Visual feast

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More eye-popping, breath-taking 3D films are coming our way.

WE see the world in 3D, so why not view films in a similar format? Filmmakers like James Cameron have for years been preaching about the advantages of making three-dimensional movies, saying that audiences would get a stunning visual experience in darkened cinema halls like never before. And that filmmakers can achieve absolutely amazing things on-screen. Cameron even started developing a camera specifically for filming in 3D some eight years back.

Jeffrey Katzenberg wears an old pair of 3D glasses prior to a demonstration of the current technology using new glasses at a consumer electronics show in Las Vegas on Jan 8. The CEO of DreamWorks Animation could well be a mascot for 3D movies. – Reuters

Looks like technology has finally caught up with his vision and 3D, in turn, has become the main drive behind the use of digital systems in movie theatres around the world, including here in Malaysia.

Digital projection runs on a really high frame rate (144 frames per second) that’s essential to creating depth perception. A 3D film is shot in two frames – one for the right eye and the other for the left eye. A digital projector can display in 3D by projecting these two frames sequentially, which our eyes (through the new 3D glasses) perceive as simultaneous.

Consequently, watching 3D films no longer means donning the headache-inducing cardboard glasses with the blue and red lenses (which distort colours on the screen, by the way). Nowadays, the sturdier plastic 3D glasses are more comfortable to the user (regardless if they wear spectacles or not) and the technology is used more as a tool for storytelling, rather than merely for thrill’s sake.

Film distributors and cinema operators are especially excited about what the year has in store for 3D movies.

Nicholas Yong, the managing director of United International Pictures (Malaysia & Singapore), reckons 3D is the new way to watch films in the cinema. “It’s not a gimmick in which visuals pop out of the screen, but a more engaging viewing experience. I believe 3D films will soon be the norm and audiences would not just think of them as 3D films.”

Twentieth Century Fox Film (Malaysia) marketing director Moo Hon Mei points out that 3D films are fast catching up with the public and offering them the exciting feeling of being “in the movie”. But Moo is quick to add that what matter at the core – like for any good movie – are still the storyline and the characters, not a “piece of tech wizardry”.

So, just imagine how much more wonderful it could have been for James Cameron if more sophisticated technology was available to him when he was making the eventual cult movies like the special effects-laden Terminator series, Aliens and The Abyss in the 1980s and early 90s.

Good news is, we will get to see Cameron’s infinite visualisations when he unleashes the sci-fi flick Avatar at the end of the year. This live-action 3D venture promises a heady mix of technological wonder and fantastic interplanetary adventure.

Flood of 3D movies

How do Malaysians react to the whole 3D viewing experience on the big screen, after being treated to a number of such shows lately, notably Journey to the Center of the Earth – the first live-action motion picture shot digitally in 3D – and the animated feature Bolt?

Those passionate about it know what’s coming and could barely contain their excitement.

Architect Herwandi Charmady, 34, enthuses: “Watching 3D movies is an entirely different experience from watching regular films in the cinema. I am looking forward to James Cameron’s Avatar, 9 from Tim Burton and the new Pixar film, Up.”

Another one who is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Avatar is writer Md Fuad Zain, a thirtysomething movie buff who is all for 3D movies.

Not all moviegoers, though, are convinced of the attractiveness of the 3D format.

Artist and former film reviewer J. Anu, in his 40s, finds that 3D detracts from the movie experience. “You spend so much time convincing yourself it works and fiddling with the glasses that you forget about the film itself. It lends for a disjointed experience; a rubbish gimmick which is, in the end, quite exhausting.”

Whether the Malaysian audience is ready to embrace this new-age cinema wholeheartedly or not only time will tell. What is certain is that 3D movies are rapidly increasing in number and the format is here to stay, maybe even changing the face of cinema.

Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose accomplishments include the Shrek series, is a strong advocate of the 3D technology. He was reported as saying on Wired.com in March last year: “It is nothing less than the greatest innovation that has happened for all of us in the movie business since the advent of colour 70 years ago. Now is our chance to deliver something that is far superior than anything that can be done in the home.”

DreamWorks Animation, of which Katzenberg is the CEO, has vowed to release all its future works in 3D, starting with the upcoming Monsters vs Aliens.

Disney and Pixar, which started the ball rolling with last year’s Bolt, have also announced that all their films are to be conceived in 3D from now on, and that includes the rockumentary Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, and Pixar’s Up.

George Lucas, too, is remastering all the Star Wars movies in 3D.

Cost factor

On a more realistic note, the higher cost that comes with the enhanced viewing pleasure may be inhibitive to local moviegoers. A ticket to a 3D film costs between RM5 and RM7 more than the normal price.

In addition, there is only a handful of theatres – five in all – that are equipped with digital 3D projection, which is the rage now. Located in the Klang Valley, they are: TGV KLCC, TGV Sunway Pyramid, GSC Mid Valley Megamall, GSC Pavilion KL and GSC 1 Utama.

Previously, there was also the 3D movie venue in Kuala Lumpur’s Berjaya Times Square. It employed the IMAX (Image Maximum) film-based system that projects images on a much larger screen. Since last September, it has ceased showcasing 3D films and documentaries due to contractual issues. It is understood that there is no plan to switch to digital projection in the near future. It is now part of the mall’s Cosmo’s World Theme Park.

According to TGV Cinemas marketing manager Sheerin Khan, the additional fee is due to the rental of 3D glasses, which are rather expensive to purchase and to maintain. “3D films are a new phenomenon and some Malaysians love it while others are unsure about it. At some point when 3D films are proven to be acceptable in general, we will look at the possibility of expanding our cinemas. But at the same time, it will also depend on the movies. We are going to keep a close watch in the next 12 months.”

GSC general manager Irving Chee says: “As the cost to acquire a 3D projection system is between RM500,000 and RM600,000, GSC will only gradually expand the 3D facility to other locations.”

“The cost of a digital 3D projection system,” Chee explains, “is easily six times that of a normal 35mm projection system currently in use while the 3D glasses cost about RM150 each. Thus, the extra ticketing price charged for a 3D movie is already very minimal. One of the ways to lower the ticket price is for the entertainment tax (25% of the price) to be reduced or exempted for digital cinemas.”

Meanwhile, in the United States, local operators are trying to move towards digital multiplexes but the shift is slow. The figures, on the other hand, look promising – nearly 40% of Bolt’s US$26mil (RM90mil) gross takings in the opening weekend are attributed to 3D cinemas.

And according to Anna Ng, general manager of Buena Vista Columbia Tristar Films Malaysia, which distributed the Disney movie, “the response (to Bolt) was pretty encouraging although there were only five cinemas that showed Bolt in 3D format. In the end, it did contribute 20% of the total takings.”

Despite the substantial cuts in the costs of making and shipping the traditional 35mm prints and the fact that digital quality remains pristine no matter how many times the movie is played, digital cinema is still considered financially riskier. In the end, patrons might still end up watching a 3D film in the good old 2D/35mm format just because we are lacking in digital theatres. (The studios will release 2D versions simultaneously for all 3D movies.)

For Md Fuad Zain, if a 3D movie comes to Malaysia in both formats, he’ll pay extra to watch it in 3D. “But if it’s not coming in 3D, I’ll still watch it. No doubt I’ll feel cheated but I’ll still catch it if I’m attracted to the story.”

Artist David Koh, a father of two in his 40s, however, would rather stick to 2D simply because of the cost. Koh says: “I’ll have to fork out more than RM50 for one outing to the cinema with my family of four. Not to mention having to buy popcorn and drinks to go with it.”

