"COMIN' AT YA!": ARTICLE 9

This is the first of the final three articles that will appear in this month long celebration. I have chosen them since they speak of the promise of 3-D at the beginning of the revival started by "Comin' At Ya!", as well as the improvements that would need to be made to make 3-D a standard in film making, and finally, what was needed to keep the revival afloat. This first article appeared in Daily Variety on June 17, 1981.







INDUSTRY EYES 3-D REVIVAL

New orders reported by equipment manufacturers and a bevy of production announcements signal what appears to be a serious industry attempt to revive 3-D. The depth process' fortunes have mainly ebbed since it hit the public consciosness in a big way in 1953, but many in the trade figure the time is ripe to relaunch the gimmick via new and improved camera systems.

Working in favor of the potential trend is the youth-dominated profile of today's audience, more so than in the early '50s when 3-D briefly flourished. Also, with theatrical attendance dipping and homevideo expanding tv screen options, packaging film-going as a "special event" or "experience" is gaining currency among exhibs and makes the "depthie" hoopla a natural.

Most imminently, Filmways has scheduled a late summer release of Tony Anthony's indie 3-D western, "Comin' At Ya," lensed last year in Spain by Italo western director Ferdinando Baldi. The modestly budgeted pic was shot using the one-camera system (shown with one projector and polarizing optics) and has aroused exhibitor interest via recent screenings at a convention in Kansas City and at nationwide screenings.

Its bow marks the first test of mass-audience interest in dpethies since the craze inaugurated in 1952 by United Artists' "Bwana Devil" (from director Arch Oboler) fizzled out two years later.

United Artists Theatre Ciruit is in preproduction on the first of its projected series of two-camera/two-projector 3-D films, to be shot in 70mm using a newly developed camera system. UATC techinal expert Richard Vetter reoirts a fall start on the first feature, budgeted in the $10,000,000 range, with details of technical and talent credits to be disclosed in August.

Theatres, not limited to UATC houses, will be equiped for the new process by UATC technical staff, with hefty conversion costs to be shared by distributor and exhibs. Specifications have been set for new 3-D glasses, requiring improved polarized lenses and comfortable frames, with contract to bid out in time for summer of 1982 launch.

Elsewhere, Eastman Kodak is in preproduction (storyboards are being prepared) on a 3-D short scheduled to unspool at Disneyworld in Orlando, Fla., in October, 1982, at the Kodak Pavillion of Disney's Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Expected to direct the film is Oscar-winner (for "From Mao To Mozart: Isaac Stern In China" documentary) Murray Lerner, who earlier reined the the Marineland of Florida 3-D short. "Sae Dream."

While "Sea Drean" utilized the one-camera process, Kodak plans to go with two-camera, 70mm format akin to that used by UATC. Walt Disney, which made several animated shorts in 3-D in the '50s, is mulling the prospect of in-house projects in the depth format.

Other 3-D projects in various stages of preparation include Universal's planned remake of "The Creature From The Black Lagoon," itself a successful 1954 release in 3-D (shot in black-and-white). The new version may team the original's director Jack Arnold, with the instigator of the remaked project, fellow director John Landis.

Andre de Toth, who directed the biggest hit of the '50s depth cycle "House Of Wax," is preparing an indie Western in the process, "Fool's Gold." The project is unusual as it would use the original twpo-camera 35mm format rather than the new one-camera or 70mm two-camera system.