Taking one of Hollywood's most beloved Golden Age classics like "The Wizard of Oz" and converting it to both 3D and IMAX is a heady undertaking, and one that even "Oz" experts weren't sure would work. However, on September 20, the restored "Oz" will open at IMAX theaters around the world, including the newly renamed and restored Tcl Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd, where it debuted on August 15, 1939. The release is timed to the film's 75th anniversary.
At a presentation September 9 at the Chinese Theater, officials from IMAX and Warner Bros., who now own the MGM musical, spoke about the painstaking, 16-month process by which a movie made with 1939 technology was updated for today.
"I was frightened we were taking a national treasure and I wondered, can you do it poetic justice?" said George Feltenstein, who oversees programming, presentation and marketing for the Warner Archive Collection. "I went from being skeptical to being a praiser.
At a presentation September 9 at the Chinese Theater, officials from IMAX and Warner Bros., who now own the MGM musical, spoke about the painstaking, 16-month process by which a movie made with 1939 technology was updated for today.
"I was frightened we were taking a national treasure and I wondered, can you do it poetic justice?" said George Feltenstein, who oversees programming, presentation and marketing for the Warner Archive Collection. "I went from being skeptical to being a praiser.
- 9/16/2013
- by Sharon Knolle
- Moviefone
Go behind-the-scenes with Warner Bros.’ Chief Preservation Officer, Ned Price and IMAX’s Svp Film Production, Lorne Orleans to see how one of the most iconic films of all time was re-mastered into IMAX® 3D in this exclusive IMAX featurette. Adapted from L. Frank Baum’s timeless children’s tale about a Kansas girl’s journey over the rainbow, The Wizard of Oz opened at Grauman’s Chinese Theater on August 15, 1939. The film was directed by Victor Fleming (who that same year directed Gone With the Wind), produced by Mervyn LeRoy, and scored by Herbert Stothart, with music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. Dorothy™ was portrayed by a 4'11" sixteen-year-old girl who quickly earned her reputation as “the world’s greatest entertainer”—the incomparable Judy Garland. Ray Bolger appeared...
- 9/10/2013
- by Pietro Filipponi
- The Daily BLAM!
Opened
Friday, March 12
The true test of any Imax film in 3-D is whether the film would be worth a damn without the gimmick of the large-screen format and those 3-D glasses. "NASCAR 3D: The Imax Experience" passes the test with its colors flying. The movie makes an excellent primer about the world of stock car racing for fans and nonfans alike. In 48 fast minutes, the Simon Wincer-directed film gives you a genuine sense of this particular sport, its rigorous demands and the fan base that supports it with such wildly enthusiastic devotion. Then add the excitement of 3-D and the 15/70 mm format and you get an experience and a documentary that will draw well with general audiences, especially males, at Imax theaters.
About the only thing the film is unable to accomplish is any historical perspective because, obviously, you can't put archival footage into a 3-D format. Wincer and Co. settle for an amusing opening sequence in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, circa 1949, where a couple of brazen whiskey runners speed merrily away from an outmaneuvered police car, which underscores the sport's roots in moonshine running and daredevil driving.
After that, the movie gets serious as it explores the tracks and the cars of NASCAR's (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) annual Winston Cup Series Championship. Wincer, making his second large-format film, takes you to shops where cars get custom built using precisely sculpted sheet metal and then tested and retested to maximize performance and safety. Backed by Eric Colvin's snappy music and a few rock standards, the movie details the hours of practice by drivers, pit crews and engineers, driving home the point that this is a team sport.
The film wisely doesn't focus on any one driver, but the sport itself. A narration by Mark Bechtel and delivered a little too matter-of-factly by Kiefer Sutherland gives you the minutiae -- tires used on race days cost $389 apiece -- and the big-picture thrills of cars traveling a speeds of 200 mph only inches off one another's bumpers.