Is 3D just a gimmick to drive ticket sales up or a change waiting to happen? At present, the latter looks more likely to be the case as even television manufacturers are planning to release 3D sets by this year.

The exciting development in cinema definitely interests many parties – studios, cinema operators and moviegoers. The question is whether it will sustain. But there’s nothing to stop us from wishing that maybe someday, we’ll get to watch a 3D movie without the 3D glasses!

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DreamWorks Animation bets big on InTru 3D technology

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Jeffrey Katzenberg is a man on a mission.

That's why the head of DreamWorks Animation flew up to Boston earlier this week to meet with exhibitors, film students and members of the media. With the hope that he'd then be able to win a few more converts over to his new world view. Which holds that the future of film lies in 3D.

Mind you, this is not -- to quote Katzenberg -- "your father's 3D" that we're talking about here. Waving a pair of the old red-and-blue anaglyph lenses about, Jeffrey talked about how the old version of 3D used to " ... give some people headaches, make others nauseous. And that's supposed to be good for business?"

Katzenberg certain hopes that this new version of 3D is good for business. For he's pretty much betting DreamWorks Animation's future on this new film format. Starting with the release of "Monsters Vs Aliens" in March of 2009, all of his studio's forthcoming releases will be produced in 3D.

And this is not going to be an inexpensive bet. According to what Jeffrey said at Monday's presentation, the 3D rendering process (i.e. once for the left eye, once for the right eye and once for the middle distance) will add approximately $15 million to the cost of producing each DreamWorks Animation feature. Which -- given that the average cost of a new DWA project already hovers around $150 million -- is a considerable chunk of change. Though DreamWorks Animation does hope to quickly recover these additional costs through the sale of higher priced tickets to these new premium presentations of its motion pictures.

Which may be a challenge. Given that -- as of this moment -- there are only 1500 screens in the country equipped to show movies in the InTru 3D format. Though -- when you fold in the 120 IMAX screens nationwide that can show 3D films as well as the thousand new 3D-equipped theaters that are expected to come on line in early 2009 -- that then bumps the number of screens that will be able to show "Monsters Vs Aliens" in 3D up to around 2500. Which is where Jeffrey says 35 - 40% of the revenue for this new DWA film (Thanks to that on-average $5 additional fee for this new premium viewing experience) will come from.

Photo by Nancy Stadler

Which is admittedly impressive. But wait. It gets better. Now jump ahead to 2010. When Katzenberg expects that there'll be 7500 screens in the country that will be capable of showing InTru 3D presentations. He anticipates that 80 - 85% of the audience for "Shrek 4" will to pay a higher ticket price in order to get that premium movie-going experience.

Okay. I know. Some of this sounds like pie in the sky. Especially given what's going on with the economy right now. But let's keep in mind that it's not just DreamWorks Animation that's getting serious about 3D's profit potential. Take -- for example -- the Mouse's Disney Digital 3D efforts. Which no longer just involve the studio's newer releases like "Bolt" but are now being expanded to incorporate older, more popular library titles like "Beauty and the Beast." Which is right now in the middle of being converted from 2D to 3D.

Of course, one of the other reasons that Disney & DreamWorks are so hot for 3D these days is that this new film format is virtually pirate proof. Which means that -- at least for the immediate future -- they no longer have to worry about people with camcorders stealing & then selling their intellectual property.

But that's only if people deem these new 3D films worth stealing. During his presentation on Monday, Katzenberg kept circling back to the idea that " ... all of this investment, all of this new technology won't make a bad movie good."

But the upside of that situation is ... Based on the 3D minutes of "Monsters Vs Aliens" I saw last week, InTru 3D can make a good film seem even better.

The production team of this new DWA feature have done a very clever thing. With the exception of two very brief homages to old style 3D (i.e. when things used to fly off the screen at the audience) at the very beginning and the very end of their movie, "Monsters Vs Aliens" uses this technology to draw moviegoers into this film. To create some real emotional depth.

Photo by Nancy Stadler

Which -- I know -- sounds kind of unlikely. Given that "Monsters Vs Aliens" starts off as a Mad Magazine-style spoof of 1950s-era sci-fi and monster movies. With the Earth being threatened with alien invasion and the only thing that can possibly stop this attack from outer space is the U.S. 's super-secret stash of ... Well ... monsters.

But do you remember how "Kung Fu Panda" took a totally ridiculous premise and then turned that into a genuinely entertaining motion picture with exciting action scenes and characters that you actually cared about? "Monsters Vs Aliens" does that too and then folds in 3D.

Case in point: There's a sequence in this motion picture where the monsters are doing battle with this mountain-sized probe that's laying waste to San Francisco. And as you might expect, the apex of the action comes right in the middle of Golden Gate Bridge. As Susan, the 49 & 1/2-foot tall woman finds herself trapped inbetween Insectasaurus, a 300-foot tall good guy, and the previously mentioned probe. And as Susan dodges the probe's killer claws while trying to rescue commuters that are trapped on the bridge ... "Monsters Vs Aliens" went from being this jokey parody to this genuinely engaging action-adventure that was filled with -- dare I say it? "Incredibles" -like laughs and thrills. Which was then made all the more exciting by this new 3D element.

You know what else I found intriguing about this footage? That DreamWorks Animation didn't go the theme park route. That "Monsters Vs Aliens" 3D elements weren't gratuitous. But -- rather -- they were all story-driven and added to this film in order to help create excitement & emotional depth. To help draw movie-goers into this motion picture.

So will InTru 3D really be able to do everything that Jeffrey Katzenberg says it will? Will this next generation of 3D film-making technology actually be the biggest thing to hit Hollywood since sound came in in the 1920s and color came in in the 1930s? To be honest, I don't know.

But what I Do know is ... Given "Monsters Vs Aliens" 's obvious affection for the films of the 1950s that inspired this new DreamWorks Animation release, this is one baby boomer who knows where he'll be in late March of 2009. Which is seated in some dark theater wearing polarized glasses, hoping that the rest of "Monsters Vs Aliens" is just as good as the 30 minutes of InTru 3D clips I saw earlier this week.

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Dreamworks 3-D riding out economic crisis

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies One of Hollywood's top producers said the ongoing financial crisis is hampering his efforts to release digital 3-D movies.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., said all future movies from his studios will be made in digital 3-D. But today only about 1,500 of the 36,000 theater screens in America are capable of showing such films,

"Until the financial markets come unstuck, which is probably late in the first quarter, the next round of the digital rollout is on a very slow pathway," Katzenberg said during a visit to Boston earlier this week to show off clips from his studio's upcoming film, "Monsters vs. Aliens."

It costs about $70,000 to convert a single movie screen to the digital projection system for the 3-D films. But many theater owners can't afford to make the switch. Theaters are finding it tough to borrow the money, as banks tighten their lending practices after years of ill-advised loans.

Katzenberg said about 2,500 screens should be converted to digital 3-D by March, in time for the release of "Monsters vs. Aliens." Katzenberg thinks credit markets will have loosened up by May 2010, when DreamWorks Animation releases the fourth in its series of Shrek movies. He expects there will be 7,500 theaters capable of showing the film in digital 3-D.

Katzenberg noted the percentage of Americans going to movies has steadily declined for decades. Last year, the industry sold 1.4 billion movie tickets, 38 million fewer than in 1998, even though the US population grew about 30 million during the period. Katzenberg called digital 3-D cinema "the greatest opportunity of my time to reverse this," and compared it to the introduction of soundtracks to movies in the 1920s and color films in the 1930s.

