An interesting piece by Doreen Carvajal in the International Herald Tribune on the state of digital cinema.
When Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader battled last week in dark theaters around the world, the force was not with digital cinema. George Lucas, the director, filmed the latest "Star Wars" adventure, "Revenge of the Sith," expecting that the science-fiction epic would open in thousands of theaters equipped with digital projectors. As it turns out, there are fewer than 350 such screens, about 100 of them in the United States.
But even so, this could be the rollout year for digital cinema. Some European countries are pressing forward with almost intergalactic ardor, subsidizing digital projector giveaway programs with the aim of nurturing home-grown movies that can flourish alongside Hollywood blockbusters. (…)
In 2002, Lucas offered his first digital "Star Wars" movie, "Episode II – Attack of the Clones," and predicted that by the next installment, most theaters would be using digital projectors. But by the time of the gala screening of "Revenge of the Sith" in Cannes, the movie's producer, Rick McCallum, was fuming about the resistance of theater owners. He appeared at a small gathering of digital cinema companies like XDC, Barco and Texas Instruments and bluntly attacked Jean Labé, head of the National Federation of French Cinemas, a trade group. "Once Jean Labé loses his job, hopefully there will more digital theaters in France," McCallum said in an account reported in the Hollywood Reporter, a trade journal.
Predictably, the release of Revenge of The Sith in digital is inspiring other d-cinema coverage. See also this USA Today roundup: Link
Previously on Boing Boing: The Cuban Revolution, Ireland's movie theaters to convert within a year, South African villages to get digital cinema network
