I'll have to watch for him :)

I saw Avatar yesterday. Good heavens ! It will be a long time before anyone can equal it let alone surpass it. It will stand with The Titanic, and the Lord of the Rings series as unique in film making while surpassing both of those for sheer technical brilliance. Be sure to see it in 3D, it's a new process, much better than the old two-color cardboard glasses. The process mutes the colors slightly (peek over the top of the glasses to confirm this) and darkens the scenes slightly, but after awhile you don't notice either effect. And he uses 3D in a logical, realistic way not in a "shock value" way like the old 3D movies always did.....but I did flinch one time....

There is a couple of unanswered questions that only a S-F geek would notice.....I'll bring them up later.

Now off for some Christmas shopping.....shudder.....take pity....but at least on-line research has narrowed down where I have to go, and it's weird that Best Buy sells the item I want only online and doesn't stock t in stores, but Wal-Mart does....

Saw it. Yes, I agree, it is an awesome new animal. Saw it in the IMAX theater... the effects were brilliant.

Doesn't Sigourney Weaver make a really cute Na-bu? :D

My son saw it at midnight Thursday (Friday morning) and said it was "simply amazing."

He saw it in an IMAX theatre as well, and not the 3-D one.....knowing him, he will go see it again.

Hopefully I will go see it next weekend.

Saw it in 3D no IMAX in town. It's amazing and brilliant and you must see it!

Ten thousand things I want to say but my mind is still reeling...after wearing the glasses and being "in" that world it's kinda hard to adjust back.

So, I'm just going to speak to some thoughts about 3D. In the middle of the previews we were told to put our glasses on...we thought the movie was starting. Previews of 3 movies that will be out early next year are 3D so the wave of the future is here now. Soon you will be seeing everything in 3D and not far after that..you won't need the glasses. Remember the hologram of the shark that came out of the theater in the 3rd Back to the Future movie? That technology is here already..just not in public use yet. Also there is a place in the movie where all the computer screens which are thin and clear and show the tracking etc. A guy comes along and pulls the info from one screen with his hand onto a smaller screen he carrys with him. I've actually seen that in the new software we have at work. I don't pretend to even understand how that is done...but I have seen it with my own eyes.

Yes, I'll have to go see it again. And where the movie left off...screams sequel..IMHO.

First dedicated 3D networks coming to TV

by Don Reisinger

• cnet_news406:http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10425553-17.html?tag=yahoobuzzYahoo! Buzz
  

A viewer watching a 3D display at CES 2009.
(Credit:
Marguerite Reardon/CNET)


A new television network featuring 24-7 three-dimensional content
will be coming to your home in 2011. The venture is backed by Discovery
Communications, owners of the Discovery Channel and its family of
networks, Sony, and Imax.
According to the companies, all three firms will hold equal share in
the joint venture. The goal, the companies wrote in a joint release, is
to drive "consumer adoption of 3D televisions" and become a "long term"
leader in the 3D home marketplace. When it launches, the network will
be available only in the United States, but the companies did say they
would explore international opportunities in the future.
So far, the 3D network doesn't have a name. But when it launches,
the companies said it will feature "content from genres that are most
appealing in 3D, including natural history, space, exploration,
adventure, engineering, science and technology, motion pictures and
children's programming from Discovery, Sony Pictures Entertainment,
Imax, and other third-party providers."
As you might expect, Discovery will oversee network services and
television rights. Sony will handle advertising sales and work with the
industry to license television rights "to current and future 3D feature
films, music-related 3D content, and game-related 3D content." Although
Sony didn't say so in the release, it's probably safe to assume that
all 3D content related to Sony Pictures, Sony BMG, and Sony's game
studios will make their way to the channel.
For its part, Imax will "license television rights to future 3D
films, [engage in] promotion through its owned-and-operated movie
theaters across the U.S., and [offer] a suite of proprietary and
patented image enhancement and 3D technologies."
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Assuming that
regulatory approval is secured, the network should go live in 2011.
But that's not all
ESPN will also be delivering the first 3D television network to the home in June this year, USA Today is reporting.
Dubbed ESPN 3D, the channel will deliver more than 85 live sporting
events in three dimensions. It won't run reruns, so the channel will be
dark when no current sporting event are being aired. The USA Today says
ESPN 3D will broadcast the Summer X Games, NBA events, as well as
college basketball and football games.
To access either of the new 3D networks, users will need a 3D-capable TV, as well as 3D glasses. In other words, the barriers to entry are a bit high,
but it's a new technology that has some excited. Now we'll just have to
wait and see if it can become a new standard in the
marketplace.

