Appearing at the ShoWest, a yearly trade show for movie theater owners, George Lucas announced that he was planning to re-master all the Star Wars films for release in 3-D.  Lucas was just one of six high profile directors urging theater owners to install digital projection equipment so they could take advantage of a striking new 3-D process developed by the Agoura Hills, California company, In-Three.  Lucas hopes to have the original Star Wars film, A New Hope, ready for release in 3-D in time for its thirtieth anniversary in 2007 and then release the series in order at a rate of one film per year.

 

Lucas was joined in his plea for the adoption of digital projection by other A-list directors including James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis, Robert Rodriguez, Randal Kleiser and Peter Jackson (by way of a pre-taped 3-D segment).  Lucas presented clips from Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones that had been processed into the new 3-D format.  Cameron announced that his next film, Battle Angel (based on the Battle Angel Alita manga published by Viz), which is set for a 2007 release, will be released in 3-D, telling the ShoWest crowd: 'I'm a man on a mission when it comes to 3-D, I will be making all of my films in 3-D in the future.'  Rodriguez also plans to release his original 'kids' superhero feature, The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D this summer.

 

Peter Jackson, who is currently working on his version of King Kong, did not indicate that Kong would be out in 3-D next December, but he has installed 3-D equipment in his New Zealand production offices-and the beauty of this process is that it can be applied to already completed 2-D films -- Jackson showed clips from Lord of the Rings in 3-D.  This process can offer a chance to bring mega-properties back in an exciting new format that could potentially generate huge additional revenues.  Jackson told the ShoWest audience: 'It's not just the use of digital projection, which we all know is on the horizon, but that the particular technology can be used to create three-dimensional movies that go far beyond the quality and the spectacle of anything we've ever seen before.  Forget the old days of wearing the red and blue glasses and the eyestrain.  All of that is behind us now.  These new active glasses that you're wearing and seeing 3-D with are a breakthrough in technology.'