POTTER’S NEW TRICK
EVERYONE’S favorite teen wizard unveils some new movie magic in his latest big-screen adventure – the last 20 minutes of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” will be shown in 3-D at IMAX theaters.
In a move sure to accelerate Hollywood’s latest love affair with three-dimensional movies – several high-profile projects by filmmakers like James Cameron are in the pipeline – Warners asked IMAX to convert the conventionally produced 2-D climax of the Potter blockbuster, opening Wednesday.
“The last 20 minutes in IMAX 3-D will add a new element of excitement to the Harry Potter experience, making this a must-see for fans of all ages,” says Veronika Kwan-Rubinek of Warner Bros. International.
These exclusive photos provided by IMAX offer Post readers a rare peek at the top-secret digital wizardry involved in converting a conventionally produced movie to 3-D – a process that has been used for only one other live-action feature, last summer’s “Superman Returns.”
In the climactic sequence pictured, Harry (again played by Daniel Radcliffe) and his fellow Hogwarts students, including blonde Luna Lovegood (played by Evanna Lynch) are flying on Thestrals – magical creatures who can only be observed by people who have seen death.
They’re headed for Ministry of Magic headquarters in London for a face-off with the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and the other Death Eaters.
“It’s a very classic, good guy/bad guy finale,” says IMAX Chairman Greg Foster, who reveals it took six weeks to convert the footage to the 3-D IMAX format, which will be shown on massive screens up to eight stories tall.
Foster says the film was delivered in a digital format after special effects were added and then painstakingly re-mastered for IMAX 3-D in a frame-by-frame process.
He’s reluctant to reveal the precise details, except to say that “within each frame, there’s going to various planes and dimensions.
“Basically, we use computers to identify key objects and determine the three-dimensional depth for each object. It’s a highly mathematical process.”
The goal is to newly render these objects three-dimensionally – by separating them into two images that are carefully calibrated to mimic the separation between human eyes that produces depth perception.
Both slightly different images are projected at the same time on huge IMAX projectors. By wearing special polarized glasses that separate the two images for the left and right eyes, the three-dimensional effect is finally delivered to the audience.
“You experience it in a very first-person way, right at the tip of your nose,” Foster says. “When I take my glasses off and watch the audience, I see a lot of people ducking as objects come right at them.”
The IMAX 3-D version of “Superman Returns” did far better on a per-theater basis than the regular 2-D version did, just like “The Polar Express,” one of several animated films that were converted by IMAX to 3-D in their entirety.
“The Ant Bully” didn’t work in either format, but “Open Season” was more successful.
Plans to convert “Happy Feet” were scrapped because there wasn’t enough time to remaster the animated flick after it was completed. IMAX is currently working on a 3-D version of the motion-capture-animation “Beowulf” from director Robert Zemeckis, due in November.
Meanwhile, there are at least three other rival processes to convert regular flicks to 3-D for normal-size screens, which have been employed by studios like Disney (“Meet the Robinsons”) and Sony (“Monster House”) with mixed box-office results.
And it looks like this time 3-D seems to have more staying power than in its two earlier incarnations, in the mid-1950s and the mid-1980s.
Just last week, DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg told an exhibitors convention in Europe that he expected the studio’s entire animation output would be available in 3-D by 2009.
“I want to see the movie business migrate to 3-D,” Katzenberg told the Times of London. “As the man says, I’ve put DreamWorks’ money where its mouth is!”
Also in 2009, James Cameron (who has produced a couple of 3-D documentaries) is scheduled to deliver the sci-fi epic “Avatar,” his long-awaited follow-up to “Titanic” that is probably the costliest and most ambitious flick ever produced in a 3-D format.
Steven Spielberg is also said to be interested in making a 3-D movie, and one appeal of the format for the studios is that camcorder pirates simply cannot copy a 3-D movie because it contains two images.
There has also been talk about converting classic movies to 3-D – George Lucas has announced he’s going to redo the “Star Wars” movies, and Foster has mentioned discussions about a 3-D version of “The Wizard of Oz.”
But he says IMAX has learned to choose its 3-D projects carefully.
“3-D is not a panacea,” Foster cautions. “You need subject matter that is organic to 3-D, the sort of setting where you dream about going.
“You can’t just pick a movie and expect it’s going to be successful because it’s in 3-D. The audience is too smart for that.”
Angela Montefinise contributed to this article.
