Beowulf posterIf you are at all inter­ested in the future of cinema tech­no­logy, the ener­get­ic retell­ing of dark age Norse Anglosax­on Anglo-Sax­on legends or theme park rides then Beowulf 3D is the thing for you this week­end. The 3D ver­sion only screens at Read­ings and I under­stand from Road­show, the dis­trib­ut­or, that only two cinemas in New Zea­l­and are equipped to screen it: Read­ings at Cour­tenay Cent­ral and Hoyts Sylvia Park in Auck­land.

The digit­al equip­ment required to screen Beowulf in 3D cost upwards of $100k and is only in Cinema 5 (i.e. not one of the big ones). That cost puts it out of reach of all Wel­ling­ton cinemas apart from Read­ings (and pos­sibly Sky City at Queens­gate) until the eco­nom­ic drivers to replace 35mm film become over­whelm­ing. Check the list­ings care­fully as the 3D ver­sion is def­in­itely the one to see. The flat ver­sion can also be found at Regent-on-Man­ners and Sky City Queens­gate.

The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump…

Also open­ing this week is Joshua , a super­nat­ur­al thrill­er in the tra­di­tion of The Omen : that one is at Rialto only. For art-house fans French, the Pent­house has The Page Turn­er about a young woman who takes revenge on the con­cert pian­ist who (she believes) ruined her own career. It stars Deborah François from The Dardennes Broth­er­s’ film The Child which we saw in Wel­ling­ton last year.

Return­ing from the World Cinema Show­case is the Cuban/Spanish co-pro­duc­tion Habana Blues, of which this review­er said: “Boisterous, good natured but real­ist­ic. Do see it, because when Castro dies a lot about Cuba is going to change – both good and bad.” Para­mount.

Also at the Para­mount is the Show Me Shorts short film fest­iv­al fea­tur­ing many of the best indie short films from Aus­tralia and New Zea­l­and pro­duced in the last year. There are 39 films screen­ing over 6 ses­sions, includ­ing Night of the Hell Ham­sters co-writ­ten by Wel­ling­tonista Hadyn.

Beowulf and Habana Blues have already been reviewed at Funer­als & Snakes. The oth­er fea­tures will appear at the site next week, and in the Cap­it­al Times next Wed­nes­day.