Issue 136, November 2008 of Widescreen Review:

• “2008 CEDIA EXPO Part I” By Tricia Spears

• “Pioneer Elite® KURO® PRO-111FD 50-Inch 1080p Flat Panel Plasma HDTV” By Doug Blackburn

• “Noise Control For Home Theatres: Smoke & Mirrors 101” By Harry Alter

• “The Three Dimensions of Color” By Tom Huffman

• Plus “Your Letters,” “One Installer's Opinion,” Blu-ray Disc and DVD picture and sound quality reviews, and more...

Winter and the end of 2008 are right around the corner (although, you’d never know it here in baking Southern California),and changes are in the air. The economy is in shambles, the industry is in disarray, and no one seems to know which way isup. We here at Widescreen Review are doing our part to keep our readers satisfied, with the reporting on the latest offeringsand happenings in home theatre land, and of course, with our online giveaways. Last month’s Reader’s Survey was a hit (seeresults on page 11 of this Newsletter)—congratulations to Grand Prize winner Mark Jackson and Second Place winner BillMacCracken. Mark won a Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray Disc™ player and eight Blu-ray Discs, and Bill won a complete set of alleight Blu-ray Disc titles in the contest. Twenty-one lucky runners up won a Blu-ray Disc each, and a list of all the winners canalso be seen on page 9 of the Newsletter.

We want to remind everyone that we are continuing our fall warehouse cleanout, and back issues will remain at their fan-tastic price of only $1 each in the online store.

We hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter.

3 The Observer

5 Coming Soon...To A Retailer Near YouBy Tricia Spears

9 The Studio Scoop: Rumors, Reports, & RamblingsBy Stacey Pendry

11 WSR Survey Results 2008

12 A Cinerama® RevivalBy David Richards

WELCOME!

AVAILABLE ONNEWSSTANDS SOON

ATTRACTIONS

Gary ReberEditor-In-Chief, Widescreen Review

WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 29 1 OCTOBER 2008 - www.WidescreenReview.com

October 2008 • Volume 3, Issue 29 • The Official FREE Newsletter Of Widescreen Review Magazine

ISSUE 136 on newsstands soon!

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

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Issue 29, October 2008 Volume 3, Number 10

Toshiba Looks ToCards For MovieDistribution

In early September, Hitachi, Ltd.announced that it would no longermanufacture plasma display panels,instead buying panels from Panasonic,in an effort to minimize losses intheir plasma television business.

Following Pioneer’s lead in a sim-ilar announcement earlier this year,Hitachi will procure glass panelcomponents, which have until nowbeen manufactured at HitachiPlasma Display Limited, fromPanasonic. In addition, in order to fur-ther develop the plasma TV business,the two companies say they will

accelerate cooperation on the devel-opment of high-end PDPs that arethinner, more energy-efficient, andfeature distinctive characteristics.

Plans call for Matsushita to beginsupplying glass panel componentsto Hitachi for models to be launchedby Hitachi in the fiscal year begin-ning April 1, 2009.

Previously, Hitachi’s plasma dis-play panels have been manufacturedby their subsidiary Hitachi PlasmaDisplay Limited, which will continueto manufacture panel modules andassociated electronics.

With sales on the rise, it looks likeGeneral Electric is getting back inthe television business.

“Sales of LCD TVs have grown 30percent year over year as flat screenTV prices have fallen,” said PeterWeedfald, President of a new jointventure, General Displays &Technologies. “GDT is well poisedto become a leader in today’s rapidlydeveloping digital marketplace.”

GE has a 49 percent stake in theventure, with Tatung Company, theTaiwan-based manufacturer of dis-plays, set-top boxes, and homeappliances, owning 51 percent.

GDT’s goal is to design, market,and service General Electric-branded

With HD DVD out of the picture,Toshiba is joining up with moviekiosk companies NCR Corporationand MOD Systems to create a newdelivery method for movies based onSD flash memory card technology,according to Video Business.

VB says that Toshiba “is expectedto roll out a line of set-top boxesearly next year with SD card slots forplaying back digital video down-loads.” They also report that “thecards will support whatever openstandard comes out of the DigitalEntertainment Content Ecosystem, aconsortium of studios, retailers, andconsumer electronics companiesformed [early September] to ensureuniversal playback of digital downloads.”

Video Business also printed that“MOD Systems and NCR wouldn’tsay whether they have any studiolicensing deals but expect to offer4,000 films from studios at launch,initially in standard-definition.”

They also pointed to a deal NCRhas with Blockbuster “to make asmany as 10,000 Blockbuster-brandedkiosks that will rent DVDs and likelyoffer downloads,” although it isn’tsaid whether or not those kiosks willsupport the SD card distributionmethod.widescreenreview.com/136/toshiba

Panasonic Develops Blu 1080p 3-D SystemAt CEATEC JAPAN 2008

(Combined Exhibition of AdvancedTechnologies) show, Panasonicintroduced what they are calling thefirst full 1080p 3-D plasma theatresystem, a combination of a 103-inchplasma, a specially designed Blu-rayDisc player, and specially authoredBlu-ray Discs.

Panasonic’s system uses activeLCD shutter glasses working in synchronization with the plasma

GE will also leverage their con-tent business, NBC Universal, todevelop an open platform capable ofdelivering digital high-definitioncontent directly to their television,“and help design a cutting edgeproduct that responds now to con-sumer desire for a seamless union ofhigh-quality digital content andInternet engagement, with an easethat still appeals to TV viewers,” saidDarren Feher, Executive VicePresident and Chief TechnologyOfficer of NBC Universal.

The first products from GDT willbecome available in Spring 2009.widescreenreview.com/136/ge

General Electric Launches GlobalHDTV Joint Venture

HDTVs “to deliver the best homehigh-definition video, audio, andInternet experience.”

