Two films are about to make history as the first widely released feature
films available to moviegoers via digital projection. One is STAR WARS
EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE; the other is the English romantic comedy, AN
IDEAL HUSBAND. Beginning June 18, and continuing for four weeks, a digital
version of Oliver Parker's AN IDEAL HUSBAND will play in New York City and
Los Angeles. Check your papers for locations and times. For STAR WARS
EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, CineComm Digital Cinema and Texas
Instruments, two of the industry's leading forces in digital projection of
motion pictures, will provide their digital projector technology to screen
the film on two screens in the Los Angeles area and two screens in the New
York area starting on Friday, June 18, 1999. In Los Angeles, the CineComm
digital presentation will be held at Pacific's Winnetka Theater and the
Texas Instruments presentation will be held at AMC's Burbank 14 Theater. In
the New York area, CineComm's presentation will be at Loews' Route 4
Paramus, New Jersey, and Texas Instrument's presentation will be at Loews'
Meadows 6 in Secaucus, New Jersey. Rick McCallum, producer of THE PHANTOM
MENACE, states, "This is a milestone in cinematic history. Why? Because,
for the first time ever, a filmmaker can be certain that the audience will
see and hear the film in the way the filmmaker intended it to be seen and
heard. Like the introduction of sound and color, these digital screenings
represent the beginning of a new era in film presentation. Digital
projection guarantees a perfect print with each and every screening for the
full life of the film and for every copy that is made. All any filmmaker
wants is to be able to show a film that is free of scratches and which has
all the qualities of image brightness, focus and color that everyone has
struggled and spent so much time and effort to create."