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Scorsese, Coppola and Spielberg are coming out with 3-D movies—just as audiences are showing less interest in the pricey format
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Three-D technology is at a critical juncture in Hollywood, its mixed track record leaving few clues as to whether it will be a transformative leap like talkies or color, a limited platform like Imax or little more than a doomed gimmick like Smell-O-Vision or Sensurround.
This fall, however, three godfathers of American cinema—Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Mr. Coppola—are releasing their first 3-D films. If their movies fall short, skepticism about the format could continue to spike. Or 3-D could clear an important hurdle—respectability.
“You now have some of the greatest filmmakers in the world stepping into the format to tell their stories,” says Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation chief executive and 3-D’s most indefatigable evangelist..
The most closely watched 3-D film of the three may be Mr. Scorsese’s “Hugo,” due out Nov. 23, about a French film pioneer in the early 1900s. The director is known for gritty, critically acclaimed drama—not the format’s usual turf. …
“If you have a film that’s an intimate dramatic story…the incremental improvement in 3-D is profound,” Mr. Cameron says. Mr. Scorsese’s stature could make 3-D “not just a circus for the masses, but a legitimate part of the cinematic art form.” …
“Three-D is experiencing growing pains,” Mr. Lipton says.
Three-D advocates say the best cure for that is more big-name filmmakers embracing the technique. Next year alone will see stereoscopic films from 3-D first-timers like Ang Lee directing “Life of Pi” and Ridley Scott on his new “Alien” movie, “Prometheus.” Mr. Scott recently said at Comic-Con that he enjoyed the process so much, he would “never work without 3-D again, even for small dialogue scenes.” …
He says he realized that 3-D combines theater and film together. “The actors become like a moving sculpture,” Mr. Scorsese says. “This brings it out, particularly in the faces of the actors, the drama.” …
During moments of particularly intense on-screen action, he wrote, increasing the depth of the 3-D imagery helped “increase the excitement.” He then would “narrow the effect” as the action slowed.
“This is something an audience should never notice,” Mr. Spielberg says. “But I believe [it] will have a subliminal effect.”
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