Anyone know if there’s any plans for this movie to get ported onto IMAX screens? I haven’t heard anything and my google-fu didn’t turn up anything. I know there’s a few of you hooked into that kind of stuff and I was curious if there were plans/rumors out there.
Cheers.
Since it was shot in 35mm, it might not look so great on an IMAX screen. Bigger isn’t always better.
Full time IMAX industry journalist here. (Really!)
Actually, much of March of the Penguins was shot on Super16, not 35mm, and it looked to me like the underwater stuff was mostly really crappy video. Imax Corp has technology to convert 35mm films to the IMAX format, but IMO the system would be hard pressed to make a viewable image out of the footage in MOTP. As far as I know, there are no plans to convert it to IMAX.
Remaking it, or doing something similar, in IMAX would also be very difficult. The two French filmmakers spent most of an Antarctic winter with the penguins. Eighty degrees below zero for months!. This was just barely feasible with 16mm equipment and film stock.
The smallest IMAX camera weighs about 25 lbs; the specially modified Aaton Super16 camera used for MOTP weighs less than 5. The tripods and other support gear for IMAX are proportionally bigger and heavier. A 1,000 foot roll of 65mm film (3 minutes’ worth) weighs more than ten times the equivalent 16mm film.
So capturing the same details of the penguins’ mating cycle with IMAX cameras probably won’t happen.
However, all is not lost. In 1991, Australian director John Weiley made Antarctica, a terrific IMAX film about the continent, with a nice sequence on penguins, including some really remarkable underwater footage of them, which was way better than MOTP’s.
I haven’t heard anything yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the distributor makes an effort to relaunch and capitalize on MOTP’s success.
Cool, thats kind of the answer I was expecting. Would be nice, but oh well. Blood from turnip and all.