Today's 3-D animated movies are made using two-dimensional technology, and the footage is then converted into a 3-D version. DreamWorks Animation is doing it the other way around; all its movies will be made in 3-D, with 2-D versions produced for home video sales and for theaters that lack 3-D projectors.

It already costs around $150 million to produce a full-length computer-animated film. Katzenberg said making such a movie in 3-D adds about $15 million. But theaters charge extra for the 3-D experience — generally $5 per ticket.

"It suddenly changes the economics of the movie business," said Katzenberg. Theater owners and movie studios each get more revenue. Because the movies are digital, distribution costs are much lower. Instead of being delivered as a set of heavy film cans, each movie comes on a single lightweight hard drive. Eventually, the movies will be downloaded to theaters over a digital data network, eliminating all shipping costs. Digital delivery may help reduce the threat of theft and piracy. And 3-D makes it almost impossible to make illicit copies of a movie by aiming a video camera at the screen during a performance. The camera can't capture the 3-D effect, and the resulting video is a murky mess. "This is the silver lining inside the golden opportunity," Katzenberg said.

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An Examination of Alien Technology

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Phillyist was lucky enough to be among those invited to the Bridge theater yesterday morning for a special presentation by DreamWorks Animation's co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg came by to talk about DreamWorks' new 3D technology, and show us clips from an upcoming film that takes advantage of that technology: the computer-animated movie Monsters vs Aliens. Katzenberg started things off by saying there have been two revolutionary changes in film technology—the introduction of sound in the '20s and the introduction of color in the '30s—and that this new 3D technology will be the third revolutionary change. That's pretty big talk, especially considering the fact that 3D was already introduced some years ago, and disappeared along with other movie fads of the time. But Katzenberg was quick to separate this new 3D technology from what he called "my Dad's 3D." He said the problems of the old 3D (the two different images being out of sync, the ugly blue and red coloration, the blurry image, the glasses that hurt your head and could even make you sick) have all been solved. Now the glasses are comfortable, and the image is smooth and flicker free. He used a metaphor from music distribution to explain the difference between 2D movies and this new 3D: it's equivalent to the step up from a vinyl record to a digital recording. It's a more perfect representation of reality. He also stressed that DreamWorks has completely altered the way it makes movies so it can film in 3D, rather than take a 2D film and convert it to 3D after the fact (which he compared to the process of colorizing black and white films). He expects 3D films to re-energize what it means to go see a movie in the theater. It will bring people back out into the theaters in larger numbers, because it will be a premium experience that you can't have at home. Unfortunately, that also means you'll have to pay a premium price for it; we're talking $5 on top of the already pretty ridiculous price you have to pay for a movie ticket.

But enough about how great 3D is supposed to be—how great is it actually? How about those movie clips? A detailed description can be found after the jump.

After a short explanation of the film's premise (which is that aliens are attacking the Earth, and our last hope is the monsters that the American government has secretly captured and imprisoned over the years), Katzenberg showed us three clips, each something like five minutes in length. The first opens with a huge alien probe that has landed on Earth. Its one giant eye is staring around at the military personnel and vehicles arranged around it. The President of the United States (voiced, appropriately enough, by Stephen Colbert) steps up to personally make contact with the alien, using an amusing method: he plays it some familiar music on a keyboard. The probe reacts violently, pulls itself out of the ground, and turns into a giant rampaging robot. As one might expect, conventional Earth weapons have no effect on it. The President retreats to a war room very like the one in Dr. Strangelove and discusses options with his advisers. General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) offers the only reasonable plan: to unleash the monsters on the aliens. He profiles for the President each of the monsters, including the most recent addition to the team: a woman named Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) who grew almost fifty feet tall, and got super strong to boot, after being struck by a meteor on her wedding day.

In the second clip, we pick up with Susan right after her traumatic growth spurt. She wakes up inside a metal room, not sure where she is or how she got there. She's pushed out into a much larger enclosed area where she meets her fellow monsters: the half-bug mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), the indestructible (but very stupid) gelatinous blob known as B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), the Missing Link (who looks sort of like the Creature from the Black Lagoon), and Insectosaurus, a huge (even bigger than Susan) caterpillar-like thing whose roars only the Missing Link can interpret. Susan is horrified of them all, and grateful when General Monger comes in to escort her to her orientation.

The third clip opens right after the monsters have been dropped into San Francisco to face off against the alien probe. Susan is still getting used to her new height and strength, and at first flees the probe by roller skating on cars. When the probe attacks the Golden Gate Bridge, she realizes she has to help, and turns back to fight, trying to get the other monsters to help her (and they do, a little, although there's also a lot of bumbling and confusion). After a lot of damage to the bridge (and probably a good number of fatalities amongst the innocent bystanders, which was a little surprising, given the movie's otherwise very light, comedic feel), the monsters do succeed in destroying the probe—but as Katzenberg pointed out afterwards, they've only won the battle, not the war.

After the clips, there was a Q&A session, which Katzenberg used as an excuse to cover the rest of his talking points. One of the most encouraging things he said was that all the money and technology in the world won't make a bad movie good, and that the story is still all-important. It's very good to hear him say that. A company that's spent all the time and money building this technology might be tempted to relax on the other aspects of filmmaking, and just trust on the razzle dazzle of 3D to get them by, but it sounds like Katzenberg is not content with that. Another interesting point he made, again to highlight the differences between the old 3D and the new 3D, is that whereas in the old days, filmmakers would deliberately try to break the fourth wall and push things out at the audience to show off the technology, and thus bring you out of the movie, the new 3D filmmakers will never poke at the audience or break the fourth wall, because they're using 3D to bring you into the movie, to make it a more immersive experience.

Katzenberg is a huge believer in the future of this technology, and thinks it can be applied equally well to any genre, even a cop drama like The Departed. But it's a technology that's still growing. Right now only about 1500 theaters around the country are equipped to project the new digital 3D. By the time Monsters vs. Aliens is released, Katzenberg expects 1000 more theaters will have been converted. By 2010 (when the next Shrek film is supposed to come out), he figures 7500 will be equipped. Of course, if a theater near you isn't equipped, that doesn't mean you can't see the movie at all; you'll still be able to see it in regular old 2D, and for cheaper, at a standard theater.

But will people pay the premium ticket price for the full experience, even if they have the option? Katzenberg is betting they will. He pointed out that the movie business is doing just fine, even in the current shaky economy, and that really in terms of things you can do for entertainment, going to see a movie is a great bargain.

Katzenberg also talked about the further advances in technology that are down the road—getting 3D in the home (which he downplayed as impractical, because obviously he wants you to come to the theater to experience it); owning your own pair of 3D glasses that might double as sunglasses; spreading 3D to all forms of video, even portable players like iPods; and getting the 3D effect without glasses (which is already possible—it's called autostereo—but only on a very small scale). He also talked about what inspired him to go down this road in the first place (Polar Express 3D really excited him, and he saw a lot of promise in the technology), and another big advantage that should come out of 3D: a big decrease in piracy! Apparently 90% of piracy is people in theaters recording the movie with a camcorder, and if you tried to do that with a 3D movie, it would look like garbage.

