This is like Rosa Parks, or Tiananmen Square, but of the movie world. Our distaste for post-conversion 3-D has been thoroughly documented on The Movie Mash over the past several months. As it seems that most big-name movies are either being shot in 3-D or post-converted, I don’t want to write a new story everyday chronicling that “Movie X” and “Movie Y” are going to be in the third dimension. It’s tedious, and I’m sure a lot of you are tired of hearing about it. But this story is the first we’ve heard of a director flat-out refusing the studio’s wishes of having their movie converted to 3-D, and I feel like it’s something that needs to be shared.

In a story from the LA Times (via FirstShowing) the new Nightmare on Elm Street director, Samuel Bayer,was adamant in his belief that movies shot in 2-D should be shown in 2-D, and why he resisted the pressure from Warner Bros. and New Line to post-convert the film:

“Some high-profile filmmakers have been famously concerned about conversion, which takes footage that was shot in 2-D and turns it into 3-D. When New Line initiated several conversations about converting A Nightmare on Elm Street to 3-D, we pushed back. This was shot in 2-D and was meant to be shown in 2-D. Just like I don’t want to see a lot of great movies remade, I don’t want to see a lot of them in 3-D.”

God bless you Mr. Bayer. I salute you! Some of you may be wondering how a director would be able to resist the studio mandate on his first movie, well Michael Bay had some influence on the final decision. As some of you may know, Michael Bay has been openly skeptical on the 3-D post-conversion process. Nightmare on Elm Street, like the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th remakes, were produced by Bay through his production company. So you can bet that when Warner Bros./New Line execs were talking to Bayer about post-conversion, Bay stepped in and said, “Nah.”

Hopefully there will be more stories like this one, where filmmakers are openly denying the studio execs’ desire for post-conversion 3-D. It’s the only way that we won’t have the awful visuals that come as a result, like with Clash of the Titans. Unfortunately, a Hollywood Heavyweight like Michael Bay won’t be able to step in every time.

What Do You Think? Discuss.