The Internet will be a big part ofGE’s focus with their TVs. “We aredeveloping advanced Internet capa-bilities for content delivery to televi-sions, without the need for a PC.This includes Internet Protocol TV(IPTV) through cable, satellite, andadvanced fiber optic television con-nectivity,” said Marc McConnaughey,CEO of General Displays &Technologies. “The long-term strat-egy is to allow consumers to cus-tomize their viewing experience bydownloading widgets and a varietyof services directly to their HDTVs.”

plays back the left and right eye1080p signals from the disc in realtime.

Panasonic says they will work topromote the 3-D system and pushthe standardization of the 3-D for-mat at the Blu-ray Disc Association,with the cooperation of Hollywoodstudios and BDA-member con-sumer electronic corporations.

widescreenreview.com/136/blu3d

television, which alternately displaysfull 1080p images for the left andright eye, to create an illusion ofthree dimensionality in the picture.

Using optical disc technology cul-tivated by Panasonic, and authoringtechnology developed by PanasonicHollywood Laboratory, they havecreated a method for recording 3-Dimages in 1080p on a single, stan-dard Blu-ray Disc. The Panasonic-built Blu-ray player decodes and

In our attempt to bring you the very latestin home theatre news, Widescreen Reviewbrings you The Observer, a recap of someof last month’s happenings that you mayhave missed. When you see “widescreenre-view.com/” below an article, it means moreinformation can be found at that Web link.

Last Month’s Industry News At A Glance

The Observer

BlockbusterSticking To Stores

The Los Angeles Times recentlyprinted that Blockbuster will keepan eye toward increasing Internet-based downloads, but plans torevamp many of its remaining out-lets, expand its movie and gameofferings in-store, and add morerental and download kiosks.

Blockbuster has a 40 percentshare of the nearly $10 billion movierental business, and in-store rentalsstill account for more than half oftheir total revenue.

Still, Blockbuster estimates it willclose 150 of its more than 8,000nationwide stores in 2008.widescreenreview.com/136/block

EE Times cited Mitsushige Akino,an analyst from Ichiyoshi InvestmentManagement, as saying, “It lookslike Hitachi wanted to withdrawfrom plasma TVs, if not from TVsaltogether, but didn’t have thegumption to do it in the end.”

While that may be the case, lookfor a more in-depth analysis of thecurrent plasma display market in anupcoming issue of WidescreenReview.

widescreenreview.com/136/plasma

Hitachi To Buy PlasmaPanels From Panasonic

Brought To You By:

WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 29 3 OCTOBER 2008 - www.WidescreenReview.com

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Vivitek Corporation hasintroduced the company’sfirst projectors—theD326MX and D326WX.Both models use the latestDLP® technology fromTexas Instruments and aredesigned with a small form-factor, weighing only 3.2 pounds. Theyinclude rapid start-up and instant shutdown features that enableinstant ON/OFF for all presentations without warm-up or cool-downperiods. With 2600 ANSI lumens and a contrast ratio of 2500:1, the720p projectors include a 5-segment color wheel (R, G, B, W, Y), ahigh-efficiency light source lamp, and 1280 x 800 pixels resolution.With a dust- and filter-free design, the projectors also feature anEco-Mode lamp setting, enabling up to 4,000 hours of lower-energyperformance. The $1,000 D326MX and the $1,200 D326WX includea three-year limited warranty on parts and labor, a one-year lampwarranty, and a five-year DLP chip warranty.

Vivitek Corporation 877 603 3582 www.vivitekcorp.com

The first Blu-ray Disc™

player from Integra®,the DBS-6.9, delivers1080p video at 24frames per second,features an HDMI 1.3output, and is fullycompatible with the Deep Color™ standard for over 1 billion possiblecolors. The included front-panel SD card slot, necessary to takeadvantage of the Bonus View™ picture-in-picture capability, givesconsumers access to the interactive content available on many Blu-ray Discs. Able to deliver bitstream output of both Dolby TrueHDand DTS-HD Master Audio™ codecs, the DBS-6.9 is available for$600.

Revel® has added the IC6T2 6-1/2-inch in-ceiling and IW80 8-inch two-way in-wall architectural loudspeakersto its Concerta™ line. Both feature ahigh-output, low-distortion woofer witha micro ceramic composite cone, piv-oting tweeter with integral waveguide,high-order crossover network, bound-ary compensation switch, and three-position tweeter level control. The

IC6T2, which is 9-1/4 inches in diame-ter and weighs 3.5 pounds, is the first Concerta in-ceiling systemdesigned for single-speaker stereo applications, has a bandwidth of45 Hz to 22 kHz, a two-way crossover at 2.2 kHz, and has a sensi-tivity of 88dB. The IW80 measures 10-1/4 inches wide by 13-7/16inches high and weighs 5.9 pounds. It has a bandwidth of 40Hz to40kHz, a two-way crossover at 2.4kHz, and a sensitivity of 89dB.

Velodyne Acoustics, Inc. has intro-duced the Impact Series of sub-woofers, a line of high-output, low-distortion subwoofers that includeMDP amplifiers and two-inch cop-per-wound voice coils. The Impact-Mini uses a 6.5-inch forward-firingdriver and 8-inch down-firing pas-sive radiator and features a 300-wattdynamic power, 180-watt RMS power amplifier. The 10-inch x 10-inch x 12-inch Impact-Mini is available for $550. The $400 Impact-10 and $500 Impact-12 each feature a down-firing port to maximizebass performance and output, and minimize distortion. The Impact-10 offers a 250-watt dynamic, 150-watt RMS amplifier and theImpact-12 includes a 275-watt dynamic, 165-watt RMS amplifier.

