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John Woo's 'Flying Tigers' Will Be Soaring onto IMAX Screens

by Ethan Anderton
August 30, 2010
Source: Deadline

Though he's taken the action genre to so many new levels of intensity, director John Woo is still venturing into uncharted territory. Deadline reports the filmmaker will see his World War II set story Flying Tigers digitally remastered for the IMAX Experience. The film follows an American Volunteer Group and its later incarnation as the 14th Air Force during WWII. Led by Air Force Gen. Claire Chennault, the joint air forces consisted of American and Chinese pilots flying side by side against the Empire of Japan. The conversion to IMAX is akin to converting to 3D, and sadly doesn't have the same quality as shooting with IMAX cameras.

Still, Woo is apparently excited to be working with the format at all. He says, "It has always been a dream of mine to explore shooting with IMAX cameras and to work in the IMAX format and the strong visual element of this film is incredibly well-suited to the tastes of cinemagoers today. Using IMAX for Flying Tigers would create a new experience for the audience and I think it would be another breakthrough for Chinese movies." At first it sounds like they're shooting in the IMAX format, but then he's quick to remember that they're only working with the format for this to be shown in IMAX theaters. It should be interesting to see Woo bring his signature action style to the skies, hopefully with top quality IMAX remastering, too. What do you think?

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

Xerxex

sweet, there in 2-D.
Eli

John Woo. Not a fan.
Nethanel

Blowing up a film to the Imax standard isn't the same as converting 2D to 3D. Not even close. If the film is shot well, then there won't be a problem. Dark Knight is a perfect example. It was blown up from 35 to 70mm. Digital conversion is clearly and visibly much, much worse.
LINKFX

@ Ethan and @ Nethanel, I really have to disagree with you both on this. Firstly, blowing up a print from 35mm to 70mm is definitely not akin to converting 2d to 3d...i mean, yes it's cheating so there is that...but a print blown up to 70mm looks exactly the same, the human eye would be unable to perceive the differences, and since it's film that's being blown up, not video, it could looks really great. There are many great examples of this, and no bad examples... The only really thing is that yes, it wasn't shot on IMAX stock, IMAX stock looks effing fantastic at 70mm, really crisp and beautiful(almost as good as a 4k digital master a la the Blade Runner screeening at Warner Bros two years back). And when they show it in IMAX it won't take up the top and bottom frame of the screen... And "Dark Knight" was partially shot on IMAX, but maybe Nathanel was referring to the segments shot in traditional 35mm...although I'm pretty sure "Inception" was shot in 70mm.
LW

... I liked 'Red Cliff 1&2'... so who knows? ... and 'Hard Boiled' as well
http://www.cinexcellence.com Joseph

Sweet. Can't wait.
Gary the Bruce

Great news!
Chase

Ive been waiting for this movie to come out for years. Finally some progress!
Nethanel

@LINKFX Inception was shot with a combo of 35mm and the Imax standard of 70mm. The same was done with Dark Knight. I don't know why he still continues to do that, but I think it is because the Imax camera's are still primitive concerning noise, which Nolan mentioned after making Dark Knight. If you blow up a 35 that means the tiny mistakes and errors will be blown up as well where are shooting on 70mm, the detail is shot instead of being blown up. It is like making a 480p video full screen versus making a 1080p video full screen. There are techniques to making the smaller video format look better, but all in all the bigger format allows more detail and a more superb picture.