Posted: December 20, 2005

Cycling: New Tour de France Movie Set For IMAX Debut

From: www.ByJamesRaia.com

Wired To Win: Suriving the Tour de France, will debut nationwide in January at many IMAX locations.

The 40-minute film combines dramatic images from the centennial Tour de France (2003) with spectacular computer-generated and medical imagery. The goal of the ambitious, multi-component project is to generate new enthusiasm for science and stimulate a popular understanding of brain biology.

The new release is the final version of the movie originally titled "Brainpower." It its first form, the project focused on Tyler Hamilton and his CSC teammates and their journey during the 2003 Tour de France.

Hamilton, currently awaiting the Court of Arbitration for Sport appeal hearing on his two-year blood-doping case, left CSC for Phonak for the 2004 season after finishing fourth in the event in 2003 with a broken collarbone.

Hamilton abandoned the Tour in 2004 after suffering numerous injuries during a midrace crash. He won the 2004 Olympic time trial gold medal, but then failed two drug tests -- one taken during the Tour of Spain and one taken during the Olympics.

Hamilton is no longer part of the IMAX film

Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France now tells the story of two riders in the Tour de France -- Australian Baden Cooke, and his French teammate Jimmy Caspar -- as they attempt to complete the three-week-event.

Narrated by British thespian Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2, Frida), the film follows Baden, Caspar and the other elite athletes over the towering peaks of the Alps, through the knotted villages of Provence and to the cobblestone streets of Paris.

The riders try to avoid danger, deny crushing pain and fatigue, control their emotions, seize fleeting moments of opportunity and stay motivated. Powering each cyclist is the source of universal ambition and ability: the human brain, presented here as a dynamic engine of possibility.

Using the specially designed 70mm IMAX format famous for its larger-than-life images, an international production team captured the scenery and dramatic real life storyline of the Tour de France during the 100th anniversary of the famous race.

The Tour de France has been filmed before in smaller formats, but the logistical complexity of following the fast-moving event has made capturing 70mm images exceedingly difficult.

For years, numerous IMAX featuring the world's largest annual sporting event had been proposed, but had never reached completion for a variety of reasons.

To overcome the challenges, the Wired to Win team employed a crew of more than 50, used four cameras and invested in elaborate research and development prior to the start of the centennial race.

Funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation, and sponsored by Ortho McNeil Neurologics, Inc., Wired to Win is designed to extend the scientific expertise, research and educational mission of Partners HealthCare through a film that is both entertaining and educational.

“Wired to Win is designed to engage the public in understanding brain science, inspire the next generation of researchers, and illustrate the advances of neuroscience research and its practical applications,” says Valentine Kass, program director, Informal Science Education, National Science Foundation. "By combining the excitement of large format film, the thrill of the Tour de France, and the wonder of the human brain, Wired to Win creates a stimulating educational experience and achieves all of these important goals, which are critical to this country's competitive advantage in the sciences."

© Copyright 2005, James Raia

Posted with the permission of James Raia.

James Raia is a journalist, author and publisher in Sacramento, California. Sign-up for his free electronic newsletters Endurance Sports News and Tour de France Times on his web site: www.ByJamesRaia.com.