While Hollywood execs wander around with their pants down, punishing their fans as a way of combating piracy, uber director James Cameron says he knows how to solve the problem. He suggests that instead of price gouging and anti-piracy propaganda, filmmakers deliver a better movie going experience.
Cameron proclaimed his industry to be in a “war for survival”, and he believes the way to win is to wow audiences with better special effects and new movie technology. Like George Lucas, Cameron has always been a big pusher of new technologies in the film industry. For several years now he’s been in an underwater sub shooting schools of fish as a way to perfect his latest innovation, a truly 3-D movie experience.
Cameron describes his new 3-D technology as a “powerful experience” and he tells The Hollywood Reporter that he’s considering a re-issue of Titanic in 3-D. He is not however, considering releasing his work on teeny tiny cell phones. He believes that’s the wrong direction, and thinks they should be looking for ways to make the movie watching experience bigger and better, not smaller and more pedestrian. "I don't want that grand, visionary, transporting movie experience made for the big screen to become a thing of the past,” he says.
The future Cameron’s pushing for may happen. Several upcoming films will be compatible with his 3-D format. Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf is being shot using 3-D techniques, Disney’s upcoming Meet the Robinsons will be projected in 3-D, George Lucas is toying with the idea of re-releasing the original Star Wars movies in 3-D, and director Peter Jackson may do the same for King Kong at some point.
This is exactly the kind of innovative thinking Hollywood needs, instead of a give up attitude that pushes towards shifting focus onto DVDs and arresting people for sharing their favorite movies. If you want to get people in theaters and away from downloading low resolution copies of your movies on their computer, then give them a compelling reason to show up. Give them an experience they can’t get at home.