And that was it for the presentation. This Phillyist walked out reasonably impressed, but with reservations. When we caught an old school 3D screening of The Creature from the Black Lagoon a few years ago, it made us wonder why 3D never caught on, and why they hadn't fixed the problems with the technology and brought it back. So we're excited to see all that happening now. That being said, despite Katzenberg's claims, we found the new glasses, like the old ones, still gave us a mild headache (although that could be because this Phillyist had to wear them on top of his regular glasses, and also has a pretty large head that the one-size-fits-all 3D glasses clung to a bit more tightly than was entirely comfortable). And although the effect was impressive and immersive, it didn't seem nearly as revolutionary as Katzenberg was making it out to be. The movie itself, technology aside, seems entertaining, imaginative, and funny, and we'd definitely like to make it out to see the whole thing in all its 3D glory when the time comes. But we'd really rather do it for free, and review it for Phillyist, than pay that extra $5 for the ticket.

Image Credit: DreamWorks Animation

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Reese Witherspoon To Star In New Comedy Film

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Anne Lu - Celebrity News Service News Writer

Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - Reese Witherspoon is set to star in a Columbia Pictures untitled comedy with filmmaker James L. Brooks.

According to Variety, the film is described as an ensemble project boasting of at least three major characters. The 32-year-old actress is the only lead to have confirmed so far.

The production is scheduled to begin in March.

Brooks, who acts as the executive producer of "The Simpsons," last directed the 2004 Adam Sandler film "Spanglish."

Witherspoon, meanwhile, is currently starring in the comedy "Four Christmases," and will be next seen - or heard - in the computer animated DreamWorks film "Monsters vs. Aliens" in

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Second Monsters Vs Aliens trailer online

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The new trailer for Monsters Vs Aliens has arrived on the Interwebs.

This new promo features more from Reese Witherspoon’s Susan, AKA Ginormica, including her origin story.

Turns out she was a normal girl just trying to get married when she’s struck by a meteorite and becomes 50 feet tall. Soon, she’s recruited to help fight off an alien invasion.

Featuring the voices of Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Reese Witherspoon, Stephen Colbert and Will Arnett, Monsters Vs Aliens already looks like a winner.

3D Release

DreamWorks’ big hope for 3D, the trailer alone is packed with solid gags – Colbert’s “code brown” moment alone is one for the ages.

Check out the footage over at MSN and wonder what Seth Rogen has on the DreamWorks team that lets him voice every single one of their recent releases.

[Source: MSN]

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Monsters vs. Aliens Movie Trailer #2

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Dreamworks Animation has released the second full movie trailer for their computer animated sci-fi comedy Monsters vs. Aliens. This trailer is a little bit sillier than the last one, focusing more on the wacky monster characters who, turn out to be our only hope against an alien invasion. Leave your comments below.

Plot Synopsis: “Monsters vs. Aliens,” which is slated for a domestic release date of March 27, 2009, reinvents the classic ’50s monster movie into an irreverent modern day action comedy.

The cast of “Monsters vs. Aliens” includes: Oscar® winner Reese Witherspoon (”Walk the Line,” “Rendition”) as Susan Murphy, a.k.a. Ginormica; Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie (TV’s “House,” “Stuart Little”) as Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; Will Arnett (TV’s “Arrested Development,” “Blades of Glory”) as The Missing Link; Seth Rogen (”Knocked Up,” “Superbad”) as B.O.B.; Rainn Wilson (”Juno,” TV’s “The Office”) as Gallaxhar; Emmy winner Stephen Colbert (TV’s “The Colbert Report,” “Bewitched”) as The President of the United States; Golden Globe winner Kiefer Sutherland (TV’s “24,” “Phone Booth”) as General W.R. Monger; and Paul Rudd (”Knocked Up,” “Night at the Museum”) as Susan’s boyfriend, Derek.

“Monsters vs. Aliens” is directed by Rob Letterman (”Shark Tale”) and Conrad Vernon (”Shrek 2″), produced by Lisa Stewart (”I Think I Love My Wife”) and co-produced by Jill Hopper and Latifa Ouaou. The film marks the theatrical debut of DreamWorks Animation’s Ultimate 3-D, the studio’s proprietary production process of authoring its animated films in 3-D from start to finish.

When California girl Susan Murphy is unexpectedly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall and is instantly labeled a “monster” named Ginormica. The military jumps into action, and she is captured and held in a secret government compound. The world learns that the military has been quietly rounding up other monsters over the years. This ragtag group consists of the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement time is cut short however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country.

As a last resort, under the guidance of General W.R. Monger (on a desperate order from The President), the motley crew of Monsters is called into action to combat the aliens and save the world from imminent destruction.

Watch the trailer in High Definition on MSN . Monsters vs. Aliens hits theaters on March 27th 2009.

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Reese Witherspoon signs on for untitled Brooks comedy

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Reese Witherspoon has signed on for an untitled comedy from Columbia Pictures and director James L. Brooks.

Variety reports Brooks (who hasn’t directed since 2004’s"Spanglish") is at work on the screenplay – which is described as an ensemble film with three major characters. Witherspoon is the first actor to sign onto the film.

Although most of the details are being kept quiet, the title could be "How Do You Know?", and filming could start in March.

Witherspoon was ready to start work on the new Cameron Crowe romantic comedy, but the project got delay until July which created an opening in her schedule.

She is currently spreading some holiday cheer on the big screen with "Four Christmases," and has provided voice work for DreamWorks Animation's "Monsters vs. Aliens."

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Top Hollywood exec says 3-D is the industry's next big thing

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DALLAS — Don’t count on seeing representatives of filmmakers and exhibitors in front of Congress asking for money.

"It’s been great," said Alan Stock, Cinemark CEO, discussing his chain’s business. "October was the best October in history."

Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG, also has happy news, saying receipts will be up for his company in 2008. But he’s so committed to making sure the good box office continues that he’s on a 12-city tour to tout the company’s March 2009 release, Monsters vs. Aliens.

It’s an unusual tactic for moguls, but Katzenberg, 57, is convinced that the company’s proprietary "InTru 3D" technology is going to help make Monsters vs. Aliens the future of filmmaking, not just another fun family film starring lovable animated superheroes.

"I think the movie industry is entering the third era of revolutionary change," said Katzenberg, addressing a group of news media representatives, exhibitors, and Texas A&M’s Visualization Lab faculty and graduate students at a North Dallas screening Wednesday, where clips from the animated film were shown. "The third one is about bringing the audience into the movie experience. I’m not talking about my father’s 3-D."

The two previous film breakthroughs, he said, were the advent of sound in the 1920s and color in the 1930s. But the film business is still pretty much where recorded music was until digital sound superseded vinyl in some important respects, Katzenberg said.

"I think 3-D is an opportunity to re-energize in a very big way what it means to go to the cinema" and in a way that home systems can’t yet duplicate, Katzenberg said. "All of our films now are being created from the very beginning for the 3-D process."

His studio is not alone. The concert film Hannah Montana, as well as Meet the Robinsons, Chicken Little and The Nightmare Before Christmas, have come from Walt Disney Studios’ Motion Pictures Group, and the studio will make more than 15 3-D movies between now and 2011, according to published reports.

"What we need is stuff like this," Stock said after the Monsters vs. Aliens clips. "We need quality product."

Stock also likes the fact that 3-D releases typically deliver two to three times the gross per screen that 2-D films do. Katzenberg said his studio plans to release 2-D and 3-D versions of Monsters vs. Aliens simultaneously and charge 3-D viewers $5 extra. And there’s another advantage: no piracy.

"Ninety percent of piracy is done by people in the theater. A crook sits in the theater with a camcorder," Katzenberg said, adding that 3-D won’t show up accurately on a camcorder. "Good luck camcording that."

