METALLICA: 'Be A Part Of Our 3D Film!'

METALLICA's August 24 and August 25 concerts at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada will be shot in 3D for the band's upcoming feature-film project.

The group earlier in the year tapped award-winning director Nimród Antal to helm the movie. Charlotte Huggins ("Journey To The Center Of The Earth", "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island") will produce.

The film will be a marriage of narrative and concert and will star the "five" members of METALLICA — James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, and the fans. It will be released in the summer of 2013.

Earlier today (Thursday, August 23),METALLICA's official web site was updated with the following message:

"You may have heard us mention just once or twice (or 700 times!) that a METALLI-3D movie is in the works... we now need your help to finish filming it!!

"This Monday, August 27, we will be shooting what we hope will be the final live portion of the movie and have our last chance for quite some time to play on the gigantic, massive over-the-top stage that we rolled out in Mexico City, took to Edmonton and end our film excursion/mini tour with in Vancouver.

"As we have been saying a lot recently, we would love to have you join us and be a part of our movie making adventure.

"Here's how it works: We will be running though the full live show one last time at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, but unlike the Friday and Saturday shows, there will be lots of breaks in it to allow for cameras and lights to be repositioned as the director sees fit. Since it is way more fun for us to have YOU there, tickets will be available for just $5 (no extra fees or service charges!) and all the proceeds will benefit the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.

"Tickets will be available in a special Ticketmaster pre-sale tomorrow, August 24 at 9:00 a.m. Click here to obtain a password and then head over to link text. Fan-club members should log in to www.metallica.com NOW for more details about a special pre-sale starting later today. Finally, tickets will be available to the general public Sunday, August 26 at 9:00 a.m. There will be no floor tickets for sale (too many cameras!) and there is a four-ticket-per-person limit. Lower-bowl tickets will be assigned a section, but are G.A. within that section.

"Doors open at 5:00 p.m. for this 'show,' and we hit the stage at 6:30 p.m. sharp... we're starting a little early to allow the movie people to do what they do. So please come and plan to stay for a full night of fun and games... and who knows, maybe we'll see you on the big screen next summer!"

Antal is best known for writing and directing the Hungarian-language film "Kontroll" (2003) that won several awards, including the Award of Youth at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and the Gold Hugo prize at the Chicago International Film Festival. He also received a European Film Award nomination for Best Director. His credits include "Vacancy", starring Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson, and "Armored", starring Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne. In 2010 he was hired by Robert Rodriguez to direct "Predators", featuring Adrien Brody.

"I've been a fan of Nimród's since his first Hungarian film, 'Kontroll', showed up at Cannes in 2004 and blew everybody away," said METALLICA's Lars Ulrich. "I've watched with excitement his career in Hollywood blossom over the last few years. Within five minutes of meeting him I was addicted to his enthusiasm, his take on the creative process and his 'thinking outside of the box' personality. Let's get on with it!!!"

"METALLICA has always been a huge part of my life, and it's an incredible opportunity when we get to work with our heroes," said Antal. "We are going to harness the powerful and almighty energy of METALLICA's live shows, inject a narrative into it, and shoot it in 3D to elevate the entire experience."

When METALLICA recently confirmed reports that it was working on a 3D movie, the band was vague about what exactly the project would entail or when it come out. The Pulse Of Radio asked Ulrich for more info and he said that film production is new territory for the group which they're taking very slowly. "It's been an idea that's been kind of circling in everybody's heads for about the last two years," he said. "Getting your own 3D movie off the ground is easier said than done . . We just want to make sure that we don't throw ourselves out into something that gets so completely overwhelming that the whole thing just blows up in our face."

Entertainment industry web site Deadline first broke the news in October that METALLICA was looking to self-finance its own 3D feature film, and had Huggins to develop the project for them.

Ulrich did hint to Rolling Stone a few months back what the film might be like, saying, "Imagine if you took [LED ZEPPELIN's concert film] 'The Song Remains The Same', which is 75 percent concert, 25 percent other stuff, and flipped it around. And all the non-concert footage, instead of being about the band members, is a story that unfolds, set against the backdrop of the concert."