Revel® 516 594 0300 www. revelspeakers.com

Oasis Home Theatre Seating, distribu-tor of Irwin Seating Company’s hometheatre chairs, are excited about the newSports HT and Outdoor Signaturemodels. Impervious to weather, the seatsand backs of the chairs are upholsteredin a marine-grade material that is mold,mildew, and UV resistant. The $300Sports HT’s seats and backs are manu-factured out of one-piece, double-wall,blow-mold plastic in a choice of a solid

back or a slat design, and the legs of thechair are made out of iron. The $600 Outdoor Signature model, alsowith cast iron legs, offers a two-inch thick contoured back foam andergonomic foam seat cushion with a back height of 38 inches.Available in HT Faux Leather, the Outdoor Signature chair can beordered with or without cupholder armrests.

Irwin Seating Company Sports HT

Oasis Home Theatre Seating 905 567 6656 www.oasishometheatreseating.com

Revel IW80

Integra® 800 225 1946 www.integrahometheater.com

Velodyne Acoustics, Inc. 408 465 2800 www.velodyne.com

SpeakerCraft®’s NEAT 3 three-inchin-ceiling loudspeaker sounds like itcould be a neat product. Designedto mimic the look of a miniature canlight, the NEAT 3 is said to almostdisappear into the ceiling, leaving noexterior bezel. The small loudspeak-er features a three-inch full-rangedriver and uses a two-piece bracketthat snaps together inside the wall,then secured with drywall screwsthrough the wall’s surface.

SpeakerCraft® 800 448 0976 www.speakercraft.com

Integra DBS-6.9

SpeakerCraft NEAT 3

To A Retailer Near YouComing Soon…

NEW EQUIPMENT

Tricia Spears

WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 29 5 OCTOBER 2008 - www.WidescreenReview.com

Vivitek Corporation D326WX

Velodyne Acoustics Impact-Mini

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Media Décor has solved thecode requirements problem thatmany installers face whenrecessing a flat panel display,with their Firebox. Designed forany recess-mounted flat screeninstallation, the fire-retardantand fire-resistant enclosure notonly supports the television butalso includes built-in passivehoneycomb vents in the top andbottom that seals shut above

350 degrees F. Available in two versions—the Custom Firebox andthe Universal Firebox—the entire structural unit is fire rated on allsides. The Custom Firebox is ordered to a required size, and theUniversal Firebox is a standard size that will accommodate any TVless than 54 inches wide and 33 inches high. Both models are avail-able now and prices start at $1,450 each.

The CMS 50 and CMS 65(Compact Monitoring System)loudspeakers from FocalProfessional are equippedwith an aluminum/magnesiuminverted dome tweeter thatoffers a homogeneous move-ment of the complete domebecause of the optimummechanical coupling between

the cone and voice coil. The CMS 50 integrates a 5-inch woofer, andthe CMS 65 is composed of a 6.5-inch woofer. Both loudspeakersare housed in an acoustically treated die-cast aluminum box and aresupplied with a decoupling rubber sole, four rubber spikes, twoheight-adjustable spikes to be installed in the front or at the rear ofthe base, and two removable grills. According to Focal Professional,the technology in their Polyglass cone woofer involves applying thinglass microballs on a cellulose pulp cone, resulting in a rigidity rat-ing even exceeding that of a single-skin Kevlar and almost ten timessuperior to that of polypropylene. The CMS monitoring loudspeakersintegrate two amplification units. The TDA 7293 unit, which is dedi-cated to the woofer, uses the MOS technology that combines totalsound transparency and dynamics, and the LM 3886 power unit,dedicated to the tweeter, is able to convey the whole of micro-infor-mation to the treble transducer, while saving the energy unique toeach sound detail.

Focal Professional 00 33 4 77 43 57 00 www.focalprofessional.com

Media Décor Universal Firebox

Media Décor 954 524 1104 www.mediadecor.com

RGPC 504 247 0300 www.richardgrayspowercompany.com

The SubStation™ Pro, the lat-est power-managementdevice from Richard Gray’sPower Company, utilizes a240-volt AC line to providestable and balanced ACpower to connected compo-nents. Designed for mid-sized home electronic instal-lations, the SubStation Pro has a capacity of 4,000 watts and is engi-neered to convert a true 240-volt line into an isolated 120-volt linewith six commercial grade, 20-amp Hubbell AC outlets, which pro-vide twice the amount of power over a standard 110-volt circuit. TheSubStation Pro is available for $4,000.

Jamo® 877 456 JAMO www.jamo.com

Jamo DMR 70

RGPC SubStation Pro

Screen Excellencehas introduced theTAM (True AspectMasking) fixedmasking screen.Masked to eliminateblack or grey sidebars whenCinemascopemovies are viewed;black, acousticallytransparent masksroll in from eachside to mask downto the picture’s trueaspect ratio. Thecompany claimsthat the frame is thenarrowest on themarket today, at 3.7inches wide all theway around, and with a depth of only 5.3 inches. The acousticallytransparent masking panels roll in from the sides like commercialmovie theatre curtains, and the independent left and right motorsare said to be quiet and offer precise alignment. Pricing for the 2.37native aspect ratio projection screen with lateral masks starts at$12,000 with a 70-inch-wide viewable area.

Screen Excellence 805 647 3779 www.screenexcellence.com

Screen Excellence TAM

Linn’s Majik 109 is a compact, three-wayloudspeaker that includes the company’s2K driver array with two high-frequencydrive units. The loudspeaker is offered in areal-wood veneer cabinet and can be dis-played on Linn’s new black or silver stand,which is designed to complement the loud-speaker, or it can be wall mounted. TheMajik 109 is available for $1,600.

