the future of cinema and stories

how long do you think it will be before a new medium takes over cinema like motion pictures for the most part did to theater? like many people complain about having to sit through a play today, do you think people will see it as a chore to sit through a movie all the way through? people love interaction nowadays, and their reality TV, but i think there will always be a want to create and witness great story-telling. also, do you think that the next medium, whatever it may be, might have adaptations of films such as seven samurai, on the waterfront, casablanca and one flew over the cuckoo's nest in the way cinema takes from shakespeare and other great works of theater and literature? or do you think that these films will hardly even be remembered or seen as important? sorrry if this is a dumb topic, but i was just watching throne of blood with commentary on kurosawa's methods of brig=nging theater to the screen, and it kinda interested me. thoughts, anyone? i'd be very interested to here other opinions, especially from john, seeing as you're a film teacher.

Sounds interesting. Maybe someday movies will be so interactive it will be like the holo-decks in Star Trek.

given the way that kids these days grow up playing video games, you're probably right, tim.

Well Eli, if you follow "Tech News", you'll know that current Cinema isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Innovations in technology are allowing for a plethera of "upgrades" (if you will) to the cinema experience. Not so long ago there was great interest in the holographic integration into theaters... (Kudo's Tim). The idea was based on theaters having seating like a collesium or stadium where the seats were placed 360 degrees around the stage, where a "holloprojection" would be... er... projected. I'm a bit foggy on how it worked exactly, however it was said that no matter where you sat in the theater you'd be seeing the movie from the same angle. IE instead of having to watch the movie from the extreme sides of a theater from a skewed perspective. "They" were also toying with the idea of bringing "smellavision" back. If you're unfamiliar with this term, it was an idea that was short lived in the 40's and 50's where the theaters had a special venting system incorporated into the seats of the theater, where at certain points durring the movie, different scents would be piped to the viewers to coincide with the current situation on screen. Kind of corny, but who knows... stranger things have happened. Other ideas involved Virtual Reality, or getting rid of theaters entirely and buying the movie of your choice at home and watching it on your computer as the "information super highway" get's faster and faster. Pretty soon it will get to the point where none of us will leave our houses ever! Not for work, not for play... we'll all just be sitting on a toilet in front of a computer screen, with a mini fridge and a phone all within arms reach. However Eli, to wrap up, anything is possible. You never know, maybe we'll all get tired of the technology that's around us all of the time, and want to get dressed up to go out to a traditional theater as a welcomed break from the day to day electronic headaches. 8)