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Started by MacGuffin, January 21, 2006, 03:23:18 PM

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Gold Trumpet

Quote from: modage on January 14, 2007, 04:33:06 PM
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on January 14, 2007, 04:22:45 PM
The bad thing: Cameron sounds like George Lucas by explaning how new and inventive technology will sell tickets for the movie (yawn).
i'll tell you what.  i'm a huge james cameron fan, but this thought occured to me the other day.  its been so long since he's made a film, this could be The Phantom Menace if it doesnt work.

I think of that Final Fantasy movie that cost a ton to make and sank an entire company because it failed. That film tried to utilize computer animation to such length that it could mimic actors facial mannerisms. The filmmakers and studio made such a big deal about it and talked like they are for this one. I remember watching it the first weekend and seeing an honest attempt to make a good action film but I knew the audience wouldn't connect. I think if Avatar fails to find an audience it will be because of a bad story or just an inability for the studio to connect. But, I do like that they are already promoting the film. I remember being excited for Lord of the Rings before it was ever made because the studios were pushing the hype early.

The Phantom Menace failed because of Lucas' ego. The effects weren't terrible (they were in Attack of the Clones), but the movie had no semblance of the originals and Lucas hired good actors but purposely underplayed them. That film was ready to be an explosian in every way. The logistics to work was all there. It just took itself too seriously and was not fun at all.

MacGuffin

Ellen Ripley going to Avatar?
Source: Moviehole

The source isn't exactly 'Deep Throat' so intersperse some table salt all over this one, but according to a tipster for Aint it Cool News, "Aliens" heroine Sigourney Weaver might be re-uniting with director James Cameron for his new film, "Avatar".

The versatile but not-oft-seen-these-days Weaver – in need of a hit, that's for sure – apparently appeared on a French talk show and let slip that she's doing Cameron's next film. Though Ms Weaver didn't name the film, she did mention it's a "big sci-fi" film. Since it's Cameron, and he only makes one film a decade, that's pretty much guaranteed to be "Avatar".

In addition, Weaver was also asked by the TV show whether Ellen Ripley would be making a return to the "Alien" battleground? According to Weaver – who at one time was interested in doing another one, if only because James Cameron and Ridley Scott were too – nope, she won't be taking down any more slimy suckers in the future.

If she does indeed sign up for a role in "Avatar" – joining recently announced Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana – Weaver will have plenty of opportunity to talk to Cameron about the "Alien" movies, and hopefully, they can dream up another sequel together. Even if it never comes to fruition, fanboys can still get damp over even the word "discussing", so consider it, guys.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Pubrick

the big question on my mind is WHO is James Cameron gonna marry out of this film?

every one of his last films has either starred or been produced by his then/future-wife, whom he then dumps in preparation for the next picture. the exception being true lies, which was obviously about his own marital problems. he's now stuck indefinitely with suzy amis since she just gave birth to their kid late december. i fear that avatar is being delayed because he can't find a part for her, and at worst the film could suffer for it if the matter is not resolved.. or resolved too hastily if he forces a part for her.

the solution: i implore everyone to get out your little zwartboek, start dialling and find the man a leading lady!
under the paving stones.

polkablues

Quote from: Pubrick on January 18, 2007, 02:26:14 AM
the big question i'm wondering about is WHO is James Cameron gonna marry out of this film?

If it's Zoe Saldana, I'm going to kill myself.

My house, my rules, my coffee

modage

Great Expectations
The director reveals how he got Fox to greenlight his $195 million technology-driven motion picture - Entertainment Weekly

James Cameron is finally following up that movie about the boat accident. His new project, Avatar, is an epic, 3-D sci-fi film about an ex-Marine on an inhospitable planet where humans can only survive by projecting their consciousness into genetically engineered bodies (a.k.a. ''avatars''). The people of earth want to exploit the planet's natural resources, of course, causing the inhabitants to revolt and a war to break out. The rub for the protagonist, named Jake (played by newcomer Sam Worthington), is that he's fallen in love with a native (Zoe Saldana), forcing him to choose a side in the battle. Fox has gone out on a limb, granting Cameron a whopping $195 million to tell the tale — but hey, what's a couple hundred mil for a guy who racked up 11 Oscars with his last full-length feature? 

