Jim here. No surprise here really with this year's success of horror films in stereoscopic 3D. Variety reports that Bob Weinstein is pushing 3D on his aptly named Dimension shingle and pushing it in a big way.
SPY KIDS 4 is being written right now by Robert Rodriguez and will begin lensing in March 2010 in partnership with Disney. If you will remember, SPY KIDS 3D did exceptionally well at the box office before modern 3D took over - they used the terrible old red and blue glasses. SK3 took in $197,011,982 worldwide. Obviously Dimension wants to repeat or better that result.
We now know that Patrick Lussier (MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D) will be helming HALLOWEEN III and Weinstein has this property high on his list - look for launch in October 2010 - yep most likely head to head with SAW VI (October 23). By the way, SAW VII has been confirmed to be 3D - but we knew that was coming since January didn't we?
So lets see here now, what else is going 3D? How about the HELLRAISER franchise? Pinhead himself will grace the silver screens once again but this time in 3D! This is one series I am really looking forward to - hopefully they land the right director.
SCANNERS will also explode into 3D. No word on whether David Cronenberg will come back to reprise as director - and no, the only 3D headaches will be ON the screen :-)
Weinstein did mention a couple of other reboots that I am assuming could also make it to 3D: SCREAM (Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette have all signed on) and CHILDREN OF THE CORN (the 3D would be amazing hovering over the swaying cornfields at eye level - they HAVE to do this!)
Further on financing Weinstein said: "There is no question that financing is readily available to produce and market these films. I am eager to expand our scope in the 3D business."
Remains to be seen if they shoot in native 3D or go the 2D to 3D conversion route in post production. I suspect that once they choose a path they will stick with it with all of their properties. I have not heard either way on this yet and will post as soon as I hear something.
Oh and in case you were wondering how 3D has been doing lately? CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS will be owning the box office for the second weekend in a row, so far with a stellar $5.6 million on Friday besting SURROGATES. This after a gigantic showing by THE FINAL DESTINATION earlier in the month. See where I am going with this?
Not only is 3D here to stay, it is now the standard for horror and animation. Next up? SciFi. Sometime around December 18th I believe... :-)
**UPDATE: September 2 - Rumors have the director for HALLOWEEN 3D as being Steve Miner (H20, HOUSE, WARLOCK, FRIDAY THE 13TH 2 & 3). Interesting!!
Jim here. As my friend Matthew has pointed out to me - "Soon it will be news when a new movie *isn't* in 3D". And he is soooo right.
Two more 3D movies are getting greenlit:
Nicholas Cage has signed on to star in DRIVE ANGRY - a story about a father who exacts revenge on the roads for the murder of his daughter and the kidnapping of her baby. Bodies are left on the roads as the death toll mounts - reminds me of a cross between DEATH RACE 2000 and DEATH WISH.
From HeatVision: "Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Avi Lerner and Boaz Davidson are executive producing for Nu Image/Millennium, which is planning to begin production in April in Louisiana; the company has a new $10 million studio in Shreveport, La.
"Angry" will be the first foray into 3D for Nu Image/Millenium and marks a return to the format for Lussier. The director, who got his feature start editing horror movies for Wes Craven, last directed "My Bloody Valentine 3D," which grossed $51 million domestically this year."
Here is the good news - Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier wrote the story and the latter will be directing. I feel MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D was done very well for the money involved and DRIVE ANGRY should bring in the masses for Nu Image / Millenium Films. Cage has got legions of fans - especially overseas.
Ready for Nic Cage in 3D? The time has come! :-) Shooting is slated for April 2010 in Louisiana.
Secondly we have HALLOWEEN 3D being offered up from the Weinsteins - which makes perfect sense to me. With THE FINAL DESTINATION kicking HALLOWEEN 2's butt this weekend, they weren't going to not go 3D for the next iteration of the re-energized franchise. However it will have to be without Rob Zombie this time around as he is committed to making THE BLOB.
From the LATimes: "The investment it takes to shoot movies in digital 3-D has proved particularly lucrative for horror films. For "The Final Destination," this weekend's No. 1 movie, theaters with at least one 3-D screen earned 3.25 times as much as those that showed the movie in 2-D only, according to distributor Warner Bros."
Bob Weinstein said the studio is talking with a new helmer for H3D who he did not want to name at this time - but did say that this director has a "different take" on the franchise and is experienced in horror.
Who will the Weinstein's get for HALLOWEEN 3D? Any wagers? Sounds like a no brainer to me though: Make a movie for $15 million and have it easily recouped the first weekend? Wow. Seeing FD do so well though made them stop and think "what if". Not anymore. Look for HALLOWEEN 3D in the summer of next year.
Stay tuned for more about HALLOWEEN 3D and DRIVE ANGRY when I get it.
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Jim here. No surprise here really with this year's success of horror films in stereoscopic 3D. Variety reports that Bob Weinstein is pushing 3D on his aptly named Dimension shingle and pushing it in a big way.
