i Robot 3D to be released October 22nd

The conversion of Will Smith’s robot flick i Robot will be released on 3D Blu-ray, skipping a cinema re-release.

The film, in which Will Smith rages against the robotic machines in the year 2035, is the first of a series of back catalogue conversions from Twentieth Century Fox. The viability of converting films just for 3D Blu-ray rather than for theatrical releases like Titanic 3D is due to new 2D-3D conversion technology devised by JVC which is claimed to cut existing conversion costs and time by two thirds.

Speaking at NAB earlier in the year, Susumu Sakakibara, Director Video-Tech and General Manager Business Development, JVC said, "With this service a feature like i Robot can take three people three months to convert at a third of the price."

This is possible, he said, because the technology reduces the amount of manual rotoscoping from around 100-150 roto moves per frame to an average of nine.

So far there has been a direct correlation between man-hours, time and quality of conversion so 3D Focus is curious to see what level of quality has been achieved for the i Robot 3D Blu-ray release.

For their re-release of Independence Day in 3D next summer, Fox are turning to Studio 3D, the same conversion company who converted Titanic to 3D at a cost of $18 million. Perhaps this indicates there will be a distinct quality difference between theatrical and Blu-ray converted re-releases.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will also be releasing Avatar 3D and Prometheus on 3D Blu-ray in October and .

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