Um, no! They've already shown films shot with 35mm in this new form of 3D at Showest, and the results were reportedly spectacular. The medium has nothing to do it. This is not the same crappy 3D you're used to seein back in the 80s, from everything I've read about it.

Peter Jackson is also in this group pushing 3D. That should make it more acceptable to the fanboys. If Lucas is involved, fanboys usually reject it out of hand.

The latest issue of Popular Science. I looked in the website to link there but they don't have the same article on there yet.

Because Peter Jackson actually respects his fanboys.

Is this using the same technology that made The Polar Express IMAX 3D or is the IMAX 3D different? Wouldn't mind buying some stock into the main companies involved in this.

Looking forward to the The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D release this Halloween.

Polar Express and other CGI films are created in the computer with 3d modeling, so it's possible to slightly change the angle for the stereo vision 3d. Existing films must use a different technique, so no, it isn't the same technology.

So the Real D releases differ from the IMAX 3D ones like Superman Returns?

There's no getting around the fact the original Star Wars films (or the live-action elements of the prequels/King Kong/whatever) contain zero zip nada NO 3D information in them. To turn them into 3D movies you have to make up that 3D information out of nothing and then stuff it into the original 2D image. Thanks to the wonders of digital technology you can probably do it ... but it will still never look as good as a 3D movie made from scratch.

I think you misunderstand my objection. The problem with, say, colorizing old black and white movies isn't just that the technology originally used in the 80s sucked (though it did.) The problem was that the original creators knew they were making a b&w movies, so they worked long and hard to make b&w look great. This led to a lot of highly specialized lighting techniques, techniques that simply don't look as good in color. Trying to cram color into those movies was pointless--it was actually making movies look worse because it was trying to make them something they were never meant to be. (The same would apply to the early 30s craze for adding dialogue and sound effects to silent movies--or for that matter the modern practice of blowing up regular theatrical movies to show on IMAX screens, which I find pointless since it usually involves hacking off a substantial part of the image.)

Same thing here. The original Star Wars trilogy were meant to be in 2D. Cramming 3D into old movies might be neat on the gee whiz technical level, but in the end it's a waste of time: no matter what you do the original Star Wars is and always will a 2D movie, just as Casablanca is a b&w movie.

If Lucas, Jackson, et. al. want to wow us with the new 3D technology then let them make new 3D movies, movies that take full advantage of the new process. I'd pay good money to see those; I won't be paying any money to see Hollywood try to squeeze some additional coin out of old movies by slapping in a gimmick that was never meant to be there in the first place.

Where are these 3-D movies being shown? I have no interest in Phantom Menace in 3-D, but I'd gladly see the rest of the Star Wars films, and King Kong, etc.

they will be shown in the same theatres that were outfitted to playback Chicken Little in 3D.

has there been any news when we can expect to see the 3D 'King Kong'?

I can only think of one scene that deserves a 3D treatment in that film. (.)(.)

I'm all for 3-d Kate Winslet titties.

Well then, you should be excited about 3D then, as Peter Jackson is one of the guys that loves it. Of course in 20 years time, if Jackson's fans grow to be as pathetic as Lucas' fans, he won't be so respectful anymore.

You're not understanding this process. Simply because the film wasn't shot with any 3D, doesn't mean it can't be shown in 3D. There is a completely new process, which ILM can do, which can turn a non-3D film into a 3D film in this process. You keep thinking of old 80s technology. This new 3D is an entirely new process.

"Ow! She poked me in the eye with her nipple!"

Yeah. New shit has come to light, man.

Oh yes I've been waiting for Jar Jar in 3-D!!

You're gonna love that shit too, aren't you?

I actually can't wait to see Phantom Menace in 3D! I love everything that has Star Wars in the title. I bet they will finally update the Yoda scenes with CG this time!

I loved Chicken Little in Digital 3D! It's pretty much the same 3D as at Disney and Univesal Studios. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, T2 3D, Muppets whatever it was called, etc; but without the actors/ props/ things like air and water squirting at you. Plus unlike "old 3D" with it's cardboard glasses, this kind of 3D uses plastic glasses and you wear them the ENTIRE time, not like other recent "old 3D" movies even as recent as Shark Boy and Lava Girl, where only some scenes are 3D and you have to keep taking the glasses off.

Oh yeahm they should have real actors and stuff for 1 scene in each movie! I know it would be difficult, but they can do it as a "one time thing" for selected theaters. Like in T2 3D where actors playing John and T1 on a motorcycle "come out of the screen" and do stuff. Here are my ideas for something like this for all 6 (7) movies:

I: When they pop thru the water "wall" and then it (and when Boss Nass does his shaky head spit thing) the audience can get splashed with drops of water
II: Jango's head (helmet) could pop off into the audence for a kid Boba look alike to pick up
Clone Wars (yes I think they should show this as a movie in theaters as an Episode 2.5): maybe when C3-PO drops his cloak to show he's gold that can be a C3-PO in the audience
III: Dooku's head- gross! No, how about Dooku backflips (front flips doesn't sound right, is that a word?) into the audience
IV: Darth Vader's first appearance in the movie, when he crashes thru the ship, an actor dressed as him could crash thru the screen.
V: when Han cuts open the tauntaun it could be a prop that a Han look-a like cuts open on a stage in front of the screen, and when he does, the audience can smell the insides too.
VI: When R2 pops Luke's lightsaber out of his head, a Luke-a-like (ha ha!) can be in there to catch it.

Fool me once shame on you , fool me twice, shame on... shame on...can't get fooled again!

I still think Phantom Menace was a good (maybe not great) movie and I love watching it.

So, wait, this new 3-D process is just polarized 3-D? That can't be, that's been around for years. I hope this is somehing else, because Honey I Shrunk The Audience can't be enough to wow Peter Jackson.

Seeing Jar-Jar Binks in 3D might be nice because you could imagine reaching out and wringing his fucking scrawny neck.

I wonder if they'll release a 3D version on DVD

Holla! George Lucas is back! This time to make Star Wars in 3-D format.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=70221

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I don't care for 3-D but I wonder if they will alter the flick in terms of PQ and make it shine a bit better.

a pile of shit in 3D is still a pile of shit.

So they're going to wait on box office returns to gauge interest in doing the rest of the series, but they're releasing the worst one first? Yea, this should do well...