The clips gave viewers a deep view into the picture in a way that 2-D never has. But those who wore conventional glasses had to put the new hard-plastic 3-D specs — now with black lenses instead of the old blue and red lenses — on over the other pair.

That’s not the only bad rap. Katzenberg’s pronouncements about the $165 million picture and his claims for the technology prompted one Los Angeles Times headline to suggest that he might be "The Jerry Falwell of 3-D."

Katzenberg fired back in Variety. "Initially, as with color, the economic bar for 3-D is high, so for the foreseeable future many films will continue to be produced in 2-D," Katzenberg wrote. "But, eventually, I believe that all films will be shot in this remarkable medium."

Andy Anderson, a filmmaker and University of Texas at Arlington film and video professor, has a wait-and-see attitude. He’s been around long enough to see lots of gee-whiz technology fail to deliver on the hype.

"This happens about once every five years," Anderson wrote in an e-mail. "And where are our flying cars? They promised them to us back in the ’50s.

"I’ve seen it all promised, and it’s all fallen apart. Weren’t we all going to be wearing headsets by now?"

Katzenberg promises this isn’t just more back-to-the-future of film.

"People actually would throw up" when they saw early-era, poorly synchronized 3-D pictures. "I don’t think it’s a good business to be in to make your customers throw up."

Bart Weiss, co-founder of the Dallas Video Festival and the Video Association of Dallas, is a little less dubious.

"It’s really kind of fascinating," said Weiss, who also teaches at UT-Arlington. "The Batman movie was sold out pretty much every day. The 3-D version looked great. The bugaboo is that you still have to wear glasses. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to get beyond that."

Katzenberg predicts we’ll have 3-D, or stereophonic film without glasses, in 10 to 20 years.

Holographic movies will take longer. In the meantime, get ready for eyeglass maker Luxottica to produce a pair of glasses that serve as sunglasses outside and transform into 3-D "movie glasses" in the theater.

"You have stuff: You have a tennis racket; you have stuff to go do things," Katzenberg said. "You will have your movie glasses. You can have clip-on glasses or a prescription."

Weiss says 3-D was born as a reaction to TV and has always been a bit of a novelty act. But now, with the likes of Titanic director James Cameron getting into the act with his forthcoming Avatar and the DreamWorks animated films, it could become a format that’s taken seriously by critics and audiences, not a curiosity.

"It wasn’t fully integrated to storytelling," Weiss said. "When James Cameron is using something, you know it’ll be tastefully done."

Still, Weiss said, "The Citizen Kane of 3-D has not been made yet. When it’s made, it’ll be a different discussion."

---

Jeffrey Katzenberg: Q&A Q: So when will we be seeing 3-D NFL games?

Katzenberg: Last week there was an NFL game they broadcast in 3-D. It was sensational.

Q: And when do we see real 3-D at home?

Katzenberg: There’s no technological challenge. You can do it in the home. It will not compete with what you see in the theater. Any light source diminishes how strong the 3-D is. It’s like going to the Dallas Cowboys live versus seeing them at home. The home experience will be driven first by gaming and second by sports.

Q: Where does your company’s animation take place?

Katzenberg: Glendale and Redwood City [in California]. At some point down the road, India would be a third leg.

Q: Do you fear that if Cameron’s Avatar doesn’t do well, it’ll hurt 3-D?

Katzenberg: No. I think he’s doing something that will redefine the moviemaking experience.

Q: Will you remake films that were originally shot in 2-D?

Katzenberg: [Disney is] going to bring Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 back in 3-D. We have chosen not to do that.

Q: Does 3-D affect the stories that you pick?

Katzenberg: No. It has not affected one scintilla, the story. But the visual experience is thought about through the experience of 3-D. It impacts everything. Everybody is working in 3-D. It’s like going from French to Russian.

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3D is going mainstream

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies DreamWorks' CEO says you'll see everything in 3D from animation to drama within five years

Moviegoers will soon fully enter the third dimension in a technical revolution equal to the advent of sound and colour, says Hollywood power player Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The innovation begins in earnest next spring, but it comes with a price: about $5 more per ticket, or roughly 60 per cent more than the current North American average of $7 per ticket.

Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation and Hollywood's unofficial 3D evangelist, says the latest digital advances offer not just physical depth but "emotional dimensionality," and he predicts all movies and theatres will have it within the next five to eight years.

"There is that old cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, a 3D picture is worth 3,000 words," Katzenberg said in an interview yesterday.

He was in Toronto with a half-hour demo reel of Monsters vs. Aliens, an animated sci-fi comedy that will be DreamWorks Animation's major showcase of 3D technology when it arrives next March.

The film uses a proprietary process called InTru 3D that boasts of offering a far better 3D experience than the unsteady twin-projector systems of decades past. A single digital projector does the job and the glasses required to see the 3D are easier on the eyes than the cardboard red-blue specs of yore.

The return of 3D has been touted for several years, with such films as Beowulf and Meet the Robinsons testing the market to varying results, and with some qualms from studios and exhibitors. But resistance is fast fading in all branches of the movie industry and many people believe 2009 will mark the tipping point where it really catches on.

There are currently 1,500 3D screens in North America, Katzenberg said, and that's expected to rise to 2,500 by the time Monsters vs. Aliens arrives.

By the summer of 2010, when DreamWorks Animation releases Shrek IV in 3D, there will be more than 7,500 screens capable of showing 3D. Even live-action dramas and comedies – Katzenberg used The Queen and Juno as examples – will be released in 3D.

The change won't come cheaply, though. Katzenberg is recommending exhibitors charge $5 more per 3D ticket: "Frankly, it's what we need to charge in order to justify the money being put into the movie theatres and the money that we're putting into making the movies."

Won't moviegoers balk at paying a 60 per cent increase?

"Not if what they see is great."

Even at that price, and even during a time of economic slowdown, a movie ticket is still one of the cheapest forms of entertainment available, he argued.

A major side benefit is that 3D films will cut down on piracy, because they'll be so hard to steal.

He further predicted that people would buy their own designer 3D glasses that they'll carry to theatres with them. Katzenberg has already talked to the upscale Italian eyeglass maker Luxottica about introducing combo 3D/sunglasses by the middle of 2009.

"You're going to the beach in the summertime, what do you do? You take a pair of sunglasses, you take a bathing suit, you take sunscreen. We're used to having things to help us do things. So you'll have a thing to go to the movies."

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UPDATE 2-Dreamworks says films delivering profitability

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LOS ANGELES , Dec 11 (Reuters) - DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc (DWA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said on Thursday the company's films were delivering a level of profitability despite the current U.S. recession, which is dramatically slowing the home video market.

Speaking via webcast from his company's analyst day in New York, Katzenberg said his company's two films "Kung Fu Panda" and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" are on their way to becoming two of 2008's highest grossing films.

He also said the company would produce another "Madagascar" sequel in 2012.

Looking ahead, Katzenberg said he remained upbeat about the company's upcoming 3-D release, "Monsters vs. Aliens" in March 2009, saying he believed that as many as 2,500 screens would be 3-D ready when the films comes out.

The Glendale, California-based company plans to make all future films available for 3-D.

Hollywood overall has a lot riding on 3-D, with more than a dozen 3-D films slated to be released next year by various studios, including DreamWorks' "Monsters vs Aliens."

Including IMAX screens, there are about 1,500 screens in the United States and Canada that have the added equipment necessary for 3-D and plans are in place for up 1,000 additional screens to be installed by March 2009, a DreamWorks spokeswoman said.

Katzenberg said he believes there will be as many as 7,500 3-D screens in the marketplace in 18 months.

