Lately, you can’t browse anywhere without seeing an article on the resurgence of 3D movies in Hollywood. The truth is that at $25 USD per ticket to some shows, as well as a $15 million up-front production cost, and only 1,300 out of 40,000+ theater screens receiving the $100,000 USD per screen upgrade, it’s going to be tough for 3D to make a real comeback. However, this recent trend does have some merit.

As the economy plunges, it can be downright depressing to sit at home and read the newspaper, watch TV, or talk to friends. In 2009, studios are introducing more of what’s considered “lighter fare”, or “fluff”, to the audiences. Included with this fluff are a whopping 30 3D films so far, scheduled out at 1-2 per month.

Let’s forget about Hollywood for a moment and talk about its video game sibling, machinima. What if, in the near future, it were possible to create a 3D machinima for the home crowd? Filmed in high-definition, we could port it to our TVs through our Xbox 360s and don our cheesy glasses.

Considering that more and more people are flocking to their computers to avoid life’s problems, it’s not that far-fetched of an idea. Machinima has been growing hand over fist in the past couple of years, with companies like Machinima.com receiving funding. I’m not alone in my thinking, either.

Leo Lucien-Bay, otherwise known as Dr. Nemesis, machinimator and cinematic team member at Bioware, speculated about the creation of 3D machinima over a year and a half ago! More recently, a WoW machinimator, Erunno, pondered whether a fully rendered 3D movie, even set in a video game, could be considered machinima anymore. I consider both debates to be a good sign that machinimators are ready to take on the challenge.

The only questions left would be:

* What platform should it be set in?
* Would you be willing to dedicate your time to it?
* and of course, the biggie - How would we go about making it?