Film directors ponder new technology

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. film director Oliver Stone said the progression of technology was not necessarily a friend to those who tell stories on film.

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Stone said he watched his children watching a film on the diminutive screen of a cell phone, while "trying to multitask."

The experience, he said, was a bummer, "very depressing to people like me," the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Stone and directors Michael Mann ("The Last of the Mohicans,") and Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge!") were anachronisms at the show, which is all about what the future will bring, the Times said.

Luhrmann bemoaned the fate of film classics converted to Blu-Ray technology, which may reveal ropes used to hoist a flying Peter Pan, for example.

In contrast, Luhrmann also said he was "fantastically optimistic" about technology and was exploring using 3-D for a new version of "The Great Gatsby."

Mann also said he was curious what 3-D might add to a dialogue-oriented drama, the Times said.