Stiller's 'Tropic' heats up Cinema Expo

Paramount screens 'Watchmen,' 'Joe' footage

By ARCHIE THOMAS

Jeffrey Katzenberg found a receptive audience as he tubthumped 3-D, helping European exhibition confab Cinema Expo get off to a bang Monday.

The DreamWorks exec, a longtime supporter of the Cinema Expo confab, called 3-D "the single greatest opportunity for the film industry in 70 years. Not since the introduction of color has something come along with the potential to be more impactful to what we do."

Talk of the digitalization of European screens -- essential for 3-D to take hold -- dominated the morning seminar lineup at Amsterdam's RAI center. There are 1,038 DCI-compliant digital screens in Europe, but conversion is dragging in major territories, including France and Italy.

Europe's largest exhib chain Odeon-UCI plans to covert all its U.K. theaters to digital projection in the next three years, with the rest of its European sites following shortly after.

U.K. chain Vue bowed Europe's first all- and only-digital site -- a 10- plex in Hull -- in December.

Katzenberg introduced clips, storyboards and early animation sequences from "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" and touted the 3-D extravaganza "Monsters vs. Aliens."

In the afternoon, Paramount Pictures Intl. offered a product presentation that drew a warm reception from Euro exhibs, who have been filling their coffers of late thanks to PPI fare.

Expo delegates got the first look at footage from Zack Snyder's graphic novel-based "Watchmen" and Stephen Sommers' actioner "G.I. Joe" and were first to see the trailer for D.J. Caruso's "Eagle Eye," exec produced by Steven Spielberg. They also were the first industry audience to see the comedy "Tropic Thunder."

"Europe traditionally contributes 60%-65% of the international grosses on a Paramount release, so Cinema Expo is a very important event for us," said PPI prexy Andrew Cripps, who shared intro duties with Roger Pollock, PPI's exec veep of international distribution and operations.

PPI's bullish start to 2008 has been spearheaded by "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" ($392 million internationally) and "Iron Man" ($250 million). It's the first studio to pass $1 billion in international box office grosses this year.

Delivering taped messages to Expo auds were Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black ("Tropic Thunder"), Mike Myers ("The Love Guru"), Gurinder Chadha ("Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging"), Spielberg and Caruso ("Eagle Eye"), Michael Bay ("Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"), Sam Mendes ("Revolutionary Road"), J.J. Abrams ("Star Trek") and Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Sommers ("G.I. Joe").

Event runs through Thursday.

(Leo Barraclough contributed to this report.)

Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117987949.html

Like this article? Variety.com has over 150,000 articles, 40,000 reviews and 10,000 pages of charts. Subscribe today!
http://www.variety.com/emailfriend
or call (866) MY-VARIETY.
Can't commit? Sign up for a free trial!
http://www.variety.com/emailfriend