Disney and IMAX Corp. are partnering for a slate of five upcoming films, starting the 2009 debut of Robert Zemeckis stereoscopic 3-D, performance-capture retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The agreement also covers Tim Burton’s live-action/CG hybrid version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the Disney Digital 3D version of Toy Story and other highly anticipated event films that will be hitting theaters starting in November of 2009.
The deal comes as IMAX Corp. is aggressively expanding to make more theaters available to moviegoers. The recent introduction of a digital projection system is allowing the company to cut costs by eliminating the costly 70mm film projection systems that moviegoers can see at work as they enter most IMAX venues. DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa was the first widely distributed digital presentation, debuting on 35 IMAX screens equipped with the new projection system.
Opening Nov. 6, 2009, Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol has Jim Carrey lending his voice and physicality to Ebeneezer Scrooge, who begins the Christmas holiday with his usual miserly contempt, barking at his faithful clerk (Gary Oldman) and his cheery nephew (Colin Firth). But when the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come (all played by Carrey) take him on an eye-opening journey, Scrooge must open his heart to undo years of ill will before it’s too late. Release dates for additional titles will be announced in the near future.