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: For a while now, you've been debating between two different projects: Avatar, which is an original screenplay that you wrote, and Battle Angel, adapted from a series of Japanese comics. So why pick Avatar?
JAMES CAMERON: Well, Battle Angel and Avatar were being developed at the same time. The thinking was that we'd be using similar technology to create either one or both of those films. It was little bit of a horse race there for a while to see which one was going to be done first. The way I pitched it to Fox was, ''We're doing both these films.'' The order is relatively arbitrary, because we're making an investment in a methodology and a technical infrastructure that could produce both. But I ultimately had to choose which one was going to be first, and I began to run into a bunch of script problems with Battle Angel, because I was synthesizing down these graphic novels. There are 10 of them. It was the kid in the candy store problem — too many good ideas and no story. So we went through five drafts and didn't solve them. So I switched to Avatar and we started developing that. Then, of course, a great script came in on Battle Angel! Which is a good problem to have, because I had two great projects, either one of which the studio would be happy to go ahead with. I would say it was August or September of 2005 we decided to push ahead with Avatar. Believe it or not, it was that long ago.

What was the deciding factor?
We did a test of the performance-capture techniques we wanted and needed to use to make this film — a live action, real-time, director-centric performance-capture process. In other words, as the actors perform, I'm able to see in the monitor not only what they might look like as their CG character, but in the CG environment we've created, and direct them accordingly. When we did the test, we chose Avatar, just because it seemed like the easiest one to get going for a test, for a lot of reasons.

This is an original screenplay, correct?
That's correct.

How did you come up with this story?
Well, my inspiration is every single science fiction book I read as a kid. And a few that weren't science fiction. The Edgar Rice Burroughs books, H. Rider Haggard — the manly, jungle adventure writers. I wanted to do an old fashioned jungle adventure, just set it on another planet, and play by those rules.

Your premise reminded me a lot of the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter, Warlord of Mars series.
It's definitely got that feeling, and I wanted to capture that feeling, but updated. To be certain, I wanted a film that could encompass all my interests, from biology, technology, the environment — a whole host of passions. But I've always had a fondness for those kind of science fiction/adventure stories, the male warrior in an exotic, alien land, overcoming physical challenges and confronting the fears of difference. Do we conquer? Exploit? Integrate? Avatar explores those issues.

How long has this been in your head?
I wrote an 80-page treatment 11 years ago. We were working from the treatment in designing the world and the creatures and so on. I wrote the script the first four months of 2006.

Is it true you have developed a whole culture and even a whole language for the aliens in this movie?
Absolutely. We have this indigenous population of humanoid beings who are living at a relatively Neolithic level; they hunt with bows and arrows. They live very closely and harmoniously with their environment, but they are also quite threatening to the humans who are trying to colonize and mine and exploit this planet.

Sounds like you've crafted a story with a lot of political resonance.
Only in the very broadest sense of how we as a Western technological civilization deal with indigenous cultures; we basically supplant them. If not in an active, genocidal way, then in a passive manner. They just kind of wither away. Our impact on the natural environment, wherever we go — strip mining and putting up shopping malls. Now, we're extending that to another planet.

How long did it take to brainstorm the language? Did you work with people on that?
There's a guy named Paul Froemer who I was lucky enough to encounter a year ago. He's the head of the linguistics department at USC. I talked with a number of linguistics experts, but he was the one who kind of got the challenge. He said, ''We're going to beat Klingon! We're going to out-Klingon Klingon! We're going to have a more detailed and well thought out language than Klingon!'' He's been working on this for a year. It began by riffing off things in the treatment, but from there, it went to how sentences would be constructed, and what the sound system would be. It would have to be something that was pronounceable by the actors but sounded exotic and not specific to human languages. So he's mixing bits of Polynesian and some African languages, and all this together. It sounds great.