My Samsung DLP TV says it is "3D ready", I didn't know what that would mean at present but then found this gadget on the Samsung site. It appears to be used with DVDs but I'm wondering if it will also work with the upcoming 3D network shows... I imagine that Samsung will change something, if necessary, to make it so. So maybe I won't have to get a new TV in order to watch network 3D content. I already have all the necessary features....PC connected to TV with HDMI cable, Intel quad core CPU, Nvidia GT 8600 graphics card, and 64 bit Vista. I might get this thing and see how it works......will let you know.








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Applications such as Google EarthTM can be
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CES: RealD signs big names for 3D TV

by Stephen Shankland

:http://ces.cnet.com/8301-31045_1-10428437-269.html?tag=yahoobuzzYahoo! Buzz


RealD, a company whose 3D display technology already is widely used in
movie theaters, has enlisted a raft of prominent partners for the TV
industry: Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, JVC, Samsung, and DirecTV.



Vuzix builds two displays directly into its Wrap 920AR glasses.
(Credit:
Vuzix)


This week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, RealD announced deals that will bring its technology to Samsung products, Toshiba's ZX900 TV, Panasonic's Full HD 3D Viera TVs, Sony's Bravia HDTVs, and LCD monitors from JVC.
Beverly Hills, Calif.-based RealD also announced it's cooperating with those same companies for 3D eyewear.
Being able to display the 3D imagery is one part of the
transition. Getting the imagery to the TV is another matter. There,
RealD announced a partnership with DirecTV.
"We look forward to working with RealD and our programming
providers to deliver 3D content later this year to owners of 3D-capable
TVs," DirecTV Chief Technology Officer Romulo Pontual said in a
statement. "No new set-top boxes will be required."
Closer toward the eyeball part of the 3D pipeline, Gunnar Optics announced RealD-capable 3D glasses at CES available this quarter. Prescription versions will arrive in the third quarter, the company said.
RealD, which uses polarized light to separate imagery for the
left and right eyes, isn't the only contender for 3D technology. XpanD,
which uses liquid crystal to briefly make one side or the other of its
eyewear briefly opaque, announced a 3D partnership with Vizio.
XpanD also announced a range of X102 and X103 glasses in
various colors. XpanD uses Bluetooth to synchronize the glasses'
behavior with the imagery on the TV screen.
And if you want to sidestep the whole issue of 3D displays, you
can try Vuzix's Wrap 920AR stereo display glasses, which build two
separate 1504x480-pixel displays into the glasses themselves to create
stereoscopic vision. The glasses monitor position and orientation so a
person's view can be adjusted according to head position, and they have
external cameras that can feed in what a person would ordinarily see
without the glasses. Sounds handy for the budding concept of augmented
reality.



XpanD announced two models of 3D glasses.
(Credit:XpanD)



Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products,
but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He
joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo,
servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank.

It's a gimmick. Totally unnecessary to telling a good story. But there is money to be made....so we will get to see this.

DirecTV has announced three 3D channel for this next summer. They will likely be pay-per-view or On-Demand. They launched a new satellite in December that will be broadcasting in a few months and that is probably where they will have the capacity for those channels. Supposedly the software in the current DirecTV HD receivers can be upgraded to handle the 3D channels. I don't, however, have a compatible TV and won't be in the market for quite a while. Too many TVs already.

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From The Sunday Times














January 10, 2010



Avatar sparks 3-D makeover for action classics






























The Matrix and the Lord of the Rings trilogy are among the films likely to be remade in 3-D





Image :1 of 2








John Harlow

• 7 Comments
  

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Hollywood is preparing to re-release some past hits, including Star
Wars and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in 3-D following the
record-breaking success of Avatar.
Studio executives are drawing up schedules of popular films that
will be “retro-fitted” with 3-D technology after the science fiction
blockbuster, directed by James Cameron, last week became the second
highest grossing movie of all time.
A 3-D version of Avatar has driven ticket sales to more than $1.14
billion (£700m) in just three weeks; only Titanic, Cameron’s 1997 epic,
has made more money at the box office.
Rival studios had been waiting to see if Avatar took the 3-D
experience — albeit using special glasses — beyond the popularity of
animated tales such Monsters vs Aliens.




