Video:Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Bill Hader Interview
with Rebecca MurrayBill Hader gives voice to an inventor who comes up with a way to make it rain food in 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.' At the LA premiere Hader talked about why he was drawn to this animated comedy, and Michael Lewis discussed the technology.See Transcript
Transcript:Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Bill Hader Interview
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the Los Angeles premiere of Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Bill Hader – The Voice of 'Flint Lockwood' in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
What's the appeal of doing a kids' movie?
Bill Hader: "I like animated movies. I kind of just see it as like… People say kids' movies but I just kind of see it like it's a cool story and it's like a lot of fun. I go to those movies all the time. And the thing I like about this movie is it's very much like it's not – it works on both different levels. You know what I mean? Which I really like."
So adults are going to be into it?
Bill Hader: "Totally, yeah, yeah. Those are my favorite growing up where you can see one funny movie as a kid, and then the joke was different when you were older."
And you actually got to do some of the sessions with Anna Faris?
Bill Hader: "Yeah, one day. We got to do one day together, which was good."
Did that affect you?
Bill Hader: " Yeah, yeah, because acting is reacting, so it was nice to go, 'Okay, that's what you're going to do when we do this. That's what you're going to do. Okay, I'm happy about that.'"
And the 3D effects in this, how terrific are they?
Bill Hader: "They're pretty amazing. This movie's like tailor-made for 3D, so yeah."
RealD CEO Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis: "The old 3D, the red and green glasses, is probably what you're familiar with. It's a technology that's been around for a hundred years, and what we did is we took modern-day technology – 3D science that was used by NASA and the military and Fortune 500 companies – and we married it with digital cinema projection, which is also the new thing in films. We stirred it up and we spent a couple years in R&D, and the net result is what we call RealD 3D. And the difference is you're going to be able to go into a theater, there have been 21 movies that have been shown so far this way, you put on these lightweight sunglasses and you forget that you are wearing a pair of eyeshades."
Is that a guarantee?
Michael Lewis: "That's a guarantee. And very shortly thereafter you become involved and immersed in the film. And what we're trying to do is replicate the way that we see. We see in 3D and yet our cinema is flat. And so for many, many, many years we've been trying to get it right, and now finally because of great technology we've been able to achieve that."
How much of this technology was developed especially with like an Avatar in mind? Or is it stuff that was going on anyway and they're just using the technology?
Michael Lewis: "Well, RealD 3D pioneered the technology for the delivery in cinema. So what we do is we license our technology to exhibitors and so we have about 4,000 screens now in 50 countries that can show RealD. There have been 21 films that have shown in RealD as well. We have another 50 that are in production. Avatar is an example of a film where the filmmaker said, 'This is the future. I now have a platform – RealD 3D – that I can show it on, so it makes economic sense. And I can spend 10 years of my life post-Titanic working on the tools and the production methodologies to really create a new cinematic language.' And so we've been working on the delivery side in RealD; the filmmakers have been working on the production side. So it's very similar to what happened in the 1920s with new ways of cutting and panning, and those types of things. And so capture is one side; we're on the delivery side."
Do you think there's going to come a time where every theater is going to be equipped with this or are theater chains still a little reluctant?
Michael Lewis: "We have over 9,000 screens that are under contract right now. We were at 100 screens three years ago, so it shows how rapidly it's growing. I'm not so sure every screen in the world will be 3D, but right now most of the exhibitors that we have contracts with over 30% of the auditoriums are 3D-equipped. The point is that this is a premium experience. It's a better experience. Once you have a color TV, you don't really want to watch black and white, and this is a very similar situation. Once you see RealD, I don't think you're going to want to go back and see your movie in 2D."