By Phillip Nakov
Christmas came early on the Croisette in Cannes this year as Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” brought with it a fresh dusting of that wintery white powder to decorate the front of the historic Carlton Hotel. The world’s press descended en masse to capture the arrivals of the horse- drawn carriages as they pulled up in front of the hotel to let off the producers, director and stars of Disney’s upcoming holiday movie.
Director Robert Zemeckis traveled to the south of France with Jim Carrey, Colin Firth, Robin Wright Penn and two of the movie’s producers, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke.
The outside of the hotel was dressed up to represent a winter- wonderland. Everyone stood in front of the enormous Christmas trees Disney had set up for photos and posed with the fake snow being shot into the air behind them with large blowers. Jim Carrey even collected some of the fake snow and tossed it playfully at the photographers.
After the short 20-minute press call, they filled inside to the mammoth 3D digital cinema Disney had constructed inside the interior courtyard of the hotel. Sparing no expense, Disney magically constructed a long, winding corridor leading to the beautiful, yet temporary, 3D digital theater just for the occasion.
Dick Cook, the chairman of the Walt Disney Studios was on hand to make a short introduction as well as talk about the advent and increase of availability of 3D digital entertainment. He goaded theater owners with the fact that they had built the 3D digital ready theater for the presentation in only three days. He explained that the Robert Zemeckis directed pic is a multi-sensory thrill ride capturing the essence of the classic Dickens tale in this groundbreaking 3D motion capture event.
Disney’s “A Christmas Carol” arrives in theaters November 6, 2009.
