Ready are you?
TheState.com web article, May 15, 2005
By Doug Nye, Staff Writer

Imagine Luke Skywalker’s light saber swooshing above your head or the Millennium Falcon zooming out of the theater screen.

If director George Lucas has his way, you’ll be able to see just that in 2007 — when the original “Star Wars” movie is released in 3-D.

You didn’t really think Thursday’s premiere of “Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” would be the last hurrah for the “Star Wars” franchise, did you?

To make his dream of a 3-D “Star Wars” a reality, Lucas will use the patented Dimensionalization® process developed by In-Three Inc. in Agora Hills, Calif. The process makes its possible to convert 2-D movies into lifelike 3-D.

At a March news conference in Las Vegas, Lucas announced that he also would release the other “Star Wars” films in 3-D at the rate of one per year.

“It’s a beautiful system,” Lucas said. “When I first saw it, I was truly amazed. The 3-D was of a quality better than anything I had previously experienced.”

Some might see this as Lucas again tampering with his “Star Wars” franchise. When he added some scenes and revamped others in the 1977 film, some fans and critics were upset because they thought the film should be preserved in its original state. They likened it to Leonardo da Vinci’s coming back and changing the slight smile of the Mona Lisa into a wide grin.

Richard Schickel, an author, documentary filmmaker and longtime movie critic for Time magazine, doesn’t see it that way.

The additions “were part of George’s original vision for the film,” Schickel said. “The technology to do some of the things he wanted to do did not exist in 1977. That left George frustrated. Technology finally caught up with his vision and he was able to do the film the way he had wanted to all along.

“With 3-D, he can take the films to another stage. I see nothing wrong with that if he wants to do it.”

But don’t expect a sudden rush to dig up hundreds of older movies for Dimensionalization®. It takes about a year to convert a film into 3-D, although In-Three Inc. technicians are working hard to reduce that time to 120 days. The price tag for conversion is approximately $5 million per movie.

Theaters also will have to purchase new equipment to show digital 3-D films.

Mann Theaters, which operates 20 theaters and 123 screens in Southern California, has announced its intention to install the digital equipment needed. But are other theater chains ready to make such an investment?

Charlotte’s Eastern Federal Corp., which has 22 theater complexes operating or under construction in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida, including the new Sandhills Cinema 16 in Columbia, didn’t shut the door on the possibility. If it enhances the theatergoing experience, Eastern Federal is interested.

“We are certainly open to considering new technology for film presentation as they develop over time,” said Jan Black, director of marketing for Eastern Federal.

Help in making the upgrade may be on the way. Studio giants Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. reportedly are working on a deal to finance digital-cinema systems for theaters.

“George yearns for (3-D) to happen and wants it to happen,” “Star Wars” producer Rick McCallum told Variety. “But we can’t implement it until the industry gets its act together and pushes digital cinema forward.”

Some might be reluctant to jump on the bandwagon because of the checkered past of 3-D movies.

Several experimental three-dimensional movies were made during the silent era, and a few short subjects during the late 1930s. But the first big 3-D film surge began in early 1953 with the nationwide release of “Bwana Devil.” The film was a mediocre jungle movie starring Robert Stack, but the three-dimensional photography made it a smash box-office hit. Every major studio rushed to produce 3-D movies. For a short while, 3-D was all the rage. But by the summer of 1954, the 3-D craze was over.

Some critics blamed its quick demise on the special polarized glasses required to view 3-D. Other blamed the lack of good-quality films. Many movies spent more time throwing objects at the audience than worrying about cohesive story lines. However, Schickel said, it’s wrong to say all 3-D films during that period were bad.

“There are some that are quite good, even when watched in 2-D,” he said.

Among the dozen or so titles considered the best of the 3-D movies are Alfred Hitchcock’s “Dial M For Murder” with Grace Kelly, “House of Wax” starring horror king Vincent Price and “Hondo” starring John Wayne.

“Deepies,” as trade publications called 3-D movies, never went away completely. Every few years or so, someone would give the process a try with anything from soft porn (“The Stewardesses” in 1969) to horror (“Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein” in 1974). But it wasn’t until 1983 that a new 3-D wave roared across the nation’s screens with the release of the gimmicky western “Comin’ at Ya.”

That brought forth such films as “Jaws 3-D,” “Amityville 3-D” and “Parasite,” starring Demi Moore. Like many of the 3-D films of the 1950s, these were more concerned with tossing things out of the screen than storytelling. In less than a year, Hollywood again lost interest.

In recent years, short 3-D movies have been big attractions at various theme parks such as Walt Disney World and Universal. Movies in 3-D also have been exhibited at numerous IMAX theaters, including the one in Charleston.

Clay Steinman, a professor at Macalester College in Minnesota whose expertise is cinema, thinks 3-D has its place, but he’s not ready to predict another mad scramble to make all movies in the process.

“Seeing ‘The Polar Express’ in 3-D IMAX was a marvelous experience,” Steinman said. “I hope Lucas retools ‘Star Wars’ for 3-D IMAX and that 3-D IMAX becomes more widely available at a reasonable price. I paid $14 to see ‘The Polar Express’ in Chicago.”

Steinman, though, isn’t sure everyone will want to be involved in 3-D.

“Much of the art of film lies in what it doesn’t show,” Steinman said. “3-D doesn't necessarily flatter live actors in the way that flat cinematography does with its illusion of depth. New technology doesn’t in itself mean better movies, or ones more relevant to the world in which we live.”

Lucas isn’t the only director enthusiastic about 3-D. James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis and Peter Jackson also were on hand for the Las Vegas gathering. Cameron, director of “Titanic,” is in pre-production on the 3-D film “Battle Angel,” planned for 2007 release, and has said all of his future movies will be shot in 3-D. Meanwhile, Zemeckis has two 3-D features in production.

Lucas gets most excited, however, when he talks about the ability to turn 2-D into 3-D.

“It means we can re-purpose a lot of old movies, and at the same time it really gives a new dimension to the movies we’re making now,” he said in Las Vegas.

The new 3-D does require viewers to wear special glasses, but Jackson, director of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, said they wouldn’t present any problems for moviegoers.

“Forget the idea of wearing red and blue glasses (as was the case with ‘Spy Kids 3-D’) and the eyestrain,” Jackson told the Las Vegas gathering. “These new active glasses are a breakthrough in technology. This (the ability to go from 2-D to 3-D) is one of the most exciting developments in cinema in a long, long time.”

Reach Nye at (803) 771-8395 or dyne@thestate.com.