The Wizard of Oz in Imax and 3D

[syd]

http://www.movies.broadwayworld.com/art ... D-20130603" target="_blank

It was only a matter of time.

[ClayKing]

Old wine in new bottles. But of course I'll go and see it.

[Robert Moulton]

They're also colourizing the first part of the movie.

[augustinius]

They're also colourizing the first part of the movie.

That HAS to be a joke, right?

If not this is the most clueless stunt of all time. First off, the first part is not BW but sepia toned. Second, that defeats the entire artistic purpose of the opening.

But of course it is just a joke anyway. Right?

[WaverBoy]

They're also colourizing the first part of the movie.

And the last part.

[Dirwuf]

I wonder if it'll turn to 3D at the same time it turns to color...

[fwtep]

I wonder if it'll turn to 3D at the same time it turns to color...

That actually would be pretty cool.

I have to say, from when I first heard about the 3D conversion, roughly a year ago, I thought it was not a bad idea and I'm interested in seeing it. One thing I'm curious about is if they'll make the painted backdrops have depth. I guess they'd have to, because otherwise it would look like the outdoor locations just end at a wall. Which of course they do.

Oh, and after seeing last year's (lousy) Prometheus in 3D, which had a scene from Lawrence of Arabia in it (in 3D), I'd really like to see the rest of that converted. It looked really great in 3D; it's a natural.

[Ray Faiola]

What happens to the 1:33 aspect ratio?

[Spiny Norman]

What happens to the 1:33 aspect ratio?

Good question! It might look weird in places if they changed that.

[coolcatdaddy]

They'll probably do it similarly to some of the other iMax films. I recall one - Encounters in the Third Dimension - that starts out with some history on older 3d movies and those parts are centered small on the screen. When it goes to the new material, that's opened up to the full iMax screen. So the prologue and ending could be in 2d, small on the screen, with the main part of the film in Oz opened up to 3d and filling the iMax screen.

I'll stick with the original version, thank you very much.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Standard 15-perf 70mm IMAX has a ratio of about 1.43:1, which shouldn't be cropped much at all from a 1.37 original if it fills the IMAX image area, certainly no more than an average TV already crops it. On the other hand if it's showing in the new 2K digital "Lie-max" then all bets are off.

[Gregbert]

I wonder if it'll turn to 3D at the same time it turns to color...

That actually would be pretty cool.

I have to say, from when I first heard about the 3D conversion, roughly a year ago, I thought it was not a bad idea and I'm interested in seeing it. One thing I'm curious about is if they'll make the painted backdrops have depth. I guess they'd have to, because otherwise it would look like the outdoor locations just end at a wall. Which of course they do.

Oh, and after seeing last year's (lousy) Prometheus in 3D, which had a scene from Lawrence of Arabia in it (in 3D), I'd really like to see the rest of that converted. It looked really great in 3D; it's a natural.

That would be cool but I would assume the shots of stuff flying around when the tornado hits would be perfect for 3D.

[Robert W]

What happens to the 1:33 aspect ratio?

I have seen an Imax release schedule which confirms it will be the original aspect ratio.

[Harlett O'Dowd]

What happens to the 1:33 aspect ratio?

I have seen an Imax release schedule which confirms it will be the original aspect ratio.

More importantly, will they restore the scarecrow's dance, which probably lends itself most to the 3D treatment (when in Rome...)

[David Alp]

I wonder if it'll turn to 3D at the same time it turns to color...

The trouble is is if they do that then just as Dorothy/Garland is opening the door to Technicolor Munchkinland there will be a big flashing notice saying "PLEASE PUT ON YOUR 3D GLASSES NOW" - and won't that be a bit annoying in the middle of a movie?

(Actually I'm trying to think??? I once saw a part-3D movie?? I think it was a Harry Potter film, and they did that - they had a flashing notice saying "PUT ON YOUR GLASSES" - and it kind of ruined the cinematic experience)

[fwtep]

No need to do that. The glasses are fine with 2D. The only issue would be that they'd need to make people understand beforehand that the BW scenes are only 2D, otherwise you'd get people complaining.

[westegg]

i see the MPAA has slapped this Imax OZ with a PG rating! After 40 years with a G it's now deemed "scary" enough for a PG. Okay. This sounds more like a marketing gimmick than for actual content. It's bizarre WB actually resubmitted it despite the existing rating.

[Christopher Jacobs]

i see the MPAA has slapped this Imax OZ with a PG rating! After 40 years with a G it's now deemed "scary" enough for a PG. Okay. This sounds more like a marketing gimmick than for actual content. It's bizarre WB actually resubmitted it despite the existing rating.

