New 3-D Wave 'Comin' At Ya!'
By Friday, the need will arise for 6 million Polalite 3-D viewers. To the neophyte, these viewers, composed of two grey celluloid lenses and flimsy cardboard frames, look like the cheapest sunglasses imaginable. But to the cinema buff, they recall the 3-D movie boom that took over Hollywood 30 years ago with one minor change - back then, one lens was tinted red, the other green.
Similarly, back then the 3-D process called for cumbersome camera equipment, thus were the 3-D cinematic endeavors deadly stagey and loaded with some tiresome gimmicks. One last garsp at 3-D featured an actor spitting into the audience.
Enter Tony Anthony and Gene Quintano, business partners and, in their own way, movie pioneers. They have a new $3.5 million movie opening Friday entitled, Comin' At Ya!, which does just that - it comes at you. The men consider their movie the most sophisticated 3-D display yet, as far as the effects are concerned, they might be right.
It is being released by Filmways, and a spokesman for the studio, inviting journalists to view two sample Comin' At Ya! reels, flatly stated, "As a work of art, forget it. It's like a spoof of spaghetti westerns. But in terms of 3-D effects, it's wild. We may have hit upon a gem here."
The figures back up the representatives statement. In Phoenix, he said, Comin' At Ya! grossed $59,000 its first week, only $1,000 less than Star Wars' earnings. In Kansas City, the picture drew $28,000 in a week, on a two-a-night showing basis. "We outdrew $110 million worth of pictures other studios opened in town the same week." said Anthony.
Antony plays the hero; Quintano, the villain, and there are a scant 51 lines of dialogue. The two sample reels placed on view earlier this week (the entire film was not made available to critics) displayed countless real-life protrustions into the audience. These included a writhing rattlesnake, the contents of a coffee pot, shucked corn, flying bats, probing fingers, rats, bullets, hot pokers, spears, falling bales of hay, a baby's bottom and a rolling watermelon. The plot seemed to have something to do with kidnapping women.
"We didn't set out to do Shane or High Noon," said Quintano, though he and Anthony believe that 3-D is not only here to stay, but are prepared to ride out a new 3-D boom with a simplified shooting process they are soon to represent and market. (Adapting a theater to 3-D, they said, reasonably costs between $500 to $800.) Moreover, both men are convinced that, just as 3-D in the '50s pried audiences away from TV sets at home, so will their new improved 3-D technology pull people away from current video disk players and cable TV.
"I'm not suggesting a movie like Kramer vs. Kramer be made in 3-D," said Anthony, "But can you imagine the first 10 minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark in 3-D or Superman?
In case you can't, Anthony and Quintano have a new script they'll begin shooting soon. They dubbed it, "an action adventure romantic comedy thriller." Its title: Seeing Is Believing.
No comments:
Post a Comment