Concession to studio allowed him to keep sequel on film, and not digital



J.J. Abrams knows what he likes. And while many movies are now being shot digitally, he wants to stick to celluloid film.

Even if that means converting “Star Trek 2” into 3-D.

Abrams said he was against shooting the sequel in 3-D because he didn’t want to use digital cameras, which would be required for shooting a film in 3-D. He also was against a 3-D post-production conversion because, well, those films don’t look that great after the fact.

But some of the post-production crews at Paramount Pictures showed Abrams what a 3-D conversion could look like, using scenes from his 2009 “Star Trek” film, and the director said it changed his mind.

“That was the thing which made me think it would be OK,” Abrams told reporters at the recent Television Critics Association Press Tour. He was there promoting his new Fox series “Alcatraz.”

“I wanted it to match the look of the first and shoot it anamorphically,” he said. “Then I saw the first movie converted: It was actually really cool. So I was OK with [converting ‘Star Trek 2’ to 3-D] as long as I could shoot it the way I wanted to.”

Of course, that begs the question: Is Paramount planning a post-conversion 3-D edition of the 2009 film?

Filming in 3-D got real hot over the past few years, thanks to the huge box office take from films like “Avatar,” and the fact that movie theaters can charge a premium on tickets for 3-D films. However, 3-D has not done so well lately, suggesting that the movement may be more of a fad than a movement.

Morgan Stanley reported late last year that 3-D films are generating just 43 percent of revenue per title, compared to 54 percent in 2010. Yet, sales of 3-D tickets accounted for just 18 percent of the box office in 2011, but that’s expected to rebound to 20 percent this year according to some analysts.

Proponents of 3-D point out, however, that when you put 3-D on large release movies, the returns are extraordinary. So if “Star Trek 2” generates anywhere near the business as the first film in 2009, Paramount will certainly have nothing to lose by converting “Star Trek 2” into 3-D in post-production.