lifestyle THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015 Music & Movies ‘Furious 7’ shows off sharp new Imax laser technology eeper blacks, brighter whites, even bigger to extend to 140 feet wide and utilize more of the screens and better sound. When the high- screen at the top and bottom, Gelfond says. The Dspeed action sequel “Furious 7” debuts this Chinese Theatre can now show Imax movies at a width weekend, audiences at Hollywood’s famous TCL of 96 feet, compared to 86 feet in the past, says theater Chinese Theatre will see every tire skid and fistfight in president Alwyn Hight Kushner. Imax’s brand-new laser format. Lasers are supposed to Larger screens means being able to fill bigger the- be able to heighten contrast. In laser-projected trailer aters with more seats and build even larger auditori- footage of “Furious 7” shown exclusively to The ums from scratch, says Gelfond. He hopes the better Associated Press, details were noticeably crisper than visual experience and 12-channel audio that Imax is images shown in a standard-sized auditorium with a rolling out with the laser upgrade will drive more regular digital projector. Deep blacks, one of the tout- moviegoers to want to see films in Imax, which typical- ed benefits of laser projection, stood out boldly, par- ly cost a few dollars more than standard movie tickets. ticularly in actress Michelle Rodriguez’s eyes and hair, a The laser system is expected to boost gross profits by suit worn by actor Jason Statham, Vin Diesel’s tank top, around $1 million this year, Gelfond told investors in black car paint and shadows in the grooves of tire October. “I think over time, this will be the next big treads. thing,” Gelfond said in an interview Tuesday with The Imax’s first laser projector started operating in AP. “It’s not going to change the world in a day. It’s Toronto’s Scotiabank Theatre in December. The going to happen a pair of eyeballs at a time.” Chinese Theatre, one of the largest Imax theaters in the world, is one of more than a dozen locations that New standard Imax expects to outfit with laser projection this year. Imax joins a host of other companies shifting to Others include the AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13 in lasers, such as projector maker Christie, which has its Manhattan and Empire Cinemas’ Leicester Square in own offering and a partnership with Dolby London. Tickets for laser-illuminated shows will be the Laboratories Inc Barco Inc supplies its own projectors same price as those shown in Imax’s standard format. and provides them for Imax. There are about 25 screens worldwide outfitted with laser projectors and Gross profits about half are Barco’s, according to Barco vice presi- Palladium IMAX in San Antonio installed a Barco laser percent more at first, and decrease over time. Because This photo provided by Laser projection is more than contrast, though. The dent of digital cinema, Patrick Lee. Dolby is set to system in December. Seago plans to convert all of the of the cost, it remains to be seen how far the laser roll- Universal Pictures shows, technology will allow more movies to be screened in announce a rollout in the next several months; Christie company’s big screens to laser projection. out will spread, says Keith Watanabe, director of busi- Vin Diesel, left, as Dom giant theaters, says Imax Corp CEO Rich Gelfond. Until says it has a half-dozen laser projectors installed. Imax “They know there is something different without us ness development for Miami-based Cinema Toretto, and Jason Statham now, digital projectors haven’t been able to use all the plans to use lasers only on its biggest screens - 80-feet- telling them it’s laser,” he says. “We think it’s the new Equipment and Supplies. “Everyone that begins to see as Deckard Shaw, in a scene real estate of the largest screens because industry- wide and above - and at institutions such as the standard for what a guest should expect.” One draw- films like this will prefer it,” he says. “The question is, from ‘Furious 7.’ — AP standard xenon bulbs weren’t bright enough. And the Smithsonian, which has ordered three for all its Imax back of the format is its hefty cost. Today’s digital pro- will people come up with the capital to make this high cost of Imax film prints, which show more bright- theaters. Imax has contracts with over 71 theaters to jectors cost tens of thousands of dollars apiece. Barco’s investment a reality?” — AP ly than digital files, meant that only about eight big- install its laser system so far. Art Seago, the CEO of Lee says its laser offering costs about four to five times budget blockbusters a year could be shown on giant family-owned Santikos Theatres, said customers felt that, a figure echoed by Christie spokesman Dave screens. Lasers change all that. Screens should be able they had a better experience after the Santikos Paolini. Gelfond says the Imax