Linn +44 (0) 141 307 7777 www.linn.co.uk

Linn Majik 109

NEW EQUIPMENT

WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 29 7 OCTOBER 2008 - www.WidescreenReview.com

The DMR 70 5.1-channel DVD receiver from Jamo® upscales DVDsto either a 720p or 1080i HD resolution via its HDMI output. The two-inch tall, compact, high-gloss black DMR 70 employs five 65-wattchannels for a total system power of 325 watts. Utilizing Dolby®

Digital, DTS® 5.1, and Dolby Pro-Logic II, the receiver supports awide range of video formats, including DivX Ultra, Xvid, WMA,SVCD, MP3, and JPEG. The Jamo DMR 70 is available for $450.

Focal CMS 50 and CMS 65

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along with the companion book The Hobbit.After Tolkien’s death, his heirs created theTolkien Trust, which is a British charity.

The trust joined forces with PublisherHarperCollins to sue the studio in February,seeking not only damages and lost royaltiesbut also to terminate New Line’s rights tomake two further films: a prequel based onThe Hobbit and The Hobbit itself.

Guillermo del Toro has signed on to directthe prequel, as well as The Hobbit, withPeter Jackson, director of The Lord Of TheRings trilogy, producing the two films.

Walt Disney PicturesJohnny Depp hit a triple play when Walt

Disney Studio’s Chairman Dick Cook toutedthe studio’s upcoming slate that includesDepp reprising his role as Captain JackSparrow in a fourth installment of The PiratesOf The Caribbean. The chameleon actorhas also signed to star in two more Disneyprojects; one as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’sadaptation of Alice In Wonderland and thesecond as The Lone Ranger’s sidekickTonto, being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer,

Stacey Pendry

DVD ContestsThe holidays are just around the corner.

As a thank you to our loyal readers I haveonce again hit up my good friends, at thevarious movie studios for some really fantas-tic titles for our HUGE multi-title Ho-Ho-Holiday DVD Contest 2008. This year wehave over 20 A-list titles and over 200 discsto give away, so be sure to fill out the formand submit your entry. See the full-page adin this newsletter for titles and links to theentry form.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the animatedfeature movie from Lucasfilm Ltd. andWarner Bros. is up for grabs in another WSRsingle-title giveaway. The story of the CloneWars is set between Star Wars Episode II:Attack Of The Clones and Star Wars EpisodeIII: Revenge Of The Sith, and is a precursorto the animated TV series of the samename, which is aired on Cartoon Networkeach Friday at 9:00 p.m. You only have untilNovember 25th to enter to win this trulyunique take on George Lucas’ The Empire.

You only have a short time left to enter towin Dr. No on Blu-ray™ and the Journey ToThe Center Of The Earth DVD. Dr. Noentries must be received no later thanOctober 22nd and Journey To The CenterOf The Earth entries by October 29th. Youmay enter to win one or both of these titlesby clicking on the corresponding box artfeatured in this newsletter. Good luck!

Warner Bros.Warner Bros. has announced plans to

begin pre-production on an I Am Legendprequel, with plans for Will Smith to reprisehis starring role as Scientist Robert Neville,and Francis Lawrence returning to direct.James Lassiter, Smith’s partner in OverbrookEntertainment, will produce, along with

Akiva Goldsman and his Weed Road pro-duction company.

WB has requested D.B. Weiss to write thescript, based on a detailed outline thatSmith, Goldsman, Lassiter, and Lawrencecollaborated on. Weiss is currently scriptingthe adaptation of Neil Strauss’ book TheGame for Spyglass Entertainment.

Making a prequel seemed the only way toextract a few more hundred-million dollarsfrom the franchise that bore the studios near-ly $600 million, and more importantly, keepSmith in the lead role—since his charactermet his demise at the end of the first film.

The prequel will chronicle the remainingdays of humanity in New York before a viru-lent plague decimated the city, resulting inSmith’s character being the lone survivinghuman left there.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge hasbarred the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien fromseeking punitive damages against the stu-dio that brought the late author’s trilogy, TheLord Of The Rings, to the big screen. Thejudge did determine the estate had estab-lished a legal basis for the fraud claimagainst New Line in a subsequent ruling.

Tolkien’s heirs claim New Line Cinemahas failed to pay any royalties from the filmfranchise that has grossed an estimated $6billion worldwide. The lawsuit is seeking$150 million in compensatory damages.

The estate alleges that New Line sent mil-lions of dollars to Time Warner Inc.’s AOL,improperly claiming the money was foradvertising expenses. The lawsuit alsoclaims that the studio built productionoffices and facilities in New Zealand, listingthem as expenses for the trilogy, which wasshot there. But the heirs allege the offices arenow being used for other New Line projects.

Tolkien signed an agreement in 1969 withUnited Artists for the rights to the trilogy,

I Want ToKnow

The Studio ScoopRumors, Reports, & Ramblings

Contest Winners: Ricardo O. Ang • Sharon Aquilino • Richard Bannister • Jeff Beckett • Roy Bolen • Julie Bradley • Steve Dadolf • Edward Domagala • Cheryl Dutter • Don Dyer •Charles Eartly • Bonnie Edwards • Malcolm Ellis • S Fielding • Gary Ford • Clint Freeman • Ron Gildenberg • Gary Green • Matt Green • Judith Greenberg • Mike Groesbeck •

Matthew Guidry • Ramreet Janjuh • Gordon Jones • Ron Kaledas • Lanisa Larrabee • P Madsen • Alexandra Malabante • Patrina Martin • Rita Nicholson • Cassie Perez • MathieuPerron • Susan Pertierra • Corey Peters • Robert Rabinowitz • Geraldine Rodriquez • Craig Schultz • Kathleen Shattuck • David Siegel • Lois Stock • Neville Thompson • Susan

