Middle-earth will sound more realistic in “The Hobbit.”
Dolby Laboratories Inc. and director Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production announced Wednesday that “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” will be mixed and released in Dolby Atmos, the company’s immersive new sound system that features two extra arrays of overhead speakers and the ability to direct sounds to individual speakers inside movie theaters.
Stuart Bowling, Dolby’s senior technical marketing manager, said Dolby’s goal is to have the Atmos platform installed in 80 to 100 theaters in time for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” which is scheduled to premiere on Dec. 14.
Bowling said the company expects more than 15 films to be released in Atmos next year and hoped to have the system in 1,000 theaters by the end of next year.
Bond not likely to pop up in 3-D
Celebrating his 50th birthday, James Bond has been learning some new tricks – but 3-D isn’t one of them.
Producers of the spy franchise say they have no interest in a making a Bond film in 3-D. The upcoming “Skyfall” is the first Bond film to be released since “Avatar” made 3-D a common and often lucrative practice for blockbusters.
“3-D is fantastic for the right material, but we’re not sure Bond is the right way to go,” “Skyfall” producer Barbara Broccoli said in a recent interview. “With our movies, there’s a lot of challenges to 3-D, particularly when you’ve got a lot of action and a lot of quick cutting.”
Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson have shepherded the last seven Bond films, preserving the family franchise.
Wilson said there has been interest in converting some of the old Bond films into 3-D, which he called “more of a novelty.”
Scarlett’s dresses restored, displayed
It turns out there will be another day for Scarlett O’Hara’s green curtain dress. Many of them.
The iconic dress and Scarlett’s burgundy ball gown from the 1939 film “Gone With the Wind” have been saved from deterioration by a $30,000 conservation effort by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.
The dresses are now on display for the first time in nearly 30 years at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum as part of a Hollywood costume exhibit.
Ransom Center announced the project in 2010, noting the dresses were in danger of falling apart. Officials say the project was not intended to restore the dresses to new but to save them so they could again be viewed by the public.
