"Fast & Furious" audiences to get D-Box motion-control treatment

If you're a fan of the "Fast and the Furious" saga (c'mon, don't deny it) and you're lucky enough to live in L.A. or Arizona, you're in for a treat—a bone-rattling treat, actually.

D-Box, the company that builds motion-controlled home theater and gaming chairs (along with custom-programmed "motion codes" for hundreds of specific movies), has just announced the first theatrical movie with D-Box support and seating—and yes, it's "Fast & Furious" (set to debut April 3).

That’s the good news, according to Engadget HD; the bad news, for now, is that only two theaters in the country will be getting the D-Box "experience": the Mann Chinese 6 in Hollywood and the UltraStar Surprise Pointe 14 in Surprise, Arizona. Too bad, because as I've reported before, the D-Box motion-control system involves way more than just subwoofers built into the seats.

Using individual chairs or seating platforms with two to three pistons (or "activators," as the company calls them), the D-Box system does an impressive—and in some cases, surprisingly subtle—job of making you feel the action, from the rat-at-tat-tat of machine guns to the sickening drop of a car sailing over a cliff.

D-Box engineers program frame-by-frame "motion codes" for each movie; about 850 D-Box-"enhanced" DVDs and Blu-ray titles are currently available, but "Fast & Furious" will mark the first movie to get a D-Box code for its theatrical release.

The only problem with D-Box chairs? They're expensive: think $3,500 and up.

But $15 or so (I'm guessing) for a D-Box-enabled theater ticket ... well, that's more like it. (Just imagine if they combined D-Box, IMAX, and 3-D in one theater; barf bags, anyone?)

Related:
Fast & Furious to be first major theatrical release with D-BOX [Engadget HD]