Varney • Thomas Vigen • Jeffrey Walters • Roy Weatherly • Steven Wenzel • Sharon Whitehurst • Mike Wilson • Timothy Winslow • Keith Wright • Stanley Zieziula • Betty Zimostrad •Jae Park • Randall Pereira • Gary Osborn • Brenda Stutts • Norm Porter • Kathy Smith • Lisa Ranf • Charles Kassing • Reader Survey Winners: GRAND PRIZE WINNER -MarkJackson • SECOND PLACE WINNER - Bill MacCracken • RUNNERS UP - Jeremy Bureau • William Holden • Bill Tilghman • Jason Tucker • Paul Resch • John Tyson • Robert

Deckman • Mike Jimenez • Ron Pajak • Carl Thomsen • Gregory Stewart • Beth Randolph • Jimmy Rugland • Tamara Merrit • Thomas Gibson • Erma Hurtt • John Roy Clark • TeresaIverson • Eugene Mortensen • Thais McNally • Pegi Emiliani

WIDESCREEN REVIEW NEWSLETTER 29 9 OCTOBER 2008 - www.WidescreenReview.com

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Fox has acquired the rights to JoeHaldeman’s 1974 sci-fi novel The ForeverWar and has slated Ridley Scott to direct.

Scott hasn’t directed a sci-fi film since hisback-to-back releases of Blade Runner andAlien. He had originally intended to releaseThe Forever War on their heels.

The plot revolves around a soldier whobattles an enemy in deep space for a fewmonths, only to return to unrecognizableearth 20 years in the future.

Richard Edlund originally purchased therights to the book with $400,000 of his ownmoney, hoping to make the project hisdirectorial debut. Edlund is the FX wizardwho won two Oscars® for visual effects onRaiders Of The Lost Ark, but was never ableto get The Forever War off the ground.

Two decades after his initial interest in theproject, Scott was quoted by Daily Variety assaying, “I first pursued (The) Forever War 25years ago, and the book has grown more time-ly and relevant since. It’s a science-fictionepic, a bit of The Odyssey by way of BladeRunner, but in a brilliant, disorienting premise.”

DreamWorksIt’s official—DreamWorks has jumped

ship and has left Paramount Pictures (sortof) after inking a seven-year distributiondeal with Universal Studios.

Paramount will continue to distributeDreamWorks Animation pictures through2012 and retains sequel and remake rightsto DreamWorks films it has already distrib-uted. Paramount will receive an 8 percentdistribution fee for releasing the projects.

Universal committed $150 million toDreamWorks and will also receive an 8 per-cent fee for distributing their films in a dealthat will be in effect in 2009 and will includesix releases per year. As part of the deal,Universal will advance DreamWorks thecapital for marketing the films.

Universal currently releases an averageof 28 films per year, and according toUniversal Co-Chairman David Linde, thosereleases would not be cut back to makeroom for the half-dozen DreamWorks proj-ects they are set to distribute. Instead, thestudio intends to increase their number offilms offered annually, in a time when moststudios are cutting back on projects.

Reliance Big Entertainment, which will dis-tribute the new DreamWorks films in India,injected the company with $550 million,making the divorce from Paramount possible.DreamWorks’ principal Steven Spielberg ishoping to land another $700 million fromJPMorgan, but has had to hold off on sealingthe deal due to stock market volatility. Spielberghopes to have financing finalized with JPMorganby the end of 2008, economy permitting.

Some believed a bidding war for distribu-

tion rights would set off between the majorstudios when rumors circulated thatDreamWorks was shopping for a new part-nership, but in the end only Fox and Disneymade courtesy calls to Spielberg, with noreal commitment by either studio.

What is known is that Spielberg andDreamWorks Co-Topper Stacey Snider, aformer Universal Chairman, will have toscratch the nearly 200 projects that thecompany has developed over the years,including those projects that are in activedevelopment. Tintin, Sacha Baron Cohen’scomedy Dinner With The Schmucks, andPeter Jackson’s Lovely Bones are amongthe nearly fully developed projects that willbe binned in the move to Universal.

Then there is the question of the fate ofsome 150 DreamWorks employees, manywith contracts, who may or may not be goingalong for the ride to Universal. Although ithas been confirmed that DreamWorks Co-Founder David Geffen helped broker thedeal with Universal, but it appears that onlySpielberg and Snider will make the leap.Universal’s Linde was keen to keep the well-oiled team together, to allow them to contin-ue developing innovative new projects.

Spielberg and Snider both have long tiesto Universal. Daily Variety quoted Spielbergas saying, “Universal has always been myhome base, so this agreement starts a newchapter in what has been a long and suc-cessful association. While it feels great tocome home again, it feels like I never left.”

ParamountWith a six-movie-per-year hole to fill,

Paramount is proud to have Marvel extendtheir distribution pact with the studio.

Marvel handed Paramount their biggest-grossing film of this year, Iron Man, and wasgiven a 10 percent fee for distributing theblockbuster.

In a deal that brings Marvel’s distribution feeto 8 percent, in line with what DreamWorkspays the studio for handling their animatedfilms and what Lucasfilm pays Paramountfor distributing its Indiana Jones franchise,Paramount will have distribution rights forthe next five Marvel releases.

Included on the slate of projects due tobe distributed by Paramount is the sequelIron Man 2, which will see Robert DowneyJr. and Gwyneth Paltrow revise their starringroles for the July 2010 release. In addition,Paramount expects to distribute Marvel2011 releases of The First Avenger: CaptainAmerica and The Avengers.

