Robert Zemeckis has never been to Comic-Con International in San Diego, and the director's "Disney's A Christmas Carol" seems like an unusual choice for a first appearance. But like several filmmakers heading to this week's colossal fanboy convention, Comic-Con -- with its new 3-D projection system -- offers an exceptional occasion to position upcoming releases.
Snippets of film shown at earlier Comic-Cons have helped launch several blockbusters, including "300," "Iron Man" and "Twilight." But fan reaction to early footage from some less-accomplished films -- "Catwoman" and "Good Luck Chuck" among them -- has helped send the underachievers to an early grave.
While many new movies will make Comic-Con cameos, only a select few will have footage shown in 3-D: "A Christmas Carol," James Cameron's "Avatar" for 20th Century Fox, Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" for Disney, the Sony animated movie "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," a Disney remake of "Tron" and New Line's thriller sequel "The Final Destination" among them.
While the new wave of 3-D has brought unexpectedly strong returns for several 2009 releases -- among them the slasher film "My Bloody Valentine," the animated "Coraline" and "Monsters vs. Aliens" -- its power has cooled with the glut of recent 3-D titles, including "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs."
With DVD sales and international grosses slipping, Hollywood is banking on 3-D movies (whose tickets generally cost about $2 to $3 more) to help bolster profits. And since a good showing in front of the Comic-Con crowd can stoke a movie's early buzz, these 3-D screenings could be extremely valuable to both the filmmakers and the studios.
Zemeckis is confident that his "Christmas Carol" footage -- scheduled to be shown this morning in Comic-Con's first ever 3-D presentation in its 6,500-seat Hall H -- will prove not only that the 3-D technology is well suited to his movie but also, and more critically, that his movie is well suited to Comic-Con's horror, superhero and fantasy fanatics.
"What we hope to accomplish is that anyone at Comic-Con realizes that it's not a movie for the traditional Disney audience. It's a classic ghost story," the director says of his Nov. 6 adaptation of the Charles Dickens fable. "I hope that this is a way to present to the audience at large that this is a movie for real movie fans, and real ghost story fans and fans of graphic novels."