system will cost only 50 ‘Ex-Machina,’ ‘It Follows’ breathe life into stale genres lex Garland has learned a few things in his years as a sci- ence-fiction screenwriter: namely, that money doesn’t Aalways help. Garland is now making his directorial debut with the acclaimed science fiction film “Ex-Machina,” after earlier scripting the influential zombie thriller “28 Days Later” and seeing his first book, “The Beach,” turned into the Leonardo DiCaprio adventure. The 2007 Danny Boyle-directed space thriller “Sunshine,” which Garland wrote, particularly drove home the lesson. “The thing I really felt about ‘Sunshine’ almost while we were making it, is that we were spending too much money,” says Garland. “When you’re spending that much money, either consciously or unconsciously, you start to think about recoup- ing. You start to think about the business of film and trying to make it entertaining or trying to adrenalize it at moments Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi when it’s the wrong thing to do.” Garland’s “Ex-Machina,” which opens in theaters April 10, was made for $15 million, not the $50 million it took to make Anno and Higuchi to direct “Sunshine,” a philosophical journey to the sun that eventually dissolved into more of a monster movie. “Ex-Machina,” howev- ‘Godzilla 2016’ er, holds its trance throughout the tale of a young computer Toho’s programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) who flies to the remote lair of Oscar Isaac, right, appears on the set with filmmaker Alex Garland during the making of the science fiction film ‘Ex-Machina.’ — AP op Japanese film-makers Hideaki Anno Anno worked on the animation of Hayao a tech billionaire (Oscar Isaac), and is introduced to a very real- and Shinji Higuchi will team up to co- Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli-produced “Nausicaa istic artificial intelligence (Alicia Vikander). direct “Godzilla (2016)”, the new in the Valley of Wind.” He later directed anime T New generation Japanese version of the iconic Godzilla mon- series including “Gunbuster,” “Nadia: The ster movie franchise. The Toho studio, which Secret of Blue Water” and the “Neon Genesis “The one thing I do know is that I really, really want creative Review licensed remake rights to Warner Bros. for the Evangelion” series for which he is best most freedom - not just for me but the people I’m working with,” hit 2014 revival by director Gareth Edwards, known. He also curated a touring exhibition says the British writer-director. “You need to be Christopher produced the seemingly terminal “Godzilla: Tokusatsu-Special Effects Museum. Nolan to have creative freedom at that level. That’s what, like, ‘Woman in Gold,’ Final Wars” back in 2004. But interest was Higuchi also worked on the “Evangelion” two or three people in the world.” revived by Edward’s 2014 “Godzilla,” which series, before debuting as a feature director Instead of fighting those odds, a new generation of film- a remarkable story lifelessly told earned $525 million worldwide and JPY3.2 with “Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean” in makers is breathing fresh life into the often over-commercial- billion ($26 million) in Japan, with Toho and 2005 and scoring a major hit with “The Sinking ized genres of sci-fi and horror. A regular diet of big-budget oman in Gold” has a rich they arrive abroad to plead their case. In Warner Bros. Japan co-distributing. of Japan.” Meanwhile, Edwards has been releases have helped stagnate genre thrills by over-relying on story to tell. The true Vienna, they’re helped by a young native “Ever since Hollywood announced that signed to make “Godzilla 2,” which is set for a visual-effects spectacle (“Jupiter Ascending,” “After Earth”), “Waccount of Maria Altmann’s journalist (Daniel Br¸hl) who functions ‘Godzilla’ was to be resurrected, the expecta- June 8, 2018, bow, with Legendary and while mainstream horror has been overrun by gimmicky shlock fight to reclaim a famed Gustav Klimt mostly as a human exposition vehicle. tion for another Japanese Godzilla grew. And Warner Bros. again co-producing. In total Toho (the “Paranormal Activity” series) and familiar retreads (“I, painting of her aunt, “Portrait of Adele With two actors as charming as Mirren if we were to newly produce, we looked into has produced 28 Godzilla movies since 1954 Frankenstein”). Bloch-Bauer I,” first stolen by the Nazis and and Reynolds anchoring the story, it’s a bit Japanese creators who were the most knowl- when Ishiro Honda directed the first. Ryuhei But many of the most exciting horror and sci-fi films in then appropriated by Austria after the disarming that their charisma never really edgeable and who had the most passion for Kitamura’s “Godzilla: Final Wars” earned a dis- recent years - “Under the Skin,” “The Babadook,” “Her,” war, is laced with riveting history, deep manages to energize the sluggish tale.