It seems like 3D is all the rage these days, and Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Pacific Rim film may be forcibly converted to the struggling format – whether the veteran director wants it or not.
As you may recall, Pacific Rim is Guillermo’s first new film he’s directed since Hellboy II: The Golden Army. It promises to be a big sci-fi epic with giant robots battling giant monsters, and the robots are controlled by two people, who try to save the world like a giant video game.
Sounds cool, right? And it’s an original movie not based on a comic book, a previous movie, or a video game, glory hallelujah. Sounds perfect for 3D right? What, no?
As Collider notes, Del Torohas gone on record as saying he doesn’t want to make the movie in 3D because it could take the perspective out of the film.
“To force the 3D effect on robots and monsters that are supposed to be that high, you’re making them miniaturized, you’re making them human-scale. I knew that the 3D effect sounded like a great idea, but it was gonna be counter,” he said.
But as Collider also points out, China has become a big market for movies, and right now they’ll only show American films in 3D or IMAX. And indeed, the foreign market is crucial for the success of a lot of films these days, especially with budgets continuing to spiral into infinity.
Still, as the site GiantFreakinRobot feels, with a 3D conversion, Warner Brothers “can add a surcharge to every ticket sold for Pacific Rim, whether or not the film calls for it. It’s a business decision rather than an artistic one, and you can’t really blame them for wanting to make more money. That said, it is annoying to see a director’s vision overruled by bottom-line thinking.”
You also wonder with some filmmakers if they’ll have to put provisions in their deals against this, and you also wonder why del Toro doesn’t have enough say to prevent a forcible 3D conversion not to happen. As we saw this summer with The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Brothers reportedly put pressure on Christopher Nolan to make the film in hi-def 3D, and he refused to do both.
But then again, giant robots battling giant monsters could be pretty amazing in 3D too if it’s done right. In the States, Pacific Rim will be hitting the theaters in both regular and 3D format on July 12, 2013.
