Guillermo del Toro talks Pacific Rims 3D conversion

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Reassures fans that he’s on board with the decision

Pacific Rim was is being converted into 3D in post-production , a recently-announced decision that appeared to go against director Guillermo del Toro’s initial feeling about the technology.

“What happened was, in the weeks and months following Comic-Con, what I asked from the studio was to agree to four points that I wanted to do,” explains del Toro. “The more the ILM shots arrived, the more I realized that there were only a few shots that would miniaturize.”

“I asked the studio, number one, that we would not hyper-stereo-lize the thing. That we would not force 3D on the beauty shots. That we would keep the giant dimensions. They agreed.”

On top of that, del Toro has revealed that the conversion will be much more in-depth than is the norm, with the treatment set to take a whopping 40 weeks to complete.

“Normally a conversion takes a few weeks,” he explains. “I asked to start it immediately so we could take the full 40 weeks to do the conversion. As an example, Titanic took about 50 weeks to convert. The final thing that I asked that they agreed to, which was amazing, was that I asked them to give me an extra budget, which is considerable, to actually have ILM composite the shots that are CG native 3D.”

“We’re not giving elements. ILM is giving the composite in 3D from the get-go. That’s a huge, huge element. Now I’m going to be involved in supervising it. What can I tell you? I changed my mind. I’m not running for office. I can do a Romney.”

Pacific Rim opens in the UK on 12 July 2013. And if you’re not convinced by the above, you can always opt to watch it in 2D.

George Wales
George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.