[ Jerusalem Post]

IMAX extravaganza with bird’s eye views of the capital city to be screened for next 5-10 years on 35 screens around world.

…  According to the producers, the goal is to create an allinclusive view of Jerusalem: its history, its geography, and its people – all in a 45-minute presentation that needs to stay current enough to be shown in museums across the world for the next five or 10 years, and that is unbiased enough to be shown in cinemas in the 35 countries with IMAX theaters including Israel, Kuwait, China and the US.  …

They plan to follow four teenagers, one Jewish, one Christian, one Muslim and one secular, throughout their day in Jerusalem – where they go, whom they meet, what they see, where they study, what they eat.  …

“Our agenda is to get people to come out of the theater and say, ‘I had no ideaJerusalem was all this, that it was so nuanced and so extraordinary, and has so much value, historical value, artistic value and spiritual value,’” Ferguson said. “We want to enliven the global public discussion and [create a] thirst for knowledge aboutJerusalem.”  …

But filming is still in the beginning stages. Over the past year, the team has filmed about 100 minutes of aerial footage. Many of the low sweeps over Jerusalem and the West Bank had to be coordinated with the IDF, which the producers say has been quite helpful. The team will return for the bulk of the ground filming in spring 2012, capturing Passover and Easter, including moments like the Blessing of the Kohenim at the Western Wall and the Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The team will also film throughout next summer, to end during Ramadan, using 300-kg. IMAX cameras.  …

See the movie preview and the full story here: http://www.jpost.com/ArtsAndCulture/Entertainment/Article.aspx?id=235647

[Variety]

Constantin’s 3D production of “The Three Musketeers” is the biggest and most expensive project for both the company and director Paul W.S. Anderson, and its $100 million budget makes it the biggest European movie of the year.  …

Instead of magic, Anderson added a retro sci-fi component, utilizing a sort of steampunk aesthetic in gadgets, weaponry and attitude that references James Bond or “Mission: Impossible,” while still grounded in the period and faithful to the original story.  …

Anderson maintains that the secret of good 3D is “to approach it in a really holistic way. You think about 3D in every aspect of the movie. You design it with 3D in mind right from the script process. The more you think about it, the better the end result.”

Anderson’s producer and partner Jeremy Bolt agrees. “Paul was already quite suited to 3D because so much of his style is about composing sequences, the choreography of scenes. … And 3D is almost a throwback to old-school filmmaking; you can’t cut as quickly so the mise en scene becomes even more important.”

Production designer Paul Austerberry, who has also worked with Anderson previously, but never in 3D, says it wasn’t as big of a jump as he had anticipated. “The way I work, I’m anyway very aware of foreground, middle ground and background,” he says, adding that he was already designing with 3D software, so it was easy to apply that to the film’s needs. What was new was having to consider the relation of the 3D camera to the set to avoid overpowering the foreground. It often meant stretching out the configuration of the set, causing camera and crew to be crammed into a tight corner of the studio to get the shot.  …

The sword fights benefitted especially from the 3D. While the added dimension doesn’t support traditional stunt fights where blows don’t actually connect, sword fighting can look great because it depends on the real impact of the blades.  …