Former U of L student Charlotte Huggins followed life’s detours into filmmaking

Charlotte Huggins

Charlotte Huggins was headed for a relatively normal career, studying to become a lawyer with an emphasis on international business and politics.

Now she’s more worried about international box office, and how to maximize the 3-D potential of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s pecs.

Huggins, who briefly attended the University of Louisville and whose family lives in Louisville, has become a player in Hollywood’s steady move toward more and better 3-D. She has produced a slew of 3-D movies, including “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and its sequel, “Journey 2: Mysterious Island,” which opens today and stars Johnson, Michael Caine and Josh Hutcherson.

Her next project is a 3-D feature film starring iconic metal band Metallica that begins filming this summer. Huggins, a mother of two with a thing for making family films, has already started palling around with the band, attending the Hollywood premiere of “Journey 2” at Grauman’s Chinese Theater with James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo.

Not surprisingly, Huggins has never thought twice about abandoning a potential law degree for a life on the red carpet.

“I mean, when you’re hanging out with James Hetfield, you’re just cool,” joked the effusive Huggins. “Robert, too. You’re going into Grauman’s with Metallica, watching a huge movie, and then you go to an after-party that costs several hundred thousand dollars.

“I told my kids, ‘This is work,’ and they’re like, ‘Sure.’ Well, it’s nice work if you can get it.”

Huggins was born in Louisiana, and her family moved to Ventura, Calif., when she was 15, then to Louisville. She missed that part, however, as she became an exchange student just before her family moved and spent her high school years in France. She did attend a semester at U of L before transferring to the University of California at Santa Cruz, and she has been in California since then but visits Louisville often.

“When I go home,” she said, “that’s where I go.”

Huggins’ career began when she got a summer job as a production assistant on a movie. She was due to start law school in the fall and never made it.

“I got totally hooked,” she said. “Totally hooked.”

Huggins quickly eased into the business, writing and producing documentaries. She then became story editor and writer on NBC’s “Hunter,” a hit starring Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer that aired throughout the latter half of the 1980s. That’s where she met her husband, Tom.

Her love affair with special effects started with a stint at Boss Film Studios, where she worked on then-cutting-edge commercials such as the Bud Bowl series. Disney introduced her to 3-D through “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience,” a feature developed for Disney theme parks.

That has been her specialty since. She co-founded nWave Pictures, a digital studio for which she produced a string of films. She’s now considered one of the most prolific producers of 3-D films in the business, and was included in Daily Variety’s prestigious “2008 Women’s Impact List” and in The Hollywood Reporter’s “Digital 50,” a list of creators focused on new technologies.

To Huggins, 3-D is far more than a gimmick. It’s the future of filmmaking.

“At this point, there’s no reason not to shoot everything in 3-D,” she said. “The technology for capturing 3-D has gotten so much easier. Cheaper, faster, better, and the crews are so much more knowledgeable. Eventually, people will shoot 3-D as a matter of course.”

This has been a trying week for Huggins. “Journey 2” is already doing well internationally, hitting No. 1 in Australia, Brazil and Mexico, among others. But conquering the domestic market is what generates buzz, and “Journey 2” is going up against the 3-D premiere of “Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace” and “Safe House,” a thriller starring Denzel Washington.

“It’s nerve-racking,” she said. “We never sit back and relax, ever. It’s pathetic to say this, but I’ll probably see the movie six times this weekend because I like to see it in different theaters. I like to see it in 3-D and 2-D. I’ll certainly go see it in IMAX.

“I like to watch audiences watch the movies I’ve worked on. I like to see what people react to, and it’s often not what I expect. You see where they laugh or duck or reach out for the screen. You see where they sit back and kind of forget about the 3-D for a moment and just watch the actors and become engaged.

“So I will go to the movies a lot, and watch the box-office reports a lot, and hope that people enjoy it.”

Reporter Jeffrey Lee Puckett can be reached at (502) 582-4160.