In addition to the distribution deal,Paramount is expected to oversee market-ing of upcoming Marvel titles in a pact thatcovers all areas of handling the films,including home video releases. WSR

I Want To Know

with Tim Burton rumored to direct.Depp’s casting deals closed on

September 24th when Cook showcased thestudio’s future offerings at the KodakTheater in Los Angeles to movie industryinsiders. A few thousand audience mem-bers enjoyed extended clips of the upcom-ing releases, along with a parade of thefilms’ stars that were on hand to hype theimpending projects.

The first three installments of The PiratesOf The Caribbean earned the Mouse Housea combined $2.6 billion for the Bruckheimer-produced franchise: the fourth pic would serveas a cherry on the already heavily iced cake.

Tim Burton’s version of Alice InWonderland is to be shot using 3D and per-formance-capture technology similar to theprocess used in Beowulf. “Alice” is sched-uled to hit the big screens in 2010.

Other big news announced during thesplashy stage event was the release of thesequel to Cars, another Disney box officeand merchandising cash cow, which will bemoved up a year to 2011—in time to cross-promote a newly revamped ride “CarsLand” at Disney’s California Adventuretheme park, which is due to be unveiledduring the same time period.

20th Century FoxWith the financial markets as volatile as

Dick Cheney on a quail hunt, Wall Street iscurrently in the headlines as much as it wasin the mid 1980s. Fox has decided to moveforward and release a timely sequel to theirhit ode to opulence film Wall Street.

Michael Douglas starred as GordonGekko, the stock market legend who coinedsuch sage catchphrases as “Greed IsGood” and “Lunch Is For Wimps.”

Although the star has not been formallyattached to the project, it seems Douglasmay be willing to pry himself away from hisbuxom Welsh wife, Catherine Zeta Jones,long enough to revisit the well of unbridledcapitalism, one more time.

Charlie Sheen, who starred as Gekko’syoung protégé, Bud Fox, will not reprise hisrole in the sequel.

The modern-day story will again centeron Gekko, who has been recently releasedfrom prison and reemerges into a tumul-tuous financial market, much like the one helorded over, just before being jailed.

Allan Loeb (21) has been tapped to scriptthe sequel, with Edward R. Pressmanreturning as producer.

The project has been fast-tracked by thestudio in order to make the release resonatewith not only fans of the original film but alsoto a new audience disgusted by the wheel-ings and dealings of the financial sector.

The Studio Scoop

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D A V I D R I C H A R D S

A Cinerama® Revival

Have you heard of the eccentric in Ohio that created a Cinerama® instal-lation in his home? In case you haven’t, his name is John Harvey, residing in asuburb of Dayton. Mr. Harvey was the head projectionist in the DabelCinerama Theatre in town, as well as working at several other theatresbefore and since. You might say his fascination with the Cinerama processbordered on a religious experi ence. After the Cinerama company failed inthe early 1970s, he salvaged as much of the equipment as he could.

The catalyzing event in John’s life seems to have been the acquisition of atrailer for How the West Was Won, representing six minutes worth ofCinerama film materials. That was all it took to make John decide toassemble his own Cinerama system in the basement of his house. Nothaving Cinerama projectors, he modified Century projectors according tothe original Cinerama blueprints. The few parts he didn’t have and could-n’t locate, he had custom made at a machine shop. For a ribbon screen,he used hundreds of strips of 16mm film painted white. All this to show sixminutes of film. Additional equipment was necessary to allow one personto run the show. The setup worked! Thus, in 1991 this became one of two loca-tions in the world where three-strip Cinerama films could be shown, andthe only place in North America (the other was in Australia).

Mr. Harvey was so pleased with his setup, he moved it upstairs to the

living room. Of course it required eliminating two bedrooms, and raising theceiling a few feet. Word got around that this guy had a Cinerama setup in hishome in Dayton, Ohio, and film enthusiasts from far and wide began mak-ing the pilgrimage to experience it.

As word spread, an amazing thing happened: people started sending

him film materials that had been sitting in theatres, labs, warehouses, orwherever it happened to be when the Cinerama company closed its doors.You see, it was extremely expensive to ship the huge amount of film materi-als for a Cinerama show, and with the financial difficulties the company wasgoing through, the prints stayed right where they were, all over the world. Johnhas now acquired 5 complete prints, and the material keeps coming. Someof the prints are Technicolor IB, and still have excellent color. Other materialis on conventional color stock, and has faded.

Since Mr. Harvey put his system together, there has been anotherCinerama installation at a Museum in Bradford, England. Mr. Harvey was askedto lend his experience to that effort. That installation was completed in 1993and has been very successful, drawing film fans from all over the world.

It seems that this Cinerama lunacy is infectious. Enter Larry Smith, manager of asmall art theatre in Dayton called “The New Neon Movies.” Larry and John areold friends, and John has been instrumental in providing equipment for somespecial showings at the New Neon—a two-projector 3D setup for Bawana Deviland Dial M For Murder, for example.

Last year at this time, things were not looking good financially for the NewNeon Movies. Even though the auditorium is quite small, it was decided to“twin” the theatre for greater flexibility of show times, thereby keeping the the-atre alive a little longer. Well, John and Larry must have gotten a little giddyon film cleaner fumes one night, be cause they came up with the idea of con-verting the New Neon Movies into a Cinerama theatre! I suppose their rea-soning was that since substantial remodeling would be needed as part ofthe auditorium split, this was a logical time to try the Cinerama setup as atemporary attraction. Plus, it would delay the dreaded split if successful.

A hole was knocked in the wall at the back for the center projector (the exist-ing booth was too high), and two additional booths were con structed in theback corners of the auditorium. Through word of mouth, John found addi-tional Cinerama projectors and related equipment. One projector camefrom Indianapolis, and the other two from Europe. With the projectors, anda little cannibalizing of his setup at home, the New Neon theatre was trans-formed during a few weeks in August of 1996.

