First Three New Star Wars Movies Will Hit IMAX Theaters
By Elaine Tveit
A new Star Wars viewing experience is coming that is nothing like you’ve ever seen in that galaxy far, far away before!
/Film and The Hollywood Reporter are reporting that the first three new Star Wars films (The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and Episode VIII) will hit IMAX theaters as well as your regular venues.
This comes after Disney renewed its contract with the IMAX company. The contract, according to /Film, will go into effect this year and be valid through 2017.
The senior executive vice president of IMAX corp. and CEO of IMAX entertainment, Greg Foster, had this to say:
"“For IMAX, this deal represents a next step towards creating a diversified slate, which offers moviegoers a broad range of highly innovative and engaging entertainment to be experienced in IMAX theatres.”"
The contract includes many other films to be released over the next couple of years, a list of which you can see in /Film’s article.
I’ve never been to an IMAX movie, and honestly I don’t know if my excitement levels for a new Star Wars movie could handle the spike that such an immersive experience as an IMAX theater would give them. The IMAX website offers a description of the experience you’ll have in one of their theaters, and it sounds both amazing and overwhelming to this author:
"“IMAX grabs your senses. Visually, there is no frame. The picture’s bigger, higher, wider than your field of view. You’re no longer at the window peeking out; you’re outside among the stars. And that sensation is intensified by the sound. It’s all around you and it’s real – so much so that the whole experience is visceral. You don’t just hear and see an IMAX movie. You feel it in your bones.…The highest-resolution cameras in the world. Projection lights so bright you can see them from the moon. A sound system so precise you can hear a pin drop from across the room and know exactly where it fell. And every IMAX theatre is customized with our patented screen and seating design to ensure you’re always in the center of the action – no matter where you’re sitting.IMAX is so special that the most ambitious and accomplished filmmakers vie for the chance to make an IMAX picture: Christopher Nolan and Brad Bird; James Cameron and J. J. Abrams.”"
And as we all know, JJ Abrams is the director of The Force Awakens. And The Force Awakens is probably going to be the biggest and most popular film since 1977. I think we can expect epic things, no matter how we view it.