U2’s 3-D film premieres at Sundance

U2’S new 3-D concert film premiered to critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday.

The four band members mingled with the thousands attending the two late-night showings at a local high-school auditorium. Lead singer Bono said the venue was appropriate given the fact the band had started out in school themselves.

Among the guests to don the clear 3-D glasses at the premiere was former US vice-president turned award-winning filmmaker Al Gore who premiered his film at the Sundance festival two years ago.

U2 3D is a compilation of footage shot on the US leg of the band’s Vertigo tour. The cameras alternate from the crowd to the perspective of the band.

Concerts were filmed in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, using what producers described as the largest collection of 3-D camera technology ever used on a single project.

The film includes many of the band’s classic hits, such as Sunday Bloody Sunday and Where the Streets Have No Name, as well as more recent songs such as Beautiful Day and Vertigo.

It was directed by Irish artist Catherine Owens who attended the premiere. The film will be shown worldwide starting on Wednesday.

It will be broadcast at more than 1,200 cinemas worldwide that have 3-D projection systems and will also be shown in IMAX cinemas, which are currently operating in 38 countries.

It is scheduled to open at Cineworld Dublin, Movies@Dundrum, Movies@Swords and SGC Dungarvan in late February.

Negotiations with a number of other digital cinemas are reported to be continuing ahead of the film’s release date.