DreamWorks chief operating officer Ann Daly said the U.S. recession was having a dramatic effect on industrywide home video sales.

Citing information from the company's distributor -- Viacom Inc's (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Paramount -- and other sources, industrywide overall DVD sales and rentals have declined from last year by about 6 percent, Daly said via webcast from the company's analyst day in New York.

She said higher margins per unit were helping to offset some of the declines in sell-through volumes for DreamWorks, she said.

She also said "Kung Fu Panda" fourth-quarter sales were on their way to exceeding 10 million units on a worldwide basis.

Company officials said that as the DVD market continues to mature, DreamWorks was moving to diversify its revenue streams by focusing on television, Broadway and the the advent of 3-D in theaters. (Reporting by Sue Zeidler, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Gary Hill) ((Sue Zeidler, 213-840-6495, susan.zeidler@thomsonreuters.com))

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Top Hollywood exec says 3-D is the industry's next big thing

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DALLAS - Don't count on seeing representatives of filmmakers and exhibitors in front of Congress asking for money.

"It's been great," said Alan Stock, Cinemark CEO, discussing his chain's business. "October was the best October in history."

Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG, also has happy news, saying receipts will be up for his company in 2008. But he's so committed to making sure the good box office continues that he's on a 12-city tour to tout the company's March 2009 release, "Monsters vs. Aliens."

It's an unusual tactic for moguls, but Katzenberg, 57, is convinced that the company's proprietary "InTru 3D" technology is going to help make "Monsters vs. Aliens" the future of filmmaking, not just another fun family film starring lovable animated superheroes.

"I think the movie industry is entering the third era of revolutionary change," said Katzenberg, addressing a group of news media representatives, exhibitors, and Texas A&M's Visualization Lab faculty and graduate students at a North Dallas screening Wednesday, where clips from the animated film were shown. "The third one is about bringing the audience into the movie experience. I'm not talking about my father's 3-D."

The two previous film breakthroughs, he said, were the advent of sound in the 1920s and color in the 1930s. But the film business is still pretty much where recorded music was until digital sound superseded vinyl in some important respects, Katzenberg said.

"I think 3-D is an opportunity to re-energize in a very big way what it means to go to the cinema" and in a way that home systems can't yet duplicate, Katzenberg said. "All of our films now are being created from the very beginning for the 3-D process."

His studio is not alone. The concert film "Hannah Montana," as well as "Meet the Robinsons," "Chicken Little" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas," have come from Walt Disney Studios' Motion Pictures Group, and the studio will make more than 15 3-D movies between now and 2011, according to published reports.

"What we need is stuff like this," Stock said after the "Monsters vs. Aliens" clips. "We need quality product."

Stock also likes the fact that 3-D releases typically deliver two to three times the gross per screen that 2-D films do. Katzenberg said his studio plans to release 2-D and 3-D versions of "Monsters vs. Aliens" simultaneously and charge 3-D viewers $5 extra. And there's another advantage: no piracy.

"Ninety percent of piracy is done by people in the theater. A crook sits in the theater with a camcorder," Katzenberg said, adding that 3-D won't show up accurately on a camcorder. "Good luck camcording that."

The clips gave viewers a deep view into the picture in a way that 2-D never has. But those who wore conventional glasses had to put the new hard-plastic 3-D specs - now with black lenses instead of the old blue and red lenses - on over the other pair.

That's not the only bad rap. Katzenberg's pronouncements about the $165 million picture and his claims for the technology prompted one Los Angeles Times headline to suggest that he might be "The Jerry Falwell of 3-D."

Katzenberg fired back in Variety. "Initially, as with color, the economic bar for 3-D is high, so for the foreseeable future many films will continue to be produced in 2-D," Katzenberg wrote. "But, eventually, I believe that all films will be shot in this remarkable medium."

Andy Anderson, a filmmaker and University of Texas at Arlington film and video professor, has a wait-and-see attitude. He's been around long enough to see lots of gee-whiz technology fail to deliver on the hype.

"This happens about once every five years," Anderson wrote in an e-mail. "And where are our flying cars? They promised them to us back in the '50s.

"I've seen it all promised, and it's all fallen apart. Weren't we all going to be wearing headsets by now?"

Katzenberg promises this isn't just more back-to-the-future of film.

"People actually would throw up" when they saw early-era, poorly synchronized 3-D pictures. "I don't think it's a good business to be in to make your customers throw up."

Bart Weiss, co-founder of the Dallas Video Festival and the Video Association of Dallas, is a little less dubious.

"It's really kind of fascinating," said Weiss, who also teaches at UT-Arlington. "The Batman movie was sold out pretty much every day. The 3-D version looked great. The bugaboo is that you still have to wear glasses. I don't think we'll ever be able to get beyond that."

Katzenberg predicts we'll have 3-D, or stereophonic film without glasses, in 10 to 20 years.

Holographic movies will take longer. In the meantime, get ready for eyeglass maker Luxottica to produce a pair of glasses that serve as sun glasses outside and transform into 3-D "movie glasses" in the theater.

"You have stuff: You have a tennis racket; you have stuff to go do things," Katzenberg said. "You will have your movie glasses. You can have clip-on glasses or a prescription."

Weiss says 3-D was born as a reaction to TV and has always been a bit of a novelty act. But now, with the likes of "Titanic" director James Cameron getting into the act with his forthcoming Avatar and the DreamWorks animated films, it could become a format that's taken seriously by critics and audiences, not a curiosity.

"It wasn't fully integrated to storytelling," Weiss said. "When James Cameron is using something, you know it'll be tastefully done."

Still, Weiss said, "The 'Citizen Kane' of 3-D has not been made yet. When it's made, it'll be a different discussion."

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Katzenberg Spills on the Future of DWA Franchises

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies ComingSoon.net just spent an hour uptown at a special presentation for DreamWorks Animation's March '09 3D animated flick Monsters vs. Aliens presented by the company's CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. We'll have a full write-up of what Katzenberg showed and told us about the movie soon, but as the presentation came to a close, we asked him about the franchise potential for Monsters vs. Aliens, which he felt was very possible based on the premise.

He also told us how they knew very early that they had bigger story arcs involved in the development of the "Shrek" and "Madagascar" characters that warranted having multiple movies, stating that the 2010 movie Shrek Goes Fourth will get them closer to the story they've wanted to tell since the beginning, which was how Shrek got to the swamp in the first place. (With that in mind, could it be that the fifth "Shrek" movie might be a prequel?)

Katzenberg confirmed that the story of Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria from Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa isn't complete and they still need to get them back to New York. He confirmed that a third installment has a projected 2012 release date.

Likewise, Katzenberg also hinted that Po's journey to becoming a kung fu master might extend beyond the already announced Kung Fu Panda 2.

Look for our full write-up of this exciting 3D event very soon.

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Katzenberg pitches 3D to Wall St.

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg and his top lieutenants touted 3-D as a tonic for Hollywood during a three-hour pitch to Wall Street analysts Thursday.

Headlines were few, but attendees got a revealing tour of the company's balance sheet as well as an early look at scenes from March release "Monsters vs. Aliens."

Katzenberg announced another "Madagascar" installment is in the works, aiming for a 2012 release. He also said the hurdles to exhibs converting to digital and 3-D should be cleared by the end of the first quarter and conceded to some opening-night jitters ahead of Sunday's bow for "Shrek the Musical."

