Will Post-Production Kill the 3-D Movie Star?

F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. Would he have changed his mind if The Great Gatsby had received the 3-D IMAX treatment -- with Jay Gatsby as an alien bootlegger and Nick Carraway as avenging Ivy League superhero?

After burning bright and flaming out fast in the 1950s, "3-D: The Sequel" is now enjoying a surprising encore in the American film industry, thanks to the dazzling commercial and critical success of James Cameron's "Avatar." As they say in the movie business, this new technology trend has legs: "Alice in Wonderland," "Clash of the Titans" and "How to Train Your Dragon" have all done well at the box office in their 3-D versions, and the summer blockbuster crop includes "Shrek Forever After," "The Last Airbender," "Step Up 3-D" and "Halloween 3-D."

Yet Cameron's Oscar-nominated film is one of the few movies to appear on screens in the last six months that left the storyboard stage designed to be shot in 3-D. A few more 3-D-shot films are on the way, but other live-action films were converted from 2-D to 3-D in post-production; the decision to super-size "Clash" was made at the last minute, delaying its scheduled release date.

Like the deadly fish seeking blood in the forthcoming "Piranha 3-D," movie studios sense killer profits in the current 3-D-mania. However, couple the conversion craze with potential moviegoer backlash over an expensive 3-D ticket, the discomfort of ill-fitting glasses and less-than-stellar results, and you've got some industry watchers worried that Hollywood will slaughter the goose that laid the golden (digital) egg.

"3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension," wrote film critic Roger Ebert in a much-discussed (and linked-to) Newsweek article. "Hollywood's current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the movie-going experience. For some, it is an annoying distraction. For others, it creates nausea and headaches. It is driven largely to sell expensive projection equipment and add a (US)$5 to $7.50 surcharge on already expensive movie tickets."