Produced by Walden Media and New Line Cinema, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 3-D is the first full-length, live-action feature to be shot in stereo HD for digital 3-D theatrical release.

The film is partially the brainchild of visual FX wizard-turned-director Eric Brevig, who is no stranger to the ever-changing 3-D universe.
Besides winning an Oscar for his groundbreaking work on TOTAL RECALL , Brevig was a visual FX supervisor on MEN IN BLACK, PEARL HARBOR nd THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, and was also instrumental in creating the 3-D large-format features MAGIC JOURNEYS, CAPTAIN EO and HONEY, I SHRUNK THE AUDIENCE for Disney’s theme parks.

“Walden Media was developing the idea of doing something with the Verne novel in 3-D,” recalls Brevig, “and they were working with producer Charlotte Huggins, whom I had crossed paths with 10 or 15 years ago... We hit it off back then, and had looked for something that we could do together with me as director and her as producer. But over the years, nothing really gelled.

Then, Charlotte was working on this picture with Walden, and the director dropped out, so she called me and said, ‘This is something that you would be really good at. Are you interested?’
“I had her send me the script, which at that time wasn’t very much like the movie is now. I told her, ‘I think the script needs to be re-thought, but the concept is wonderful. I would love to do something with it, especially using the new digital 3-D technology, which could really take the audience on a journey with the characters. Let’s make it a film that’s more about a great time, has a lot of heart and isn’t only a bunch of visual effects and episodic events.’
The studio liked that idea, hired me and we were off and running.”

One of the first alterations that Brevig oversaw was changing the initial script (by Michael Weiss) from a period piece into more of a contemporary story.

“The novel is set in the 1800s,” he explains, “so the things that were amazing in Verne’s day—like going to Iceland—were considered major events. The travel itself was a fascinating subject to write about, so the book’s first half is literally about how they get to Iceland.
But these days, there isn’t anything interesting about that, so we had to ask, ‘What are the book’s highlights? And how do we make a modern-day movie that captures the fun and charm of the novel?’"

“We wrestled with many different ideas, and finally ended up saying, ‘OK, let’s set the movie in the modern day, but we’re actually going to reference the book.’
We then came up with the conceit that some of the stuff published in the book is true, and our characters are the first people to discover that. That allowed us to have modern-day characters and to take advantage of the book’s great visual images, but not have to actually retell the story verbatim.”

In the film, Brendan Fraser stars as Trevor, a scientist who gets stuck with his nephew Sean (ZATHURA'S Josh Hutcherson) for an extended visit.
While going through some of his long-missing brother’s effects, Trevor finds an old copy of the Jules Verne novel, in which the pages are heavily annotated with scientific notes in the margins.

Discovering that the notes correspond to an emerging geological event thousands of miles away, Trevor and Sean travel to Iceland, where they enlist the services of Hannah (Anita Briem), a guide whose late father also considered the Verne story as fact, not fiction.

Together, the trio sets out to find an entrance to the lost world, and through a series of eye-popping misadventures, they eventually end up at the center of the Earth.
When the way back involves a trip through a steamy jungle, a voyage across an inland sea filled with carnivorous fish and a desert patrolled by a wayward dinosaur, it soon becomes apparent that the explorers won’t be getting home anytime soon.

A modest shooting schedule only allowed 10 weeks for principal photography.

“And all of it, except for a few days of location work, was shot in Montreal,” Brevig explains. “That was mainly because of cost and so forth, so almost all the movie took place on soundstages, and then we had a couple of days in Iceland for exteriors and establishing shots.”

With so much to accomplish in such a short time, it wasn’t possible to wear the twin hats of director and visual FX supervisor, so Brevig was more than happy to leave the latter job in somebody else’s capable hands for a change.

“I hired Chris Townsend, who was sort of my lieutenant when I was at ILM,” says Brevig.
“He was an associate supervisor on a couple of films I worked on, and I told Chris, ‘I’m going to design the effects-heavy scenes, because I know all of the tools, but on the day, you’re going to be the visual effects supervisor.
I’ll keep an eye on what’s going on, because that will help both of us later on. But I’m not going to do your job, because I’m doing a job that’s even more challenging, which is directing these actors and dealing with the studio and the schedule. In post-production, we’ll put our heads together and I’ll get involved to whatever degree you need.’
It was a good division of responsibility, and it worked very successfully.”

Read Eric Brevig's full interview, with many behind the scenes comments, in STARLOG #367 ON SALE NOW at newsstands and bookstores near you.

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