Despite 3-D cameras that weigh 600 pounds, Wincer insists on getting those babies inside cars or mounted on race cars rigged as camera cars to put the viewer on the track. The movie climaxes with the season-opening Daytona 500 at that famed Florida speedway, a long sequence that captures everything about the sound-shattering event other than having to stand in long hot-dog lines.
NASCAR 3D: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures and Imax Corp.
Credits: Director: Simon Wincer
Narration writer: Mark Bechtel
Producers: Lorne Orleans, Douglas "Disco" Hylton
Executive producer: Neil Goldberg
Director of photography: James Neihouse
Music: Eric Colvin
Editor: Terry Blythe
Narrator: Kiefer Sutherland
Running time -- 48 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
Friday, March 12
The true test of any Imax film in 3-D is whether the film would be worth a damn without the gimmick of the large-screen format and those 3-D glasses. "NASCAR 3D: The Imax Experience" passes the test with its colors flying. The movie makes an excellent primer about the world of stock car racing for fans and nonfans alike. In 48 fast minutes, the Simon Wincer-directed film gives you a genuine sense of this particular sport, its rigorous demands and the fan base that supports it with such wildly enthusiastic devotion. Then add the excitement of 3-D and the 15/70 mm format and you get an experience and a documentary that will draw well with general audiences, especially males, at Imax theaters.
About the only thing the film is unable to accomplish is any historical perspective because, obviously, you can't put archival footage into a 3-D format. Wincer and Co. settle for an amusing opening sequence in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, circa 1949, where a couple of brazen whiskey runners speed merrily away from an outmaneuvered police car, which underscores the sport's roots in moonshine running and daredevil driving.
After that, the movie gets serious as it explores the tracks and the cars of NASCAR's (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) annual Winston Cup Series Championship. Wincer, making his second large-format film, takes you to shops where cars get custom built using precisely sculpted sheet metal and then tested and retested to maximize performance and safety. Backed by Eric Colvin's snappy music and a few rock standards, the movie details the hours of practice by drivers, pit crews and engineers, driving home the point that this is a team sport.
The film wisely doesn't focus on any one driver, but the sport itself. A narration by Mark Bechtel and delivered a little too matter-of-factly by Kiefer Sutherland gives you the minutiae -- tires used on race days cost $389 apiece -- and the big-picture thrills of cars traveling a speeds of 200 mph only inches off one another's bumpers.
Despite 3-D cameras that weigh 600 pounds, Wincer insists on getting those babies inside cars or mounted on race cars rigged as camera cars to put the viewer on the track. The movie climaxes with the season-opening Daytona 500 at that famed Florida speedway, a long sequence that captures everything about the sound-shattering event other than having to stand in long hot-dog lines.
NASCAR 3D: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures and Imax Corp.
Credits: Director: Simon Wincer
Narration writer: Mark Bechtel
Producers: Lorne Orleans, Douglas "Disco" Hylton
Executive producer: Neil Goldberg
Director of photography: James Neihouse
Music: Eric Colvin
Editor: Terry Blythe
Narrator: Kiefer Sutherland
Running time -- 48 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
Opened
Friday, March 12
The true test of any Imax film in 3-D is whether the film would be worth a damn without the gimmick of the large-screen format and those 3-D glasses. "NASCAR 3D: The Imax Experience" passes the test with its colors flying. The movie makes an excellent primer about the world of stock car racing for fans and nonfans alike. In 48 fast minutes, the Simon Wincer-directed film gives you a genuine sense of this particular sport, its rigorous demands and the fan base that supports it with such wildly enthusiastic devotion. Then add the excitement of 3-D and the 15/70 mm format and you get an experience and a documentary that will draw well with general audiences, especially males, at Imax theaters.
About the only thing the film is unable to accomplish is any historical perspective because, obviously, you can't put archival footage into a 3-D format. Wincer and Co. settle for an amusing opening sequence in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, circa 1949, where a couple of brazen whiskey runners speed merrily away from an outmaneuvered police car, which underscores the sport's roots in moonshine running and daredevil driving.
