Producer Richard Rubinstein gave Fango a scoop on an interesting project he’s working on- a theatrical revival of Dawn of the Dead… in 3-D!
How’s that? But the film wasn’t shot for that! Well over at In-Three, Inc. they’re got a patented process called “dimensionalization” that can take regular film and make it look like it was shot in 3D. The process has been praised by tons of big directors like 3-D nut James Cameron, who actually used it for a few scenes in his Aliens of the Deep doc, when he needed 2D shots to match up to the rest of the film. The finished film requires some fancy glasses (no crappy red/blue or polarized glasses here), and the process supposedly produces no eye fatigue, a handy thing when you’re watching a long flick like Dawn.
“When Mike Messina [another producer on the DAWN redux] and I began to investigate using In-Three’s technique, I was very skeptical,” Rubinstein told Fango. “I couldn’t see how it could be used without re-editing George’s film, which I was not going to do. I was also concerned that converting a 29-year-old movie would not be competitive qualitatively with the new 3-D live-action features being shot today. I was wrong in both cases. George’s DAWN OF THE DEAD can be reformatted into 3-D without any editing, and the image looks spectacular! As it stands now, it will take about a year to complete the conversion of the whole film.”
A year would allow them the perfect timing to capitalize on the 30th anniversary of the movie in 2009. Rubinstein’s no stranger to movie, as he’s the guy who produced both versions of Dawn, as well as some other Romero films like the Creepshows and the underrated Knightriders.
Tony Timpone was given a look at a few finished scenes and liked what he saw. “I was blown away over how easily DAWN OF THE DEAD lends itself to 3-D,” he says. “This is not a gimmick. Romero’s film looks better than ever, and the extra dimension adds, well, another vibrant dimension to Romero’s masterpiece. I can’t wait to see the final product when it emerges in 2009. The idea of seeing a spiffed up DAWN (the original!) on the big screen again is a cause for celebration.”
Well, that’s definitely true. If you haven’t seen Dawn in the theaters, it’s certainly a unique experience… let’s just hope that this process works in the film’s favor. Does this mean we’ll be seeing similar revivals in the future? If this is successful (and really, how could it not be?), I’m guessing that it will.
Rubinstein’s got a few other interesting projects in the works as well, like the new Peter Berg-directed version of Dune and a sequel to the original Dawn of the Dead.
Wait, wait, wait, what the hell? It’s supposedly a direct sequel, as well. We going to see Ken Foree and Gaylen Ross chilling on an island somewhere?
I’m not quite sure how well this will pan out, but it’s better than another damn remake, I suppose.