The recession and retail instability is hurting the company's homevid numbers, chief operating officer Ann Daly affirmed. "Kung Fu Panda" will ship about 10 million units, which makes it a top earner overall but shy of earlier projections in the range of 12 million.

Homevid sell-through revenue industrywide will finish 2008 down 6%, Daly estimated, with once-booming new releases slumping 20%.

Theatrical fare is at an all-time high for the four-year-old company, with "Panda" and "Madagascar 2" taking in more than $1.2 billion worldwide.

Focus of the session at Gotham's Ziegfeld Theater was on growth. Not only has DreamWorks made strides since its October 2004 start, execs said, but a projected $5 premium for 3-D ticket sales will greatly enhance profits.

"Because the costs (of 3-D) are fixed, there is substantial leverage and most of the extra revenue falls to the bottom line," said prexy and chief financial officer Lew Coleman.

According to Coleman, had "Shrek the Third" been released in 3-D, assuming a $5 ticket premium and roughly $15 million in extra production and rendering costs, it would have booked $80 million of additional profit.

"Monsters" is the first of a wave of 3-D productions mounted by Hollywood. Initially, Katzenberg said, DreamWorks had hoped there would be 4,000-5,000 3-D screens worldwide by the pic's March launch. Economic turmoil, especially in the credit markets, has held up conversions, though, and the number will reach only about 2,500. Even so, Katzenberg said the company is hoping 40% of admissions will be in 3-D.

On future releases such as the fourth "Shrek" in 2010, Katzenberg said he "would be disappointed if we didn't have at least 70% of admissions in 3-D."

Coleman ran some intriguing numbers on the "generic ultimates" used by the company, meaning a breakdown of all revenue streams for a typical release.

In 2005, a typical release made 55% of its revenue in homevid, 30% in worldwide theaters and the last 15% from TV and other venues. By 2008, that had shifted to 40% homevid, 40% theatrical and 20% TV/other.

Daly pointed to the company's TV growth lately, with such TV specials as "Shrek the Halls" locked up by ABC for 13 years, two similar pic offshoots due in 2009 and 46 eps of "The Penguins of Madagascar" in the works at Nickelodeon.

Sunday's opening of "Shrek" on Broadway reps a $24 million investment, to be amortized over three years, Daly said. No returns are expected until 2010, but if the show's a hit, examples such as "Wicked" or "The Lion King" suggest annual revenue from tours and merchandise could be $100 million to $150 million. Profit would be $30 million to $50 million a year.

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3D films: the next film revolution?

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They've been the next big thing for the past 50 years, but 3D films have finally come of age. Just the thing to get bums on seats, says Chris Evans

Cinema has already been through two major revolutions in its relatively short life. First there was the transition from silent to talkie, then from black and white to colour. Now Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, believes "3D is the next revolution in the cinema-going experience".

A bold statement, and one tinged with a distinct bias as DreamWorks is one of several Hollywood studios set to release their forthcoming animation projects in the new, digitised 3D format. Titles set to hit our screens include Monsters vs Aliens (2009), A Christmas Carol (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Shrek Goes Fourth (2010), and Avatar, due for release in December next year, which is hotly tipped to be the turning point in the 3D revolution.

It is important to point out that 3D is, of course, nothing new. It was first experimented with back in the 1950s and Imax cinemas have been showing films in 3D for the past 30 years. But now, with the advent of digital 3D technology being installed in cinemas worldwide, and the fact that the choice of films in 3D is not only broader but much better, audiences need only head to a multiplex and put on the glasses to immerse themselves in what is proving to be a wholly new way to enjoy the latest studio blockbuster.

"This is digital stereoscopic 3D. It is a far cry from the 3D experience of the 1950s. There is no ghosting and no headaches. It is pin-sharp, laser-sharp, crystal-clear 3D imagery," says Mark Batey, chief executive of the Film Distributors' Association. It's a view supported by Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors' Association. "I have seen excerpts from the upcoming Monsters vs Aliens film and it is incredible. You actually feel immersed in the film, like the action is taking place around you, rather than in front of you, as it is in 2D."

There are currently 65 digital 3D screens in the UK, and more than 2,000 worldwide. Industry experts predict there will be at least 10,000 by 2012. This rapid expansion and advancement in 3D technology is seen by some as a response to the decline in cinema attendance and the rise in alternative viewing platforms such as the internet, PlayStation and cable television.

"Just as it was in the 1950s when the advent of television shook the cinema world to its bones, so in today's world of rapid digital communication, 3D is the cinemas' response to say we are bigger, brighter, bolder and better than anything you will experience at home," Batey says. Unlike the cumbersome, labour-intensive 3D systems of the 1950s, which required two cameras projecting on to the same screen, making synchronisation difficult, the new digital projectors, of which there are three different models – RealD, Dolby Digital Cinema and Imax 3D – require just the one projector run through a computer.

"The projection element is the same in terms of the lens and the lamp, but you have a server into which you plug hard drives with the film on, and that is then unscrambled and played through to the computer on the back of the projection unit," explains Clapp.

By simultaneously selecting two viewpoints, or a left eye and right eye, the technologies enable the brain to converge or fuse the images. By wearing the special glasses, the watcher prevents the image from bleeding over from the left to the right, or vice versa. "These projectors provide a much higher refresh rate between the two complementary eye images because it is stereo so the film producers are recording one version to the right eye and one to the left eye, and the projectors are then able to convert these into a high frame rate. So it is a really seamless effect," says Charlotte Jones, senior analyst of film and cinema at Screen Digest.

Also, unlike the heavy 35mm film reels, 3D digital films are stored on a hard disk, which means it is much easier to transport them from one cinema to the next. "These digital disks are essentially the right-eye and left-eye versions of the film together, and can be taken by bike or van to another site and inserted into a server and played through the digital projector, which is normally positioned alongside a 35mm projector," Batey says.

But the reason so many exhibitors are still holding back from installing the projectors is the expense. One digital projector alone for a single screen costs £40,000 to £50,000, and then to add a 3D upgrade would cost another £10,000 or even £20,000 on top of that.

"In the US, the studios are helping to finance the transition to digital and 3D by subsidising the projectors through the savings they are making as a result of using the cheaper digital prints as opposed to the expensive 35mm reels," Jones says. But outside of America, production companies working on 3D films are less inclined to contribute to the enormous costs, and take-up by the cinemas of the 3D projectors has so far been slow.

However, the potential revenue benefits of 3D are already being proven. The 3D release of films such as Journey to the Center of the Earth, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Fly Me to the Moon and Chicken Little have taken at least two times, and in some cases three times, as much as their 2D releases.

This is partly due to the higher ticket costs of seeing the films in 3D. "To produce an animation film in 3D, you are probably looking at adding another 15 per cent on to the film budget, for a live action you are looking at another 30 per cent, which is why the studios are having to hike up the prices by as much as $5 in the US to recoup costs," Jones says.

Global revenue from 3D ticket sales in 2008 amounted to $240m, approximately 70 per cent of which, or $166m, came from North America. That figure of $166m accounted for roughly 1.8 per cent of total projected North American box-office takings for 2008, and Jones expects the share to climb to approximately 15% in 2009.

The realms of possibility and potential revenue with the new 3D technology are also not just limited to film. Some cinemas are experimenting with beaming live events via satellite into cinemas in 3D. Last week, RealD and 3ality Digital staged the world's first live 3D broadcast of an American football game, at the Mann Chinese 6 theatre in Hollywood.