After that, the movie gets serious as it explores the tracks and the cars of NASCAR's (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) annual Winston Cup Series Championship. Wincer, making his second large-format film, takes you to shops where cars get custom built using precisely sculpted sheet metal and then tested and retested to maximize performance and safety. Backed by Eric Colvin's snappy music and a few rock standards, the movie details the hours of practice by drivers, pit crews and engineers, driving home the point that this is a team sport.
The film wisely doesn't focus on any one driver, but the sport itself. A narration by Mark Bechtel and delivered a little too matter-of-factly by Kiefer Sutherland gives you the minutiae -- tires used on race days cost $389 apiece -- and the big-picture thrills of cars traveling a speeds of 200 mph only inches off one another's bumpers.
Despite 3-D cameras that weigh 600 pounds, Wincer insists on getting those babies inside cars or mounted on race cars rigged as camera cars to put the viewer on the track. The movie climaxes with the season-opening Daytona 500 at that famed Florida speedway, a long sequence that captures everything about the sound-shattering event other than having to stand in long hot-dog lines.
NASCAR 3D: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures and Imax Corp.
Credits: Director: Simon Wincer
Narration writer: Mark Bechtel
Producers: Lorne Orleans, Douglas "Disco" Hylton
Executive producer: Neil Goldberg
Director of photography: James Neihouse
Music: Eric Colvin
Editor: Terry Blythe
Narrator: Kiefer Sutherland
Running time -- 48 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
Friday, March 12
The true test of any Imax film in 3-D is whether the film would be worth a damn without the gimmick of the large-screen format and those 3-D glasses. "NASCAR 3D: The Imax Experience" passes the test with its colors flying. The movie makes an excellent primer about the world of stock car racing for fans and nonfans alike. In 48 fast minutes, the Simon Wincer-directed film gives you a genuine sense of this particular sport, its rigorous demands and the fan base that supports it with such wildly enthusiastic devotion. Then add the excitement of 3-D and the 15/70 mm format and you get an experience and a documentary that will draw well with general audiences, especially males, at Imax theaters.
About the only thing the film is unable to accomplish is any historical perspective because, obviously, you can't put archival footage into a 3-D format. Wincer and Co. settle for an amusing opening sequence in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, circa 1949, where a couple of brazen whiskey runners speed merrily away from an outmaneuvered police car, which underscores the sport's roots in moonshine running and daredevil driving.
After that, the movie gets serious as it explores the tracks and the cars of NASCAR's (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) annual Winston Cup Series Championship. Wincer, making his second large-format film, takes you to shops where cars get custom built using precisely sculpted sheet metal and then tested and retested to maximize performance and safety. Backed by Eric Colvin's snappy music and a few rock standards, the movie details the hours of practice by drivers, pit crews and engineers, driving home the point that this is a team sport.
The film wisely doesn't focus on any one driver, but the sport itself. A narration by Mark Bechtel and delivered a little too matter-of-factly by Kiefer Sutherland gives you the minutiae -- tires used on race days cost $389 apiece -- and the big-picture thrills of cars traveling a speeds of 200 mph only inches off one another's bumpers.
Despite 3-D cameras that weigh 600 pounds, Wincer insists on getting those babies inside cars or mounted on race cars rigged as camera cars to put the viewer on the track. The movie climaxes with the season-opening Daytona 500 at that famed Florida speedway, a long sequence that captures everything about the sound-shattering event other than having to stand in long hot-dog lines.
NASCAR 3D: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures and Imax Corp.
Credits: Director: Simon Wincer
Narration writer: Mark Bechtel
Producers: Lorne Orleans, Douglas "Disco" Hylton
Executive producer: Neil Goldberg
Director of photography: James Neihouse
Music: Eric Colvin
Editor: Terry Blythe
Narrator: Kiefer Sutherland
Running time -- 48 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 3/15/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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