By Kevin Lally
I'm just back from Sony Pictures' party for their new film 21 at Vegas' revamped Planet Hollywood, which had no shortage of comfort food, liquor, and scantily clad dancing girls and aerial acrobats. So you'll indulge me if this post is brief and possibly incoherent.
21, based on the true story of a group of brilliant MIT students who scammed the Vegas blackjack tables by counting cards, was filmed on location all over Vegas and the very same Planet Hollywood, so it was an absolute natural for a ShoWest premiere. The film has exceedingly stylish direction by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde), an engaging lead performance by Jim Sturgess of Across the Universe, and looks to be yet another hit out of this year's ShoWest. The screening at the Bally's Jubilee Theatre was also a great showcase for Sony Electronics' super-sharp 4K digital projection technology.
3D technology also starred at ShoWest today, first with a surprisingly charming excerpt from Summit Entertainment and nWave Entertainment's August animated release Fly Me to the Moon, about three flies who stow away on the first Apollo mission to the Moon. The images, presented in Dolby Digital 3D, were gratifyingly detailed, and the film itself is equally suitable for both educational venues and traditional cinemas. Capitalizing on every conceivable profit window, director Ben Stassen's project is already a four-and-a-half-minute ride film and a 13-minute theme park attraction--plus there's a shorter version for IMAX institutional theatres.
In an industry first, ShoWest also screened the very first live-action digital 3D feature, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, which originated as a New Line project and will be going out this summer under the Warner Bros. banner. We can't review the film just yet, but we will tell you it has enough rollercoaster-like rides and scary monsters (here presented via Real D) to ensure a healthy box-office postscript for the one of the movie business' most fabled independents, New Line Cinema.
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