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Experts now predict that 3-D will become the new multiplex standard
within five years. This will be as dramatic a shift as when the
“talkies” killed off silent movies in the early 20th century.
Retro-fitting a screen classic with 3-D imagery could take as little
as four months, using software to manipulate a digital copy of the film.
Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, said last spring
that he wanted to reissue the trilogy in 3-D if Avatar persuaded enough
cinemas to put in new 3-D projectors. Last week technicians at Weta,
the production company that had worked on the trilogy, said they had
experimented with 3-D battle scenes and proclaimed them to be
“gob-smacking”.
The Lord of the Rings is expected to be re-released after Jackson
has finished producing the two-part version of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit
over the next two years. This would mean that a 3-D version of The
Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of the trilogy, could be in
cinemas by Christmas 2012.
It may be beaten to the screen by a revamped version of Star Wars.
George Lucas, the director, spent $13m filming the original in 1976,
added special effects in 1997 and 2004, and will now spend another $10m
to change it into a 3-D spectacular.
“George cannot leave it alone,” said an associate. “He is salivating
at the opportunity to play with it again. This time the Death Star is
really going to explode all over the audience and leave them gasping.”
At the moment there are only half a dozen companies that can turn reels of celluloid into 3-D digital movies.
Last week one of the leaders, Legend Films in San Diego, said
telephones had been “ringing off the hook” as Hollywood bosses seek to
revive past glories.
“We can turn an older film into 3-D in around 16 weeks,” said Bobby
Jaffe, the chairman. “It mostly suits action films, such as Top Gun or
The Matrix, but Avatar proved it’s best to use the technology to
immerse the audience in the story rather than throw things at them.
This is the new, more sophisticated era of 3-D.”
The “Avatar effect” means that conventional 2-D films commissioned
last year are already being updated. Sir Ridley Scott has asked for a
further $8m from his backer, Universal Films, to add an extra dimension
to his untitled Robin Hood venture starring Russell Crowe in the lead
role and Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian. Two versions of the film will
be released in May.
Last week the University of Southern California (USC) published a
report suggesting that after seeing a 3-D film in the cinema in 2009,
40% of people would prefer to watch television in 3-D, too.
“It will quickly become the new norm,” said David Wertheimer,
director of USC’s entertainment technology centre. “It’s no longer a
gimmick, but an expectation.”
They will not have long to wait. Last week in Las Vegas, Sony and
LG, its Korean rival, revealed 3-D television sets, still requiring
special glasses, which will go on sale this summer. Panasonic showed a
prototype 3-D television with a giant 152in screen, perhaps more
suitable for pubs and for showing advertisements in shopping centres
than for home viewing.
Broadcasters are also gearing up to meet demand. Sky is preparing to
transmit matches from the football World Cup in South Africa this
summer on a dedicated 3-D channel, even if few homes will have the new
televisions by then. “Few had high-definition televisions when we
started broadcasting in HD either, but it shows the future,” said one
executive.
The pace of change is accelerating. The first 3-D films on Blu-Ray,
the successor to the DVD, will be released by Christmas. They will be a
mixture of 2010 hits and remastered old favourites.
One other advantage of 3-D that has encouraged the film studios is
the fact that, at least for the time being, it is pirate-proof. Avatar
is estimated to have been illegally downloaded at least 1m times over
the internet, but such 2-D copies do not match the cinematic experience.
“It’s only a matter of time before a teenager develops a 3-D
stealing camera, but meanwhile Hollywood has a breathing space to earn
some money,” said a studio executive.

The Lord of the Rings is expected to be re-released after Jackson
has finished producing the two-part version of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit
over the next two years. This would mean that a 3-D version of The
Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of the trilogy, could be in
cinemas by Christmas 2012.

I think that would be very cool! I LOVE LOTR's!!! I didn't carefully read the whole article ... do you have to have a special TV to watch 3-D at home or just wear the 3-D glasses?

Star Wars and Matrix (only watched the 1st one) would be cool too!

You have to have a TV designed for 3D, several on the market now, no doubt a lot more in the future as 3D content becomes more common, and prices will come down. I'm still trying to verify if my Samsung is 3D capable, it says so, but it's 2 years old and I don't know if they could have incorporated the new 3D technology in it that long ago. I'm going to try to contact Samsung customer service and see what they say.