In the four-plus years since the release of James Cameron‘s Avatar, we’ve seen a multitude of off-putting 3D releases, a few that make considerably artistic use of the technology (Hugo, Gravity), and a handful in between. With the director now finally planning to shoot back-to-back follow-ups continuing his Pandora-set story, he’s out and about urging colleagues to embrace the technology once more.
Speaking at London’s 3D Creative Summit, he unveiled plans to push his use of 3D to an even greater extent. “I’m going to open up my depth more on the Avatar sequels,” he said, according to Screen Daily‘ report from the event. “In my defense, I thought I might be making a three-hour movie and nobody had ever gone more than 90 minutes so we didn’t know if people were going to go crosseyed and have their eyeballs melt. Now we know good stereo is good stereo and you can watch it indefinitely.”
With much of the initial allure of 3D having dissipated, we’ll have to see if Cameron can indeed provide something we haven’t seen before. He added, “I want filmmakers to embrace this technology as an art form. People like Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee and Alfonso Cuaron are artistically using that third dimension versus studios forcing filmmakers to do post-conversion where the shots weren’t composed with 3D in mind and it just doesn’t feel right.”
In other 3D news, it looks like Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, and Monsters Inc. won’t be the only Pixar works undergoing the 3D re-release treatment. While at the Summit, Screen Daily also has word from the company’s 3D production directors Josh Hollander that two more films are being worked on. “Right now we’re working on The Incredibles, which is a lot of fun in 3D. I’m not sure what the release strategy for it will be. “It’s been an interesting challenge to work on technology because – while the film was released 10 years ago – the technology is even older as it took four years to make.”
He also added, “We have a version of Ratatouille, which works really well in 3D and we’re trying to figure out exactly what the release strategy for that will be.” As for the studio’s next release, the summer 2015-bound Inside Out, he says, “The movie is just pure magic. We’re looking at how translucency and opacity is used, which plays really well in 3D. There’s not much more I can share about it but it will build upon our use of 3D, supporting ‘emotions’ and and ’emotional moments.'” With a strong track record when it comes to their implementation of 3D, we’re certainly looking forward to what Pixar comes up with.
What do you think of Cameron pushing 3D to a greater extent? Would you see The Incredibles and Ratatouille in 3D?