There's been a lot of talk recently about the 3D craze that seems to be hitting Hollywood (and, some worry, will undermine Hollywood even further). John August tried to put out the fire a bit this week, but it's hard to deny that 3D is everywhere - and increasingly so.
I'm not looking to debate the pros and cons of the 3D boom as it affects writers. (The short, if you're wondering, is that with 3D really taking off now, only projects that easily lend them selves to a z-axis integration will be greenlit.) It makes for some fun viewing experiences, but the decisions to go back and reshoot a lot of pictures in 3D to try and jump on board the Avatar kick seems a bit much. Avatar had flying... dragon things (as did How To Train Your Dragon). Flight looks cool in 3D. (Cough Up cough.) Other things don't so much.
Horror, though, is one of those things that I think can look good with the added dimension. I never saw Valentine 3D, but I heard it was campy and gory enough to work with the medium. Well, this week there's another one added to the franchise.
Title: Ring 3DLogline: Teens find a VHS player that still works.Writer: David LouckaMore: Sequel. Third installment of "The Ring" franchise. Walter Parkes & Laurie MacDonald will produce. Vertigo and Benderspink will executive produce. The film will be in 3D.
Ok - for a change, I won't linger too much on the logline itself. If you've read any of the other Logline Centrals, you'll probably guess that I think this is a less-than-stellar logline. I mean... this can happen at a pawn shop with no cinematic repercussions whatsoever. That's beside the point this week.
No, the reason I chose Ring 3D as our feature this week is that a few of us in the League - including yours truly - were taught by Loucka while at NYU. At the time, he had finished some work on Snakes On A Plane (I know you all know it) and was working on other things. Loucka had some interesting ideas about my script in particular, which really benefited from his more mainstream Hollywood career. He helped me break out of a structure that wasn't working, expand my idea, and really turn it into something much more workable. He's not necessarily a household name (as much as screenwriters can be), but it's good to be able to say, "Hey, I know him. He was my teacher." Plus, the Ring franchise helped kick-start the Japanese import horrors, which tend to be pretty popular, so it's double nice to see him getting in on the action.
