In a project that marries the top two trends of contemporary cinema (3D and vampires), Twentieth Century Fox is developing a movie based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. This project is the hottest option material in Hollywood right now and Fox won a fierce bidding war for the rights to the story (the price they bought it for is still undisclosed). The film will be directed by Timur Bekmambetv (Wanted) and the budget has been set at about $70 million. Production is due to start in March.
This new movie has resounding implications for what drives consumers. Five years go, someone pitching a 3D movie about Abe Lincoln as a vampire hunter would have been laughed out of the room. But now that Twilight has ruined the American movie-going public, the big studios are salivating over the moneymaking potential of this story. Slap a 3D tag on it, charge an extra $3 and boom – a guaranteed cash cow.
The vampire fad will probably fade soon, but is 3-D here to stay? To answer this question, one must first ask, why do people like 3-D movies? Could it be that consumers like 3-D because it mimics the live action nature of theater productions? A more reasonable answer is that the 3-D effect makes each audience member feel like they are targeted and part of the show. Audience members see the same images coming out at them and each one feels like he or she is the only one that sees it that way. 3-D’s ability to break the fourth wall is what attracts consumers. 3-D movies have been around since the 50s but with these new technological breakthroughs – like in Avatar where James Cameron invented a camera that shoots in 3-D (it has two lenses that mimic the human eye) – the mainstream public has taken a greater liking.
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