The disaster film genre was originally thought to be left behind in the dust of the 70’s with The Poseidon Adventure and Earthquake.
However, the genre has lived on, albeit in a different form, with Roland Emmerich (ID4, 2012) the current master of disaster. We also recently discussed an upcoming disaster flick called Skyscraper, which will star Paul Walker, and should be a throwback to The Towering Inferno.
Although Earthquake pioneered the gimmick of Sensurround, which was sort of a precursor to THX, there hasn’t really been one in 3D.
This is going to change very soon, because a 3D earthquake film is already in the work, and now the Hollywood Reporter tells us about a movie called Inferno in Hong Kong, which is being made by the country’s own “genre specialists” Oxide and Danny Pang, who are twin brothers, and who also gave us Bangkok Dangerous.
The Reporter also tells us the filmmaking duo are the first in Hong Kong who’ve worked in 3D. Danny was also the editor on Infernal Affairs, which got remade in America as The Departed.
As you can tell by the title, this is a movie about a big blaze, and the heroic firefighters trying to stop it. Even if it’s CGI flames, a fire flick in 3D could be enormous fun, and in Hong Kong they’ll be able to pull it off for a mere pittance, an $18 million dollar budget. Let’s see an American studio do that.
3D is also apparently taking off in mainland China, and it should be interesting to see what develops from here. A disaster film in 3D is a good idea, a chop socky film in 3D could also be enormous fun. In fact, The Reporter mentions a recent 3D martial arts film, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, and the title alone, which to me reminds me of Master of the Flying Guillotine or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is cool. Actually, both Flying Guillotine or Crouching Tiger in 3D would be pretty wild, and how about an Enter the Dragon 3D conversion too while we’re at it?
