The 3rd dimension and beyond!

All three of them have recently appeared in 3-D features. Very successful 3-D features ...

The music documentaries "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" and "U2 3D" were box-office smashes, and the adventure movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth" continues to do pretty well in its 3-D release.

Welcome to the new age of 3-D. Or if you can believe Ben Stassen: "Three-D is the next big step in cinematic evolution."

"It's like when film made the switch from the silent age to the talkies," he explained. "There is new 3-D technology that creates many new exciting possibilities for directors."

Stassen is a Belgian-born filmmaker with extensive 3-D works to his credit, among them the 2001 IMAX animated hit "Haunted Castle." And his latest is "Fly Me to the Moon," an animated feature that will be released solely in the Real 3-D format next week.

(A shorter, 45-minute version of "Fly Me to the Moon" is also opening at educational facilities today, including on the IMAX screen at the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City.)

"Fly Me" is opening on more than 1,000 screens in the United States, which according to Stassen makes it the biggest, purely 3-D release to date.

"It's very exciting. We get to be on the forefront of this new filmmaking movement," he said from Los Angeles, where he was helping promote the new movie.

"Fly Me to the Moon" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth," which was released in both 2-D and 3-D versions, may be the first of many 3-D movies to come.

Disney will release its animated feature "Bolt" in both formats Nov. 26, and the studio is preparing 3-D versions of Pixar's successful "Toy Story" and its 1998 sequel. (A third "Toy Story" is being made with 3-D in mind.)

Also, George Lucas is prepping 3-D versions of his first three "Star Wars" movies — Episodes IV, V and VI (better known as "A New Hope," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi") — for theatrical re-release.

"It looks like this format is here to stay for a while, and the studios and exhibitors have made the commitment to provide the format for the moviegoers," said Cal Gundersen, film buyer for Megaplex Theatres.

But questions remain whether new audiences will be receptive to a format that's largely been seen as a "novelty" in the past.

Josh Hutcherson, Fraser's co-star in "Journey to the Center of the Earth," believes so. Having grown up in a time when 3-D had fallen from favor with the moviegoing public, the 15-year-old actor says he was unfamiliar with the format.

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