3D disaster

Paramount is making 3D a recipe for disaster. There's no other way to explain it. Studios thought they had a cure for the box office slump. Nope. It was not the answer and never was. It used to be an event...for movies such as animated features. Thing is that 3D simply just doesn't work on live action unless it was filmed with 3D cameras and with the 3D vision from the get go. That's why a film such as Avatar worked, even if the story was one that had already done.

However, audiences just don't want to keep paying the premiums for 3D movies. It's just too much. Never mind the food factor. Just read this excerpt from Deadline:

Just how pushy is Paramount with theater owners on Transformers 3? Well, The New York Times has this interesting detail today: that Michael Bay last week called the chief executives of major theater chains to implore them to show Transformers: Dark Of The Moon in a way that burns out projector bulbs more quickly but makes 3D look brighter and sharper. That's because there's been a continuing problem that "the darkness of 3D is starting to impact movie satisfaction," media analyst Rich Greenfield tells me. "This was a key problem with Pirates 3D, with both Green Lantern and Harry Potter starting off with darker imagery and then layering on 3D glasses that darken the images further."

It gets worse. Via Deadline, we also learned that unless the early screening on Tuesday night next week is in 3D, they wouldn't be able to play the film at all. This also effectively screws other movies when you think about it.

And the studio is telling theaters it's a four-week minimum in their Digital theater. This strategy succeeds in keeping Pixar's Cars 2 out of some digital runs, which will cut back the grosses while forcing Warner Bros' Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows Part 2 out of 3D dates as well.

While those movies will likely sell less 3D tickets, audience goers will pay the cheaper prices for a quality 2D screening. I prefer a digital presentation as it is.

Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore would say only this about his studio's 3D strategy: "The best thing for 3D was Avatar giving people a spectacular 3D experience. The goodwill towards 3D lasted just over a year. Transformers 3 can give 3D the shot in the arm. That's what would be great for 3D and the industry."

Avatar was a unique situation. As much as Transformers brings in, it won't replace the success that Avatar was due to all the explosions.

In other film news, David Wain has not quite announced a sequel to Wet Hot American Summer, now a cult comedy classic, but all the stars (now bigger names in the industry) are open to returning for another round.

In recent years, several members of its once largely unknown cast — which also includes Amy Poehler and Bradley Cooper — have become major stars. “It’s been discussed over the last decade in various forms and incarnations,” says Rudd of a Wet Hot sequel. “I think we would all be up for doing it.”

Wet Hot director David Wain and his co-writer Michael Showalter confirmed to EW they have been seriously thinking about writing a second film set at Camp Firewood and may start work on the screenplay later this year. “I really hope it happens,” says Showalter, who stars in the original movie as the lovelorn Coop. “I’m really excited for the idea of a sequel, or a prequel, or for the first-ever movie that is both a prequel and a sequel. Although David pointed out that that’s Godfather II.”

As for salaries?

While Wet Hot American Summer cost a mere $1.8 million, the budget for any possible sequel would be many times that if the cast’s most famous members demanded the kind of wages they are now accustomed to earning. However, Banks, Rudd, and several other Wet Hot alumni told EW they would be happy to appear in Wet Hot 2 for essentially nothing. “Look, any chance to get that group of people all together in a room I will take,” says Banks, who is currently shooting The Hunger Games. “It’s been such a blessing on my life that I got to be included in that circle of people.”