By MICHAEL CIEPLY
LOS ANGELES - A joke going around online involves a pair of red and green glasses and some blurry letters that say “If you can’t make it good, make it 3-D.” While Hollywood rushes dozens of 3-D movies to the screen ? nearly 60 are planned in the next two years ? a rebellion has arisen among some filmmakers and viewers . Several influential directors publicly criticized the 3-D boom during the recent Comic-Con International pop culture convention in San Diego, California.
“When you put the glasses on, everything gets dim,” said J. J. Abrams, whose two-dimensional “Star Trek” earned $385 million at the worldwide box office for Paramount Pictures last year.
With the enormous 3-D success of “Avatar,” directed by James Cameron, followed by “Alice in Wonderland,” by Tim Burton, film marketing and distribution executives have been clamoring for more. But Joss Whedon said he flatly opposed a plan by Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer to convert “The Cabin in the Woods,” a horror film he produced that has not yet been released, into 3-D. “What we’re hoping to do,” Mr. Whedon said, “is to be the only horror movie coming out that is not in 3-D.” A 3-D movie can be somewhat more costly than a 2-D equivalent because it may require more elaborate cameras and shooting techniques or an additional process in postproduction .
But the added costs are minimal when weighed against higher ticket sales. Tickets for 3-D films carry a $3 to $5 premium, and industry executives roughly estimate that 3-D pictures average an extra 20 percent at the box office. But Mr. Whedon and Mr. Abrams argue that 3-D technology does little to enhance a cinematic story . “It hasn’t changed anything, except it’s going to make it harder to shoot,” Mr. Whedon said . Christopher Nolan recently warded off suggestions that his film “Inception ” might be converted to 3-D.
On the other hand, Michael Bay, who is shooting “Transformers 3,” appears to have agreed that his film will be at least partly in 3-D . “We’ve always said it’s all about balance,” said Greg Foster, the president and chairman of Imax Filmed Entertainment, which has long counseled that some films are better in 2-D .
“The world is catching up to that approach.” A willingness to shoot in 3-D could persuade studio committees to approve an expensive film. But the disdain of some filmmakers for 3-D ? at least in connection with their current projects ? was on full display in San Diego.
Jon Favreau, speaking about his coming “Cowboys & Aliens,” said the idea of doing the movie in 3-D had come up, but he was not interested. Contemporary 3-D requires a digital camera, and “Westerns should only be shot on film,” Mr. Favreau said. He added: “Use the money you save to see it twice.”
