First time ever. One week only.
IMAX and the Estate of Michael Jackson are partnering to break new ground by digitally re-mastering Thriller into IMAX 3D for the first time ever this Halloween season, with an exclusive engagement that will run for one week only, beginning September 21, 2018, in domestic IMAX theatres—ahead of showings of Amblin’s The House with a Clock in Its Walls.
Learn more and check out the brand new trailer below.
In creating Michael Jackson’s Thriller 3D, which had its world premiere at the 74th Venice Film Festival, the original iconic short film, directed by John Landis (An American Werewolf in London) and written by Landis and Michael Jackson, was not reedited or recut in any way.
Optimum Productions brought Landis in and together they supervised an elaborate and labor-intensive process that began with the original 35mm film negative from Michael’s archives and resulted in a 3D conversion of the acclaimed film using the latest available technology.
Additionally, all of the audio, including Michael’s music, Elmer Bernstein’s score and sound effects, were adapted to 5.7, 7.1 and Atmos standards in order to create the highest quality audio experience for in theater viewing.
Michael Jackson’s Thriller 3D was then provided to IMAX to go through its proprietary digital re-mastering process (IMAX DMR), which optimizes the images and remixes the soundtrack for playback in IMAX theatres so fans can experience Michael Jackson’s Thriller to the fullest in IMAX.
Remarking on Thriller 3D’s “spectacular visuals,” Landis teases that viewers also will be treated to a shocking surprise. Declining to reveal more hints, he says only that the “surprise takes advantage of 3D in a way that’s very effective.”
“But we didn’t just restore Thriller,” Landis added. “We enhanced it … like in that scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and the others are being buffed and polished inside Emerald City.”
The song “Thriller” is from the album Thriller, one of the biggest selling albums of all time, and is performed by Michael Jackson, with music and words by Rod Temperton. The film premiered at the AVCO Theatre in Los Angeles in 1983, and it sold out every night for three weeks. No other music film generated such excitement and has such a hold on our attention, such that more than three decades later, we all share it as a collective memory and it remains the only music video to be inducted into the elite National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
In the tradition of Amblin classics where fantastical events occur in the most unexpected places, Jack Black and two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett star in The House with a Clock in Its Walls, from Amblin. Based on the beloved children’s classic written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey, The House with a Clock in Its Walls is directed by master frightener Eli Roth.