The landlord wasn’t completely sold on this idea, so before this meta -morphosis was allowed to begin, a massive letter-writing campaign waslaunched to solicit public support. By the cutoff date, letters pro mising atten-dance had been received from over a thousand people in 37 states in theU.S., and several other countries. The landlord was satisfied, so since lastSeptember there has been a public Cinerama theatre in the United Statesfor the first time in 30 years! The run was originally scheduled for showingson eight weekends in September and October, but was quickly extendedthrough December due to the tremendous demand. In addition, showings wereadded on Wednesdays. The showings were subsequently extended throughMarch, and again through September 1, 1997. If this keeps up, Dayton maybecome a permanent Cinerama museum!

During the letter writing campaign, the Cinerama insanity spread to theInternet, and thus to me. Although I was alive when Cinerama existed origi-nally, I was only a kid. I was never taken to see it, and didn’t even know whatit was until I was an adult. By that time, it was gone. So it was something I hadalways wanted to see. Even so, I had my doubts about traveling to Dayton tosee it. The airfare from Cali fornia to Dayton is several hundred dollars. Thenthere’s the hotel. You also have to reserve tickets in advance for the “sweetspot” seats. I’m such a procrastinator, I probably wouldn’t have gone. Thedeciding factor was a friend with a spare ticket, Dan Sherlock. He had made

John Harvey With 7-Track Magnetic Audio Reproducer

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a reservation for a family member that couldn’t be there. That made up my mindfor me. Plane tickets were bought, reservations were made, and I was off toDayton.

The films that are being shown are This Is Cinerama on Saturday after-noons and How The West Was Won on Sundays and Wednesdays. The versionsthat are now running are Technicolor IB prints, put together from the bestremaining segments of the existing materials. These “hybrid” prints look verygood, although there are some color differences between the three panels attimes. For 30-year-old and 40-year-old prints, they look fantastic!

Two highlights of the trip were a peek behind the louvered screen and aQ&A period with John Harvey. I’m not a movie critic, and I won’t address thecontent of the films other than to say they were entertaining. But I didn’t go tosee the films, I went to see the process! Was it worth it? Yes! With the airfare,hotel and rental car, this was the most expensive show I’ve ever gone to, butI was not disappointed. I’m very glad I went. I feel I have experienced animportant development in motion picture history—one that changed screenshapes forever.

I’d like to discuss the Dayton installation a little more...after the projectorsand sound reproducer, probably the most important piece of equipment isthe huge curved iron frame that supports the screen. This was rescued from thedefunct Dabel Theatre, and has spent the last 30-plus years in a barn (it’s muchtoo large to fit in John’s living room!). Even though the New Neon Theatre is fair-ly small, the screen frame from a “real” Cinerama theatre was able to be used. Itrequired a few rows of seats to be removed at the front, however. The resultingscreen is approximately 48-feet wide. That isn’t huge for a Cinerama screen, butit is sufficient, given that the furthest seat away is no more than about 25 feet fromit. It provides an image with a substantially larger horizontal visual angle than anyconventional theatre. The image is bright and clear.

The screen is made up of 980 strips 3⁄4-inch wide, that overlap about 0.1-

inch. It took 200 man-hours to assemble. Each strip is stapled to a woodframe at the top, and attached to an elastic band at the bottom to keep itunder tension. With the construction of the two corner booths, “Abel” and“Charlie” (the center projector is “Baker”), the theatre conversion cost wasabout $4,000 for plywood and carpeting. The side booths are not just tackedtogether, they look professional, and do a good job of damping the noise fromthe projectors.

Four thousand dollars sounds pretty cheap for a Cinerama installation, butbear in mind that John is loaning his projectors, sound re pro ducer and the sup-porting equipment. This equipment has been estimated to be worth a half milliondollars if it had to be built from scratch.

There have been reams of information printed about the Cine rama for-mat, so I won’t spend a lot of space talking about it. But for those that don’tknow what Cinerama was all about, I’ll describe it briefly. The most impor-tant aspect of Cinerama is that it launched the widescreen revolution in the1950s. Basically, it consisted of three cameras photographing a scene onthree strips of 35mm film. This was then shown in a theatre with a largecurved screen, with three projectors. The inventor was Fred Waller, with a lot

of help from Hazard Reeves, and the financial support of Lowell Thomas.The first Cinerama theatres were conversions of existing theatres. Later,theatres were built specifically for the process.

There were three things that contributed to the huge success ofCinerama. Surprisingly, all three elements had existed separately before.The solution of multiple projectors to cover a large screen was useddecades earlier by Abel Gance for his Napoleon. Three cameras andthree projectors were used, just as with Cinerama. But the three imageswere used predominantly for a multi-screen effect called “triptych.” Thethree images only occasionally united to form a single image. All indicationsare that this was on a flat screen, which leads us to the second item.

The problem with a picture on a flat screen is that no matter howlarge it is, you only have to turn your head a little and you see the edge of it.Waller’s solution was to curve the screen, so it actually surrounded the viewersomewhat. He appears to have gotten this idea from his work for Kodak atthe 1939 World’s Fair, projecting film on the inside of the 180-foot diameter“Perisphere.” But again, this had been done before. In the late 1700s a sys-tem using curved paintings that surrounded the audience was used byRobert Barker. You can extend this thinking to its logical conclusion,which is the 360-degree Cir carama (later Circlevision) process used byDisney years after Cin erama was launched. Of course 360 degrees is morethan anyone can see at one time. The official Cinerama screen covered a146-de gree arc, on a radius located about in the center of the audience.

