As we head towards the first 3D Shrek movie — “Shrek Forever After” in theaters May 21 — Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg says his studio is converting the previous three Shrek movies to 3D for release on Blu-ray.
Katzenberg, who made a presention at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas Wednesday (April 14), also predicted that the extra premiums being charged for 3D in theaters will offset the declines in home video revenue. “Whatever the decline would be for ‘Shrek’ when it goes to the home video market will be more than offset by the incremental revenue we’ll see from 3-D,” he said, according to ABCnews.com.
As for the 3D conversion of the previous 2D movies, he said the process would be relatively straight-forward and produce a good final product, but it could take 18 months and cost about $20 mil. per film, according to the New York Times. “Our movies exist in digital files to begin with. To go back and rebuild to a quality 3D experience is not inexpensive, but we are about to achieve a pretty high quality result.”
He also noted that George Lucas is looking to convert “Star Wars” and James Cameron, “Titanic.”