Paul W.S. Anderson talks Resident Evil: Afterlife, the wonders of 3D

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

As a filmmaker who adroitly adapts mindless videogames into (at times) mindful, cinematic entertainment, Paul W.S. Anderson (right) may be construed as the flipside of Uwe Boll. He’s also shacked up with perennial hottie Milla Jovovich (below). Dude seems to have it all figured out, right? Not so fast.

Making his first foray into 3D filmmaking with RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE, due September 10th, Anderson caught up with the L.A. Times and spoke about his faith in the staying power of 3D, even going so far as to compare it to the introduction of color photography. Uh, okay then. Read on below!

Set to give a keynote address at this year’s 3D Gaming Summit (in L.A. later this week), Anderson beamed to the Times about his on-set experience with 3D technology, TVs specifically. When asked if he thought 3D was the next major step in entertainment, Anderson quipped:

“Absolutely. I’m cutting a movie in 3-D at the moment — we shot the new “Resident Evil: Afterlife” in 3-D — so I’m in my cutting room every day and I’m watching 3-D televisions and I’m watching the movie in 3-D … and then I go home in the evening and in my home theater and I watch regular movies. I’ve got to say, I’m really disappointed…so, without a doubt, I think it’s definitely the future and I think you have a whole generation of kids who are growing up now who are watching 3-D movies and are being immersed in 3-D and they’re going to want that.”

About the staying power of the 3D, Anderson added:

“I think it’s like the introduction of color photography. When Technicolor came in, everyone said, “Oh, it’s just a fad” or “It’s just for big movies — you won’t be making every single movie in color.” Cut to 10 years later and you were now making an artistic decision to make a movie in black-and-white at that point because color became the standard. I think 3-D will become the standard for filmmaking and for television and whatever you watch your gaming platforms on. Just because it’s so good. It’s great and it’s immersive and then I go home and I watch flat-screen TV and I go, “Ugh! Why is there no depth here? Why is it all flat?” I went home and watched my favorite movie, “Heat,” and I just went “Ugh, Why is it so flat?”

But that’s not all. Just because Anderson is a big fan of 3D, doesn’t mean he favors last minute conversion:

“For me, originating images in the 3-D system is completely different than doing a dimensionalization process in post-production, which is, for example, what “Clash of the Titans” did. The images that you get are nowhere near as good because you’re shooting a 2-D movie. It’s like shooting a black-and-white movie and then colorizing it afterward, or shooting a silent movie and then dubbing all of the dialogue afterward. It’s not the same thing. It’s like drinking a fine bottle of Champagne or cheap Thunderbird. Both of them will get you drunk, but I can tell you which is the better experience.”

Okay, so maybe the dude does have it all figured out. Or at least, he’s figured out what he likes. But do you agree with him, or are you still harboring reservations about the current 3D craze?

Let it drop, yo!