'U23D' could be showing in a thousand cinemas later this year. That's according to the production team behind the 3D film who held a press conference in Cannes this afternoon.

Co-directors Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington, along with producers John Modell and David Modell from the production company 3ality, took the questions. While Rattle and Hum (the last time U2 featured in a cinema-release movie) had been more of a road movie, they explained, the new film is all about the music.

'It's about the performance of the band and their relationship with each other on stage and with their audience. We wanted to show how each song has an arc and the setlist has an arc and the movie shows this.'

Eighteen cameras were used in the filming of multiple shows on the band's tour of South America last year. The editing is still taking place but the final film is expected to be between 80 and 90 minutes in length. At one show in Chile, the crew only filmed Larry on drums for the whole show - another night was a 'phantom shoot', homing in on the band close-up, but with no audience in the venue.

The production team are predicting that the film could change the face of music videos. '3D is now digital and and it's going to start to change music videos. And when you no longer need the glasses, then it will really take off."

Catherine Owens apologised that the band were unable to get to the press conference as their plane had been delayed.'They're really sorry about it and they're going to make it up to everyone - they even had their guitars with them.'