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