"That could be really significant. In Europe, for example, they could show the Fifa World Cup live in 3D. That would be incredible," says Jones, adding that "in the near future it will potentially be possible to beam 3D images to mobile phones and into the home. The only problem would be wearing those 3D glasses at home, where you could be playing video games for four or five hours, or watching a few films over the course of an evening." So, in actual fact, while the cinemas are hoping the new 3D experience will draw the young crowd back to their screens, it looks like it could keep them at home even longer.

Big-screen action: The power of Imax

* 'The Dark Knight' director Christopher Nolan filmed six of the film's major action sequences using Imax cameras. As a result, Imax box offices were inundated for weeks with filmgoers intent on seeing Batman and the Joker on the even bigger screen. The film made £360,000 with a single print on a single Imax screen in Manchester – with the aid, it should be noted, of Imax's inflated ticket prices.

* The Imax system was first developed in Canada in the 1970s. Imax can screen films in a much larger format, and with much greater resolution, than a conventional cinema screen. Modern Imax theatres are also equipped with super-sophisticated sound systems.

* Until now, there have been only a handful of Imax screens in the UK, and only one in London – at the BFI in Waterloo. All that will soon change, however, with the introduction of the Imax digital projection system to Europe. Far cheaper to instal and run than its predecessor, digital will allow Imax to roll out across the continent.

As well as screening live sports events and concerts, theatres have a full slate of Imax Hollywood blockbusters lined up for 2009, including 'Watchmen', 'Transformers 2', 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince', and 'Avatar'.

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Reese, Ava, and Deacon on Ice

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Reese Witherspoon and her children Ava, 8, and Deacon, 4 enjoy some family bonding time at an ice skating rink in Santa Monica, Calif. on Tuesday afternoon.

32-year-old Reese has been busy promoting her holiday comedy, Four Christmases.

She’s also set to star alongside Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Will Arnett and Seth Rogen in the upcoming DreamWorks movie Monsters vs. Aliens, in which she voices Susan Murphy, an ordinary woman transformed into the nearly 50 feet tall “Ginormica.”

Says Reese of their monstrous alter-egos: “This is a really cool group of monsters and it makes me laugh so hard.

Visit ET for a first look at Reese in the animated flick. It drops March 27, 2009.

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Fanticipation: Monsters vs. Aliens

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies And, of course, the film also has plenty of detractors – in this case, probably the same kind of people who choke on the barrel of a gun every holiday season. But to be fair, the problem many of these folks have with “Monsters vs. Aliens” is the easy comparison drawn to two of Pixar’s most cherished titles – “Monsters Inc.” and “The Incredibles.” Sure, any fool can see it, but what the hell’s wrong with that? At least they’re not giving us another “Bee Movie” or Shrek sequel…not now, anyways. Also, this comparison is based almost entirely on the look of the film – yes, a CG animated film featuring monsters and aliens will more than likely look quite a bit like “Monsters Inc.” and “The Incredibles.” But at the center of “Monsters vs. Aliens” I can feel a Godzilla movie as its heart and soul. And that’s a really great thing as it’s been a few years since we’ve had a new Godzilla movie and it will be several more years before we have another – not counting the 3D IMAX Godzilla film supposedly hitting theaters next year. Looks like 2009 could be huge for giant 3D monsters, so can’t we all just get along?

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New Featurette Online for MONSTERS VS. ALIENS

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Date: Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Source: Entertainment Tonight

A new featurette for DreamWorks Animation's next project Monsters vs. Aliens has appeared online courtesy of Entertainment Tonight. You can check it out below. The sci-fi animation features the voicework of Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Kiefer Sutherland and Paul Rudd. Presented next March in 3-D, the project was directed by Rob Letterman (Shark Tale) and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2).

Plot Concept: When California girl Susan Murphy is unexpectedly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall and is instantly labeled a "monster" named Ginormica. The military jumps into action, and she is captured and held in a secret government compound. The world learns that the military has been quietly rounding up other monsters over the years. This ragtag group consists of the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement time is cut short however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country.

As a last resort, under the guidance of General W.R. Monger (on a desperate order from The President), the motley crew of Monsters is called into action to combat the aliens and save the world from imminent destruction.

Monsters vs. Aliens will hit IMAX, 3-D and standard theaters March 27, 2009.

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Kiefer Sutherland Gets Star On Hollywood Walk

Watch TV on PC - 12,000 TV Channels and Movies NEW YORK --

Kiefer Sutherland, the star of the FOX show "24," will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Tuesday morning near Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, Calif.

Sutherland in the role of agent Jack Bauer stars in the Fox drama, "24." Sutherland has won a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and two SAG Awards, for Best Actor in a Drama Series. The show has also garnered an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for "Best Drama".

"24" celebrates its 150th episode with the two-night, four-hour Season Seven premiere event Sunday, Jan. 11 and Monday, Jan. 12 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

Upcoming, he will lend his voice to the character of General W.R. Monger in "Monsters vs Aliens" which will be released on March 27, 2009. Sutherland recently starred in the thriller "Mirrors." His other films include "The Sentinel," "The River Queen," "Taking Lives," "Phone Booth," "Dark City," "Truth or Consequences," "The Three Musketeers," and "A Few Good Men." Earlier films in his career include "Flatliners," "1969," "Young Guns," "Young Guns 2," "Bright Lights, Big City," "The Lost Boys," and "Stand By Me."

Sutherland was born on December 21, 1966 in London, England to parents Shirley Douglas and the actor Donald Sutherland.

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In-your-face movie magic

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TECHNOLOGY | DreamWorks' guru pushes new 3D glasses for coming projects

Are you willing to put on 3D glasses in the theater again -- especially if today's glasses are way cooler than those red-and-blue tinted ones, and the animation comes from the maker of Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda?

Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG, unveiled the new glasses and scenes from the studio's 3D movie, "Monsters vs. Aliens," at AMC River East 21 Theaters on Monday. The movie will be the first computer-generated animation story with a female lead, and will debut March 27.

Katzenberg believes 3D is the third great revolution of movies, akin to the introduction of talkies in the 1920s and color in the 1930s. The technology has the ability to make movies "a singular, exceptional experience," he said.

The 3D film technique is no longer a gimmick, Katzenberg said. The preview on Monday revealed how "Monsters vs. Aliens" tells the story of home-grown monsters trying to thwart an alien invasion of earth by seeming to place moviegoers inside the scenes. The movie is filled with subtle humor, with the star monster, Susan Murphy, voiced by Reese Witherspoon, and the president voiced by Stephen Colbert.

Katzenberg, a former board chairman at Disney Studios and former president of Paramount Studios, is traveling the world evangelizing the benefits of today's 3D: Glasses look like Ray-Ban sunglasses and cost 85 cents each to manufacture and deliver to theaters; that DreamWorks and other studios' investments in 3D will pan out, and that distributors will initially pay the $800 difference in the cost of a film print and a digital print to jump-start the 3D rollout. The cost of installing a digital projector and rewiring an existing movie theater is $75,000 per screen. To redo all the theaters worldwide would cost $10 billion.

"In my opinion, in five, six or seven years, all movies will be made in 3D," Katzenberg said. Only 1,500 screens in the United States now show 3D. That number is expected to jump to 2,500 by early next year, and to 7,500 by summer 2010 when the next ''Shrek'' movie is released.

Now to convince theater owners to immediately reconfigure at least a few of their screens for 3D movie showings, and to get people to cough up another $5 for the glasses or to buy their own 3D glasses at retail. Katzenberg is working with Luxottica Group to create a transition lens so theatergoers' glasses could transition for the 3D theater.

He said, "I believe people will want to have their own glasses."

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