What was the tipping point in terms of realizing that this movie was technically possible?
Looking at what Peter Jackson was able to do with Gollum, and then King Kong. And Davy Jones [from Pirates of the Caribbean] — all these examples of compelling photo-realistic, fully CG characters, in a photo-realistic world. I don't think many people are aware that a lot of the jungle scenes in King Kong were actually CG. They did a lot with miniatures, but toward the end they were doing a lot of the jungles in CG.

Was the number of theaters that could exhibit a 3-D movie also on your mind in terms of when to go forward with this?
Absolutely. There's been a sense for me over the past two or three years of, ''Well, if not this year, then it's okay next year for me to start a movie, because the longer I wait, the more theaters there will be,'' and I want to be able to land in 1,000, 1,500 theaters — as many theaters as I can — in digital 3-D. Because I've been working with our 3-D cameras over the past six years. We've refined them. They work great. They work perfectly. I love working with them. I don't want to go back to shooting on film. I don't want to go back to shooting in 2-D, so for me it was just a question of waiting for the right moment. In fact, I think I've actually waited too long. Everybody else is out there making animated films and putting them in 3-D and this is such a big picture. We're not going to land in theaters until summer of '09. But I think we can be sure that we will have a lot of 3-D screens by '09 at the rate they've been increasing.

How did you convince Fox to do this movie?
Walking them through the process. It's a good thing we actually had built a functional stage environment that was producing usable footage. When they came down and saw it they went, ''Wow, maybe this is the way to make one of these movies, where you have so much more of a sense of control and confidence as you're making the pictures.'' Because I'll be able to literally turn over cut sequences as we go, right from the get-go. Right from the time we start with the actors, the studio will be able to see it. So instead of spending an enormous amount of money, and then after the money is all spent, still not having scenes with a rough sense of what they really like because the special effects process hasn't really even begun yet, they'll be able to see what it looks like as we go along.

To be clear, Fox was financing all this development, correct?
Correct. We were on a week-to-week funding scheme, where we continued to develop and do budgets and do the F/X breakdowns. But while we were doing that we were actually doing capture on a weekly basis. I would do a day, or two days, or three days of motion-capture work. We were actually working out the methodology. So I was able to bring them down and tour them through the facility and show them all the design work and really give them a sense of how much preparation this film had under its belt. I think they felt that yes, this is a very daunting project, but that it was also the most intricately planned project since... well, since ever. [Laughter]

When did you invite them down and give them that tour and show them what you had been doing?
l would say that was a couple months ago. And then the conversation evolved into casting. We were going to make this big expensive film — were we really going to do it with a cast of unknowns? Relative unknowns, not stars. Not Tom Cruise. So we had to get our minds around that. Or they had to. I was already pretty happy with our choices.

And you had already made those choices.
Well, we had already cast a few actors. What we were talking about was the lead, the male lead. I had found Sam Worthington fairly early in the process. He really hung in there and trooped with us for a long time. He came in for a couple screen tests, and kinda hung on, hoping. So I have to give him credit for that. It was a very exhaustive process. We looked at a lot of people. There were people who were championed by the studio and I even screen-tested them. Ultimately, when I showed them Sam against their champions, they was no comparison.

Was there any concern at the studio about the potential budget for this, given their experience with you on Titanic?
Absolutely... A lot of the last six months was about figuring how to make this a very, very finite process that's not prey to all these pitfalls of these big effects movies. So a lot of scrutiny was spent on the contracts with Weta [the New Zealand-based F/X facility], a lot of scrutiny on the budget, the methodology, on testing and so on. As the process went on, the confidence level increased that the number was not going to change.

