A group of the biggest Hollywood studios said Wednesday that they will invest more than $1 billion to upgrade 20,000 North American movie theaters to digital projector systems.
According to Reuters, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures, and Lions Gate Entertainment have reached a pact with investors, including Blackstone Group and JPMorgan Chase. The work would begin in 2009 and could take as much as 3 and 1/2 years to complete.
For some time, the studios have wanted to embark on the upgrade project, Reuters wrote, but have been unable to nail down the financing. But now, with the money in place, work can begin with the goal of making it possible for the studios to send films digitally to theaters--which would be a sea change for studios, allowing them to cut costs immensely on prints and distribution--as well as to more easily present 3D films.
"Our initial goal is to convert existing theaters of our owners, AMC and Cinemark, and Regal, which operate a little over 14,000 screens in the U.S. and Canada," Travis Reid, CEO of Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, told Reuters, adding that each screen upgrade costs around $70,000.
Already, Hollywood and theaters around North America are in the middle of a major expansion of 3D screens and a major change in the technology being used for 3D films. In the spring of 2007, there were just 720 screens equipped to run 3D films, but that number has now jumped to 1,300, Reuters reported.
For the studios and the theaters alike, adding 3D screens is a boon because of ticket premiums of $3 or more.
And that's why several studios are planning on rapidly increasing the number of films they release in 3D.
Electronic Arts and Paramount Pictures have released the first details of The Godfather II, the video game.
(Credit: Electronic Arts)Update (10:52 a.m.): This story has been corrected to reflect that the suit filed in June against Paramount Pictures was filed by Anthony Puzo, Mario Puzo's son. Mario Puzo died in 1999.
It looks like Electronic Arts and Paramount Pictures have gotten the don's blessing, after all.
EA on Friday announced the first real details of Godfather II, the video game, that it will be making in conjunction with Paramount Pictures.
And that seems to mean that the movie studio has been able to work out a deal with Godfather author Mario Puzo's son, Anthony Puzo, after he sued Paramount in June, alleging that he had not been paid more than $1 million he was owed, based on the first version of the game.
The new game expands on the story line spelled out in that earlier game. This time around, according to a release from EA, "After being promoted by Michael Corleone to don of New York, players expand to new cities, as they build up their families through extorting businesses, monopolizing illegal-crime rings, and defeating new families in an effort to become the most powerful mob family in America."
EA did not announce a release date for the game.
One notable element of the first Godfather game was that EA put a significant amount of resources into reverse-engineering the art from the films.
That is, because Paramount wasn't able to provide the game's producers with the original high-resolution digital assets for dozens of characters from the films, EA put several artists on the job watching the films over and over again, in order to re-create much of its look and feel.
It's not known whether EA will employ the same methods this time around, or if it will be able to take advantage of the assets it created last time around.
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