There's a lot riding on "The Polar Express."
To make the film, which uses new technology to insert actor Tom Hanks into a computer-generated Christmas fantasy, the fare for Warner Bros. and its financing partner, producer Steve Bing, came to $170 million.
On top of that, $125 million is going toward global marketing and distribution. And if the movie turns a profit, Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis can claim more than one-third of it for themselves.
All told, "Polar" will have to amass more than $500 million in worldwide revenue from box-office, DVD and TV sales and other sources to leave Warner and Bing any presents under the tree.
"We need to do a lot of business on this movie to come out," Warner Bros. President Alan Horn said. "It is a big risk, and the decision to do any movie this expensive is not done lightly."
So risky that another studio, Universal Pictures, passed up a chance to co- finance the film. "It was too expensive for us and the technology was untried," said Universal Pictures Chairwoman Stacey Snider, "so we just opted out."
But Horn has confidence in the movie. Calling Zemeckis and Hanks "gigantic talents," he said he believed the duo -- who teamed on the hits "Forrest Gump" and "Castaway" -- had worked their magic again.
"We're betting on them," Horn said.
The two took Chris Van Allsburg's 29-page tale of a young boy whisked away by a magic train to the North Pole on Christmas Eve and made it into a family adventure film. Featuring performance capture technology, it copies the look and motions of Hanks and the other actors via sensors attached to their bodies. The images are picked up by cameras, then manipulated by computer animators to appear realistic.
"Polar Express" expands on Van Allsburg's book significantly with new characters such as a hobo ghost, songs and scenes that ramp up the action. Although "Polar Express" is rated G, it includes harrowing runaway train sequences and an eerie scene in which the film's young star stumbles into a box-car of broken toys and is startled by a marionette.
Warner hopes that by injecting action into a popular sentimental story it can attract a broad audience. A good box- office performance means better sales on DVD, where family films sell especially well because kids like to watch their favorites over and over. Perennial holiday films, Horn added, can put money in a studio's stocking year after year through DVD sales.