I get the distinct impression that today's ratings criteria (and perception by viewers) no longer consider "G" to mean for "general" audiences but to be designed specifically for very young children. The "PG" rating no longer is a suggestion for "parental guidance," but rather clues adults to the fact that this film might still be entertaining for them even though it should be okay for children to see and really takes the place of what the old "G" was originally intended to imply. (A good example is the recent DESPICABLE ME and its sequel, which 40 years ago would have both been rated G by any sensible people.) Of course certain people are especially sensitive today when it comes to what they think others should or shouldn't be exposed to or warned about (just like censor boards in the 1920s and 30s). I expect if they resubmitted GONE WITH THE WIND these days it would change from a G to a PG or PG13. Hitchcock's PSYCHO was changed from a PG to an R in the 80s and thereafter very likely disappointed many teenagers expecting to see an R-rated movie like those they were familiar with.

[Mike Gebert]

(Actually I'm trying to think??? I once saw a part-3D movie?? I think it was a Harry Potter film, and they did that - they had a flashing notice saying "PUT ON YOUR GLASSES" - and it kind of ruined the cinematic experience)

Superman Returns did that. I actually preferred it to seeing everything in 3D. But I also would have preferred only seeing its one good sequence at all (the space shuttle rescue is terrific, the rest of the movie is a snooze).

[westegg]

Hitchcock's PSYCHO was changed from a PG to an R in the 80s and thereafter very likely disappointed many teenagers expecting to see an R-rated movie like those they were familiar with.[/quote]

Believe me, GWTW would get a PG13 simply because a Yankee deserter gets graphically shot in the face by Scarlett O"Hara! I agree the criteria is radically different now, and rather absurd since it reduces a G rating to the most ultra-innocuous level imagineable when it once, even retrofitted among classic films, still would fit. I mean...CASABLANCA a PG? CITIZEN KANE? Don't get me started on "smoking" now being a ratings issue! My main objection though is a kind of revisionist history going on, albeit on a minor level. But it also does a G rating a disservice--the concept has been totally diluted so that, yes, A PG nowadays (PLANES, anybody?) is virtually the new G. I just hope a reissue of BEN HUR doesn't get an R--after all, all those tumblin' chariots!

P.S. THE CONJURING baffled some with its R rating, since it lacks, from what I understand, the usual gore and explicitness. It's simply very scary, according to the MPAA, in overall tone. Then too, a film it's been compared with, THE HAUNTING (1963), has a G rating, and it's terrifying in the same way. So it goes.

[fwtep]

I know this has gone off topic, but... The original Planet of the Apes is rated G. And not only is there a ton of violence (not bloody, but still), but Heston's naked in one scene.

[westegg]

I know this has gone off topic, but... The original Planet of the Apes is rated G. And not only is there a ton of violence (not bloody, but still), but Heston's naked in one scene.

There's quite a bit of nakedness in that movie, plus of course Heston's rather profane outburst at the end. How times have changed.

As for OZ, yes it's a bit scary but a G rating shouldn't be limited to a three year old's sensitivity. By the way, as a kid i found the Munchkinland sequence the most disturbing scene in the movie!

[Danny Burk]

I was terrified of the flying monkeys and couldn't watch that part on its next airing. Come to think of it, I still shudder whenever I see a monkey fly by my window.

[Lamar]

I know this has gone off topic, but... The original Planet of the Apes is rated G. And not only is there a ton of violence (not bloody, but still), but Heston's naked in one scene.

When Apes was first released, Spring 1968, the MPAA ratings hadn't been implemented yet. November 1968 was when that started. I was curious and looked up ads from 1968 in NYT and Chicago Tribune-other movies had "For Mature Audiences" in the ads but not Apes. The reviews surprised me a bit, Renata Adler in NYT hated Apes. She must've got some grief for it since a bit later she did a piece assuring audiences that it was ok to like something she didn't. Trib gave it a grudging good review.

[Richard P. May]

I was working at the now gone Lakeside Theater in Oklahoma City a century or so ago, and we ran THE WIZARD OF OZ for a Saturday kiddie show. I thought the kiddies would be scared when the witch went up in flames, but no, that didn't phase them.
They were out in the lobby during the tornado. Oklahoma being tornado country, there were warnings on weather programs all the time, and they were really sensitized to that depiction.

Years later, I was working at the MetroColor Laboratory, and all prints were being made with reels 1 and the end of reel 5 in plain black and white, with the color sections in Eastman Color. I take some credit with persuading the proper people at the lab to print the sepia sections on color stock, timed for the proper brown tone. I was told by the customer rep that the producer would have to authorize it. Arthur Freed being long gone, they accepted documentation in Aljean Harmetz's book on the making of the picture, where it was noted about the sepia sections, and from then on prints were made properly.

