Guillermo del Toro justifies Pacific Rim’s 3D conversion

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Oh 3D, you are the movie nerd’s most controversial issue. I for one mostly enjoy your cheesy gimmickry and charms. Many Schmoes, however, take issue with studio’s usage of it to jack up ticket prices and box office bank. Director Guillermo del Toro has thrown his hat into the 3D debate ring by agreeing to give his upcoming Kaiju flick PACIFIC RIM a post-conversion processing. In the fallout of fanboy squabbling, the HELLBOY director has come out and to explain his concessions in undertaking the 3D process:

“I asked the studio, number one, that we would not hyper-stereo-lize the thing. That we would not force 3D on the beauty shots. That we would keep the giant dimensions. They agreed.”

“Number two, they agreed to something very unusual. Normally a conversion takes a few weeks. I asked to start it immediately so we could take the full 40 weeks to do the conversion. As an example, ‘Titanic’ took about 50 weeks to convert.”

“The final thing that I asked that they agreed to, which was amazing, was that I asked them to give me an extra budget, which is considerable, to actually have ILM composite the shots that are CG native 3D. We’re not giving elements. ILM is giving the composite in 3D from the get-go. That’s a huge, huge element. Now I’m going to be involved in supervising it.”

That’s all well and good, but we’ve heard similar talk from several reputed directors about how their movie’s 3D conversion process would be heavily supervised and not a quick hatchet job. Then THE AVENGERS, CLASH OF THE TITANS, THOR, and countless other flicks trickled out with less-than-stellar 3D. Then again, del Toro’s attention to detail is peerless, as is his uncompromising vision for a film. What do you think, Schmoes? Does the 3D process make or break your hopes for this film and can we put our trust in the director to make PACIFIC RIM eye-poppingly awesome?