Look the term 'post conversion 3D hack job' up in the movie making dictionary and you would probably be met with a still from last year's Clash of the Titans. It's pretty much widely regarded as one of the worst examples of the process and something new director
Jonathan Liebesman is seeking to make right in his sequel
Wrath of The Titans, which it was revealed today
begins filming a week on Monday. With his upcoming alien invasion flick Battle: Los Angeles hitting screens in a little over a week and a half, it's junket time - giving the director the platform to be let it be known his opinions on why the post conversion process failed last time round and how he can do it better...and, indeed, why he's doing it at all.
Speaking to Cinematical he said;
"I think what you have to remember is the first film was neither shot nor edited with 3D in mind. It was shot as a 2D movie and edited as a 2D film, and they decided to convert it with six or seven weeks to go until release, which is insane; the technology was not there. That's why we're conceiving it from the start, from the ground up, in 3D, editing in 3D for 3D."
So this will be a more sophisticated, thought out conversion then the blatant cash grab that was 2010s effort, presumably. But why is he not shooting in 3D to start with?
"The big question was to shoot native 3D or not. I tested a lot of digital cameras, and quite frankly, because I'm going for a sort of much grittier, grounded look in 'Clash 2,' the look I want is almost 'Gladiator' with fantastical creatures in it, I found that the characteristics of film were more what I was going for." "I didn't want to convert, but Warner Brothers showed me how far conversion's come. You've got Chris Nolan doing 'Inception,' converting the DVD, you've got 'Harry Potter' being converted, 'Star Wars' being converted, so the conversion process has improved dramatically in the past two years. I'm comfortable with the conversion. But for the genre, I just feel like I have to shoot on film; I don't know, it just has that texture."
Well it seems like he's got his game-plan set and the 'Gladiator with monsters' comment is an interesting take on the material and tone. He's making all the right noises at the moment, all he needs to do now is get a decent, animated performance out of
Sam Worthington, which may be the toughest task of all. The film is pegged for a March 30, 2012 release date and finds Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes reprising their roles from the original alongside the recently added Edgar Ramirez (Ares, The God of War), Toby Kebbell (Agenor) and Rosamund Pike (Andromeda).