U2 in the flesh and in 3-D

By the time U2 finally climbed up the stairs of the Palais to belt out “Vertigo” and “Where the Streets Have No Name” at the Cannes Film Festival, it was fast approaching 1 a.m.

The late hour didn’t keep about 10,000 fans from packing the Croisette, “No Country for Old Men” star Javier Bardem from cutting a rug on the red carpet, and hundreds of photographers perched on ladders, trees and balconies from fighting for shots of the band. The question now is whether a U2 concert movie can generate the same dancing-in-the-streets pandemonium of that early Sunday morning mini-concert (all 12 minutes of it).

The makers of “U2 3D,” as the new concert movie that premiered after U2’s brief gig is titled, believe the answer is yes. Several distributors are not as certain, saying that the very thing that sets the film apart -- it only can be shown on screens outfitted for 3-D films -- is also its greatest liability, as there aren’t enough theaters equipped yet to show it.

With more animated and motion-capture films being produced in 3-D and several live-action works looming in the distance, a concert film about the world’s second-most popular touring band (behind the Rolling Stones) seemed to make sense. But when director Catherine Owens, a visual consultant for the band and the maker of its “Original of the Species” music video, started work on the project, she needed convincing.

“I wanted to see if the band would look good in 3-D -- if we could capture the magical energy of a live performance,” she said. “I’m very, very aware of the particular relationship they have with their fans, and the quite intimate relationship they have with each other on stage.”

The band had struggled with those same issues as it studied how to improve its use of massive televisions during its shows. As it turned out, an owner of an NFL team was also delving into similar concerns for his football team, and that’s where “U2 3D” began to come together.

As a minority owner of the Baltimore Ravens, John Modell felt even spectators on the nose-bleed level of the team’s new stadium deserved just as good a view of the game as the coaches on the sidelines.

“We wanted to find a new way to present a live sporting event,” said Modell, who financed the movie with his brother David.

In looking for massive, higher-resolution and brighter monitors to present his home football games, Modell started working alongside U2’s live performance crew.

Around the same time, Modell started work on an as-yet-unfinished 3-D movie about the Super Bowl.

“We thought it was the perfect way to immerse people into the game,” he said. He also realized the camera system could work equally well for any live event, including music.

Owens and a representative for U2 saw Modell’s football footage and decided to test the camera system on the band. In April 2005, Owens filmed a short 3-D experiment during the band’s Anaheim concert. The three-dimensional cameras, she felt, duly recorded the interplay between band and fan, but Orange County didn’t have quite the right mojo.

“We felt the passion and abandonment of South America would be a really good combination,” Owens said. “And they had not played there for eight years.” So, with co-director Mark Pellington, Owens filmed seven 2006 concerts on the band’s “Vertigo” tour. For continuity’s sake, the band had to wear the same outfits in every show; the film’s editors sometimes had to splice together different versions of the same song.

Owing to the complexity of the film and sound editing, only nine of a possible 15 songs were included in the 55-minute Cannes version of “U2 3D” Although the sound system in the festival’s main theater came up well short, the audience clearly enjoyed the film, its applause at the end of each song indistinguishable from those of the thousands of spectators in the movie.

The challenge for any potential “U2 3D” distributor is finding an economic model that makes sense. Since the film can only be shown in 3-D, the gold mine of two-dimensional ancillary markets such as pay TV, home video and DVDs is out.

There are only about 700 screens equipped with the Real D 3-D system, a leading 3-D system and the format on which the film will initially be presented and almost all of those are in the United States, said Michael Lewis, Real D chairman.

Lewis predicted that number would rise to 1,000 worldwide by the time Robert Zemeckis’ motion-capture 3-D movie “Beowulf” arrives later this year.

“Each time there’s a new piece of content, we increase our screen base substantially,” Lewis said. But he conceded there is not one Real D screen in Latin America -- meaning the very people who attended the movie’s concerts can’t see the film.

Sandy Climan, CEO of the Burbank-based 3ality, the production company on “U2 3D,” said the wallop three-dimensional movies deliver would soon make it the standard for all films.

“It’s a massive emotional change for the audience, and the audience has been waiting for it,” Climan said.

Owens agreed. “We really wanted to make a 3-D-only product,” she said. “We think it’s not so much a limitation as it is the beginning of a new conversation.”

john.horn@latimes.com