OC Screenwriters Association

Day 3 at CinemaCon was perhaps the wildest yet, and one with promise for not only excitement on the screen, but two revolutionary technology breakthroughs that will change the way we watch film in theatres forever.

 

The future of films is so bright you gonna have to wear shades! At a technology display so intense every viewer had to sign a waver, a new method of lighting the screen was displayed that was so bright it left viewers gasping at the marvel of the light, a light so intense a film will be so clear, so crisp, so beautiful.

 

At the present time, film formats have film moving at 24 frames, or two feet, per second and it has been this way for more than 50 years. But with a new breakthrough, film can be set at 40-60 frames per second, almost more than twice as fast! And what does this do? It makes film so fine you think that you have received HD from heaven.

 

These two breakthroughs are the talk of the town, as they mean films will be seen in such beauty, and so clear, that our eyes will have to adjust.  A final on this tomorrow.

Movies, Movies, Movies. Sony and LionsGate.

 

Today was a day Sony brought all the big films to the show, and LionsGate still rolling in applause for the enormous success of "The Hunger Games", brought a lineup that makes them officially one of the Big Studios and expands the number to seven.  Welcome aboard, Lionsgate!

 

From Tyler Perry's Madea running her own "Witness Protection" plan, to the final segment of "Twighlight Breaking Dawn", LionsGate rolls out twelve films this year, with a diverse schedule that has the company known for its willingness to take chances and bring out the new and the fresh fulfilling its own description.

 

How do you say, Tyler Perry, Tyler Perry, Tyler Perry? One of the funniest men on the planet opens a witness protection program to hide a suburban couple from the mob and the laughs keep coming in the hilarious culture clash. But Perry isn't finished, he also comes up as Det. Alex Cross, the roll made famous by Morgan Freeman from the best sellers by author James Patterson.

 

Cross is one of literatures favorite detectives and Freeman gives a spectacular turn as the homicide detective who is pushed to his moral and physical limits in an epic struggle with a ferocious serial killer.

 

And LionsGate brings evil to a new level this summer with, "The Possession", a terrifying story of a family plagued with the presence of a force so evil your skin will crawl the whole movie as a malevolent spirit tries to inhabit and devour a couple's daughter. This is done so well it makes "The Exorcist" seem like child's play.  It redefines what horror is all about just until the release "Sinister", a story of a crime novelist who discovers a box of disturbing home movies that plunges his family into a nightmarish experience that will have you jumping out of your seat in time for Halloween.

 

The lineup brings big comedy in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" with an all star cast including Cameron Diaz, Elizabeth Banks, and Jennifer Lopez, as well as Chris Rock, Dennis Quaid and Brooklyn Decker to the best selling book.

 

And a remake of "Dredd", the futuristic cop, as well as Sylvester Stallone bringing back his force in "The Expendables 2", brings us action, action, action. But you have to root for Sly Stallone, with a cast of mercenaries that includes not only Jet Li and Dolph Lungren, but Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, and, drum roll please - Jean Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger! How cool is that?

 

There are many more, from "Step Up Revolution" by a filmmaker whose previous films of the same series have grossed more than $650 million!

 

LionsGate takes chances on new filmmakers and the result has been a love affair by America with their product.

 

Sony has long been a giant in and this year is no exception except to make them a bigger one!

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones bring us "MIB 3", in 3D, which shows the joy of 3D being used to further the spectacular plot and take it into the stratosphere.

 

Adam Sandler is just hilarious in what has to be his best film ever, "That's My Boy", which have them lining up to see his hilarious turn as an alcoholic wastrel who finds his son and the two couldn't be more opposite.

 

But the giant in the room is, "The Amazing Spider Man," which of course not only brings an action packed extravaganza, it reboots the character with a fresh look that makes the film important as well as entertaining.

 

Another remake, "Total Recall",  is actually done so well you won't think of the great one with Arnie. "Premium rush", with Joseph Gorden Levitt as a bike messenger in the middle of a sinister plot, and who Merly Streep and Tommy Lee Jones give us a thrill as a couple who have been together for a long time but don't know what love is, and are helped by Steve Tyrell to find out in a very funny and poignant film, "Hope Springs"; and in "Legacy", a group of assassins from the future world come to kill future trouble, and Bruce Willis makes "Pulp Fiction" a comedy in this action-thriller.

 

For the sentimental, Whitney Houston was huge in "Sparkle", and you really see her great potential to once again bring us romance.

 

But "Here Comes the Boom" was a surprise that looks like it may sweep the whole country, as Kevin James stars as a slacker teacher who is forced to raise money to keep his job in a comedy that is so outrageous and over the top you will laugh long after you see the film.

And guess who's back this year! Bond, James Bond, in "Skyfall."

 

And as a Halloween treat, we have "Hotel Transylvania."  Their lineup proved Sony is also willing to take a lot of chances, and they all will pay off at the box office this year.

 

A treat of the night was the Pioneer's Dinner, an annual even that gives an award for innovation and courage in the industry, and this year it was awarded to Jeffrey Katzenberg, of DreamWorks Animation for his constant quest for higher ground in film. And host of the evening, Jack Black did a daring on stage face-off tango with Antonio Banderas in a spoof of Banderas roll in Katzenberg's "Puss `n Boots." I hope they have that one on film.

 

And we were also treated to lunch with directors Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, who shared on why they made their last movies in 3D. Two film heavyweights with big credentials were both so impressed at the edge it gave them to shoot a film. Surprising it was, as if they needed anything to lean on, and they didn't. Scorsese said it made the film, "Hugo", very real, and Lee said when he shot a scene and looked at it flat and then in 3D, he knew he had done the right thing as it brought realism to a level he desired.  And neither wanted it as a gimmick, but as a tool to enhance and further their storylines. Scorsese took "Hugo" to an Oscar nominated roll, and Lee has the upcoming and already critically acclaimed, "Life of Pi", which most people felt the story could never be filmed, but he did, in glorious 3D in the story of of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean. It looks so great!

 

Further, the film world has grown internationally, and never before has the connection been so apparent, as so many people from Asia and other parts of the world have been a huge part of CinemaCon, and it has been so interesting to hear how film is made in other areas of the world and the challenges we all face together.

 

Technology, when used so well as in the film world, brings humanity and greatness to our human condition and leads the way for the rest of the world to do the same. It is a feeling of pride, to know our family in the film word is so big, and we share so much together, and the world takes such great joy in what we do, from exhibiting film to making or writing or direction film. The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.

 

On Thursday, it could be the biggest of the week, as Fox and Universal show off their product and stars, and the awards night that will close it off bring everyone from Jennifer Garner to Jeremy Renner to Sylvester Stallone together to celebrate the past year and the new one.