The third part of the puzzle was multi-track sound. Again, this was not

new, having been used a decade earlier for “Fantasound.” How ever, itwas innovative in that it was re corded on magnetic tape rath er than opti-cally, with the result that it had much higher fidelity. Also there were 7channels, whereas most stereophonic systems up to that time had usedtwo or three. (For the current Dayton run, brand new sound tapes havebeen made from the originals and they sound great!)

There is actually a fourth piece of the pie that was lost part waythrough the life of Ci nerama. That was the concept of using wide-anglelenses that simulated the human field of view. In combination with thecurved screen, this provided the most natural and realistic image for thehuman eye. Later, when the single-strip 70mm “Ultra-Panavision®” and“Super Panavision®” processes were used on the same screen, theimages did not represent this wide angle view, so the natural effect ofthe process was lost, whether the large screen was filled or not. Even ona curved screen, the image looked flat. This is evident in several segmentsof How The West Was Won, where Ultra Panavision (65mm film with a1.25x anamorphic squeeze) was used. There were improvements beingdeveloped that could have kept the benefits of three-strip Cine rama and

John Entertaining The Audience After The Show (Ribbon Screen Visible In Background).

John Cleaning Center (“Baker”) Projector (In Lobby!)

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reduced or eliminated the problems, but theycame too late. The demise of Cine rama wassealed when the 3-strip process was aban-doned, and the name be gan being ap plied to70mm and even regular 35mm films.

In the last paragraph I mentioned the no -ticeable difference with the 65mm material thatwas used in How The West Was Won. Not only isit flatter looking, it is also quite grainy. This is partlydue to the greater negative area of three 35mmstrips compared to one 65mm strip (about 60 per-cent more), and also partly due to the optical print-ing step required to split the 65mm original imagesinto three slices.

People talk about aspect ratios for Cinera ma, butyou have to be very careful with your definitions,because it’s easy to get into trou ble with a curvedscreen. So you’re likely to see many differentnumbers listed as the “official” aspect ratio. Theactual viewing an gle represented or “subtend-ed” by the picture varies depending on wherethe viewer sits. For a person sitting at the screenradius, the screen would appear as 146degrees horizontally by 55 degrees vertically,which corresponds to an aspect ratio of 2.65:1.For people sitting closer than that, or off to oneside, the screen edges no longer appear paral-lel, and an aspect ratio is meaningless. For peo-ple on the centerline but further away than theradius, the screen no longer envelops them andstarts to appear like a flat screen having a widthequal to the chord width. This reduces theapparent aspect ratio. If viewed from the centerprojector, the aspect ratio measures only about2.0:1.

For detailed specifications on the film imageor dimensions, I refer readers to the American

Cinematographer Manual, Fourth Edition orbefore, which is the most reliable source I know.I don’t know if the Dayton installation has the cor-rect radius and angle (I suspect it does not), butJohn Harvey assured us that the image is sizedcorrectly for the screen, and all the image isthere.

In its heyday, there were 167 Cinerama the-atres around the world. In 1990, there was onlyone, a private installation in Australia. By 1993 thenumber had risen to three with the addition of theBradford Museum and Mr. Harvey’s home.(According to Mr. Harvey, the film materials inAustralia have deteriorated considerably, and arenow almost unusable).

When I started writing this article, it end ed herewith speculation about how long the Dayton runwould last, and proposed that our country couldbenefit from a permanent Cine rama installationlike the one in England, so that future genera-tions could see firsthand how widescreenprocesses evolved. In the meantime, there hasbeen an interesting de velopment in this area. InNovember of 1996, The Entertec DevelopmentCorpor ation an nounced plans for a new themepark de voted to motion pictures, called Cinematec.The park will be located in Orlando, Florida, andwill include a 3-strip Cinerama theatre, built tothe original specifications. The park is scheduledto open in June in the year 2000. Plans are under-way to preserve and duplicate the ex isting Cineramafilm materials for exhibition.

Does this indicate a trend? Will Cinerama the-atres spring up across the country once again?Will there be new productions in three-stripCinerama? I don’t think so. The installation inDayton has always been considered temp orary.The end date has been extended a couple of times,and is currently September 1, 1997. If the park inFlorida opens as planned, that would probablybecome the one permanent home of the processin the U.S. There’s simply not a demand for moretheatres. Al though Cinerama was revolutionarywhen it debuted in 1952, it’s impressiveness isdiminished by the quality delivered by modern tech-nology. But I think that two very useful things willresult from this special en gagement: First, it looksvery much like there will be a permanent home forCinerama in the U.S.—if not in Dayton, perhapsin Florida.

The other benefit is the reminder it provides tofilmmakers and exhibitors that there is a demandfor extremely high quality film images (not a largedemand, but a demand nonetheless). This may

help revitalize interest in large-format photogra-phy and encourage the future production ofmore 65/70mm projects.

If you have a serious interest in film buthave never seen Cinerama, by all meansmake the trip to Dayton. For information onCinerama showings, contact The New NeonMovies at 513 222 8452, or by email at art-filmfan@aol.com. For further in formation aboutthe rise and fall of Cinerama, I highly recom-mend the book Widescreen Cinema by JohnBelton. Also, there’s a very thorough chapter onCinerama in Lowell Thomas’ biography, SoLong Until Tomorrow. ■■

P.S. The Entertec Cinematec CineramaDome project has been scraped.—Editor

David Richards is an engineer and film technol-ogist. He is a member of the Society of MotionPicture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), servingas chairman of the Hollywood section for the 97-98term. He is the author of several papers onadvancements in motion picture and televisiontechnology. Mr. Richards recently chaired the firstSMPTE conference devoted exclusively to the filmindustry.

Author In Front Of The New Neon Movies Cinerama Sign Larry Smith, Manager Of The New Neon MoviesOutside The Theatre. The Original Restored Cinerama

Sign Is Visible On The Roof.

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