LAS VEGAS — Praising the 3D format, director Baz Luhrmann told The Hollywood Reporter that he has workshopped his upcoming project The Great Gatsby in 3D, though he has not made a call about whether to shoot in the format.
Luhrmann was in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, where he, along with directors Michael Mann and Oliver Stone, discussed the advantages of the Blu-ray format. During a panel hosted by Fox, they showed Blu-ray clips from Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge and Romeo & Juliet, Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans and Stone’s Wall Street and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
“Blu-ray is the premier format to reproduce the decisions we make,” Mann said. “It is probably going to sustain itself as the premiere format.”
Luhrmann warned that filmmakers must be responsible with the format. “The power of Blu-ray is so great, you have to be a bit conscious about misusing it,” he said, noting that with the increased resolution, more details are visible and therefore more choices are available in the restoring and remastering processes. “Are you trying to recreate from your memory? There are a whole lot of new question that powerful technology brings.”
Stone suggested value in starting Blu-ray collections. “I find it sad, we are the last of the Mohicans, in way,” he said. “I’m not knocking the future … but this is the last hardware, then it is going to be on a computer. But you will never hold it in your hand, like a book.”
On 3D, Stone warned that budgets must be taken seriously. “Don’t shoot a 3D movie unless you can afford it, otherwise you are putting yourself under enormous pressure,” he warned.
