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Why ‘Fast Five’ isn’t 3-D

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With the opening this Friday’ of ‘Fast Five,’ Universal is taking all the requisite steps to turn the latest entry in its ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise into a summer event film. As explained in a story in today’s Times, it has a bigger budget, a foreign setting, and even a new genre -- transformed from an underground racing movie into a heist flick.

But there’s one key element that most of this summer’s tentpoles have that ‘Fast Five’ is missing: 3-D. That wasn’t always the plan. As of last year Universal executives were seriously considering making the high-octane racing rampage starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in 3-D. Imagine cars zooming by each other in front of a movie screen and Dwayne Johnson throwing Diesel through a wall right at your face.

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Universal didn’t shoot the film in 3-D, but was considering a post-production conversion, as is very common in Hollywood. But before committing the $10 million-plus such a move typically costs, the studio decided to test a scene from 2009’s ‘Fast & Furious,’ the previous entry in the series. The conclusion, in Internet parlance, was a #fail.

‘The test was not great. It was discombobulating and we discovered that the things that we find exciting about 3-D just didn’t apply to a ‘Fast’ film,’ said Universal Co-chairman Donna Langley. ‘The way we shot the movie and, more importantly, the way we cut it does not lend itself to 3-D.’

Of course, Universal executives may have a hard time not imagining an extra $3 or so per ticket when box office numbers come in this weekend. But they’ll also probably be glad not to be losing many of their best screens when 3-D movies ‘Thor,’ ‘Priest,’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda 2,’ open one week after another following ‘Fast Five.’

-- Ben Fritz

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