Will 3-D Colonize the Great Movies of the Past?
Posted 01.11.10 by Bill
With dollar signs lighting up their eyes, studios have been buzzing about all the amazing, transformational, world-changing possibilities of 3-D. It is, some suggest, a revolution on par with the transformation from the silent movies to talkies. Of course, it is the awe-inspiring success of Avatar at the box office that is fueling all the hype, and looking at the more than a billion dollars that epic has raked in so far, who can blame them.
For future epics, 3-D may indeed become de rigueur, although not everyone is ready to drink the Kool Aid just yet. Rumor has it that the Robocop remake may have been scuttled at least in part because director Darren Aronofsky was unwilling to do it in 3-D. And the rush to transform the upcoming Clash of the Titans to 3-D has proved too much for filmmakers, who are now saying they might consider re-releasing it in 3-D later.
Meanwhile, the London Times reports that others have turned an eye to the past and are talking about re-working some signature epics, most notably the original Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings:
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…
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."
With so much money at stake, resistance may well be futile. But when you talk about messing with these classics, it sure sounds a bit more like the colorization of black-and-white movies than the transition to a brave new world of cinema.