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James Cameron Signs Deal With Panasonic to Promote 3D-TVs, 'Avatar'
Yuri Kageyama/AP
August 21, 2009
TOKYO – “Titanic” director James Cameron has signed on with Panasonic Corp. to promote new 3-D TVs.
The deal disclosed Friday comes as Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. are aiming to break new ground with the release of “Avatar,” a movie shot entirely in 3-D.
At the same time, Panasonic is making a big push to get consumers excited about three-dimensional viewing in the home – excited enough to buy new flat-panel sets and new Blu-ray disc players. Consumers will have to wear special glasses to experience the 3-D effect.
Panasonic is planning to start selling 3-D TVs next year. Rivals, including Sony Corp., which has its own movie division, and Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea have shown prototypes and may offer similar products. It’s not clear how much 3-D TVs would cost.
The manufacturers face a problem in that 3-D content is scarce. There’s also no agreement on a disc or broadcast format to bring the content to TV sets, though the industry group behind the Blu-ray disc may be close to finalizing a standard.
Several animation films are already being shown in theaters in 3-D, along with a handful of live-action movies. “Avatar,” set for release Dec. 18, will be the biggest major Hollywood film to debut worldwide in both 2-D and 3-D.
“I believe 3-D is how we will experience movies, gaming and computing in the near future. 3-D is not something you watch. It’s a reality you feel you could step into,” Cameron said on video.
Panasonic is hoping its collaboration with Cameron will give its brand an edge as a 3-D leader, and give the company ideas for technological improvements for home TVs, said General Manager Masayuki Kozuka.
“We want to get global interest rolling,” he told The Associated Press. “For people to want to watch 3-D at home, the movie has to be a blockbuster.”
Panasonic plans to have several trailer-vans driving around in the U.S. and Europe next month with large-screen 3-D TVs inside showing “Avatar.” In Japan, footage from “Avatar” – a science-fiction romance set in a futuristic jungle inhabited by creatures evocative of Cameron’s “Aliens” – will appear in ads for 3-D TVs. Cameron developed a new computer-controlled 3-D camera system for the movie.
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.
© 2009, YellowBrix, Inc._
Justen
3 months ago
212 comments
@scott: it may be because it requires a special screen to produce the polarized output (a theater would need a special projector). I'm not sure about that, but it makes sense.
The problem with this technology that nobody is addressing is that it isn't really 3D. It's more like 2.5d in a little box (or a big box on a bigger screen). In any case it doesn't give a real sensation of depth, just a lot of cheap effects with things flying out of the screen at you. I wouldn't drop a dime extra for that experience, personally. If they want to do it at the theater, fine, but fucked if I'm going to replace half my hardware so that blood splatters will come flying at my face, then suddenly disappear as they reach the edge of the screen dimensions :P
scotlynhatt
3 months ago
30 comments
I am pretty sure new movies exclusively use the polarized gray glasses now. IMAX uses them as well. For some reason the Pepsi shows on NBC last year still used the Red/Blue. Probably a money issue.
HernanJV
3 months ago
38 comments
I'm for the 3D experience as long as it does not require the viewer to use the red and blue glasses. Instead the 3D experience should allow users to use 3D glasses that Disney uses for its Disneyland atrractions.