[s.w.a.c.]

I wonder how many people will turn up with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on their iPods?

[westegg]

I still recall the early '60s telecasts in which Danny Kaye (I think) warned viewers that the early scenes would be in black & white. I wonder at what point that bit of information ended. I know the little preamble of text vanished after awhile to make way for more commercial time.

[All Darc]

I see a problem in some cases, when thinking about 3D conversion.

The sets, with forced perspective, painted backgrounds in the studio set, to simulate sky and horizon.
How to put 3D depth on it if the real 3D depth of the set would just make much easir to feel, get the sense of limited dimension of the set.

In other words, the 3D conversion could make eveyone easily notice that the background it's fake.

I'm not sure if they can add 3D depth in a diferente way, to try to transmit the feeeling that the baclground painted sheet it's more far away, and with diferente depth for each componente of the background sheet, like clouds, sky, sun, mountains etc....

[fwtep]

When you do the conversion you can make the depth be anything you want. So, for example, if you have a foreground miniature you can make it seem the proper distance away. And you can make a painted backdrop have depth.

[silentfilm]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/en ... 7513.story

'Wizard of Oz' to debut in 3-D at renovated Chinese Theatre
'Wizard of Oz' will be shown in Imax's 3-D format at the Hollywood landmark, which has undergone a $5-million renovation.


By Richard Verrier

August 6, 2013, 5:00 a.m.

As it moves into the digital future, the former Grauman's Chinese Theatre will draw from its Hollywood past when it unveils a giant Imax auditorium with a 3-D screening of "The Wizard of Oz."

The new theater, now called TCL Chinese Theatre Imax, will reopen to the public next month with a digitally remastered version of the classic that held its Hollywood premiere at the Chinese in 1939. The Chinese has been closed for renovations since May 1.

TCL partnered with Warner Bros. and Imax to release "The Wizard of Oz" in Imax 3-D format. The theater will host a private premiere at the theater Sept. 15, followed by an exclusive one-week engagement at the Chinese and other Imax theaters across North America beginning Sept. 20.

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"This film and the TCL Chinese Theatre are among the best-known and most-beloved icons of Hollywood filmmaking, and of course, the amazing Imax technology represents the future of filmmaking," said Alwyn Hight Kushner, president and chief operating officer for TCL Chinese Theatres. "It's going to be a game changer for the film industry and the city of Hollywood."

The iconic Hollywood Boulevard theater will feature a 90-foot-wide, 46-foot-tall screen in an auditorium that will seat 932 people. It will be the world's largest Imax auditorium in terms of seating capacity among about 730 theaters worldwide.

Consumers will pay a premium to watch Dorothy and her companions on the giant screen in 3-D: Tickets for the "Oz" screening will cost $19.

"There are very few people alive who've ever seen 'Wizard of Oz' in a movie theater, let alone an Imax movie theater," said Richard Gelfond, chief executive of Imax Corp. "We've been surprised by the level of interest we've had in it."

TCL has invested more than $5 million in the renovations, which also include new LEDs on the interior and exterior of the building. Plans to replace the marquee are still underway.

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The renovations involved removing the flooring and seating of the Chinese Theatre and did not disturb historic features, such as the ornate lighting fixtures, murals and medallions.

"The Chinese decor has been completely preserved and protected," Kushner said.

Imax plans to make TCL Chinese Theatre one of its main venues for holding premieres of big-budget action movies. The remodeled Chinese will feature stadium seating, as well as a new Imax sound system and digital projector, with plans to replace it with a laser projector system that Imax is adding to its circuit.

Following a model that it has used in other venues, Imax will sell its equipment to the owners and receive a percentage of ticket sales.

"It's a very big deal for us," said Greg Foster, CEO of Imax Entertainment. "It's sort of the perfect manifestation of what we're supposed to do, which is provide an experience for moviegoers that can't be replicated elsewhere."

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The storied Hollywood Boulevard theater, best known for its giant red Chinese pagoda, 30-foot-tall Chinese dragon and footprints and handprints of famous stars in concrete, opened in 1927 and was declared a historic and cultural landmark in 1968. Judy Garland, the star of "Wizard of Oz," was the honoree for the 50th handprint ceremony in the forecourt in 1939.

The Chinese is one of the most popular tourism draws in Los Angeles. It was the site of the Academy Award ceremonies in the 1940s and has hosted numerous high-profile premieres.

Warner Bros. spent years on the digital remastering of "The Wizard of Oz."

"We couldn't be happier to partner with Imax as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of this iconic film," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures. "We are excited to give fans the rare opportunity to see this stunning version on the big screen."

richard.verrier(at)latimes.com