The reported figure is $200 million. Is that accurate?
The reported figure is supposed to be $195 million — that's what our budget is. Is that figure going to drift by a couple percentage points up or down? Probably. I don't think you can do any big project and land exactly on budget. But I'm hoping to come under. Really shock everyone.

That would shock everyone.
But the history of the last six years is that that's all I've done. I did 44 hours of television — Dark Angel — that was done on budget and on schedule. I did four major documentary projects that were subject to Atlantic and Pacific storms and all these exegeses of major ocean expeditions, and they were all done on budget. I've spent really the past few years working on our methodology for this type of big, mainstream effects film, and doing it within parameters, which is something Hollywood typically isn't very good at... A film like Titanic, we had a six-month shoot. At the end of those six months, because we had been working flat-out, six days a week, very little of the picture was cut, there was very little to be turned over to the F/X guys in terms of finite counts, and so all of the F/X got jammed into the last four months of making the movie. That's why we didn't make our release date and why we went over budget in effects, because we had to divide it up amongst 14 vendors to even attempt to make our date. In direct contrast to that, I have almost two and a half years on this film, and we've already been doing performance-capture for four months, and the F/X guys are already working... Our live action shoot is just 31 days — it's a fifth of Titanic, all on stages, all interiors. We'll do all that in New Zealand. All the sets are designed now. We don't even begin site construction until May.

When will you start shooting those 31 days?
Late August. Might drift to September.

How excited are you to be back making movies like this?
Oh yeah! I always assumed I would come back and be that guy again. I didn't think it would take this long. I was having too much damn fun doing expeditions. And frankly, I've already been working on this movie pretty exclusively for a year and a half. So I feel like I've already been doing it. We're just announcing it now; it feels like I've been part of the Manhattan Project and we're going public.

Will you still do Battle Angel?
Yeah. In fact, this film has a very long tail on it, about a year and half of post-production. Basically, after I finish my job as a director, after directing the actors and editing a film and turning over a cut, I think it's very possible that I can slip a good six months of pre-production of Battle Angel into that period.

Will Fox be involved?
That's a Fox project, as well.

When you go down to New Zealand, will you be bunking with Peter Jackson?
Peter and I have gotten to be friends over the past couple years. He's a 3-D fanatic, like I am, and he loves the effects, and he loves the big show, and he loves fantasy filmmaking. I'm going to be relying on all the infrastructure he's built down there, from the live action soundstages to the Weta workshop, where they're going to make all the props and sets. It's going to be, ''Thanks for building all this, Peter. Now can you move out for a year and let me use it?''

Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

James Cameron Reveals Avatar Cast
Source: ComingSoon

James Cameron chatted with Ain't It Cool News on his way back from shooting three days of live action work in Kauai for Avatar. In the conversation, he confirmed more members of the cast:

WES STUDI, SIGOURNEY WEAVER (confirmed as Grace), Peter Mensah, Joel David Moore (fantastic in both HATCHET and SPIRAL) - I imagine him as being Hippy-esque (think ABYSS), C.C.H. Pounder (love her) and then last but not least... I believe it was Laz Alonso - looking at his filmography - that's the name that most fits with what I heard.

Cameron will now begin a stage of the production called Pre-Capture with stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. You can read more on Cameron's comments here.

The sci-fi action-adventure comes to theaters in summer 2009. It is the story of a wounded ex-marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival.


http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31589
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

James Cameron's Avatar Gets a Date!
Source: ComingSoon

Avatar, James Cameron's long-awaited non-doc follow-up to his 1997 Oscar-winning blockbuster Titanic, has claimed its date of release, and it's going to be hitting theatres on Memorial Day weekend in 2009. That's in just 27 short months for those who want to start standing in line.

With a cast that includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver, Cameron's sci-fi epic is about a wounded ex-marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

'Avatar' Actor Talks Cameron Film: 'The Technology ... Hasn't Been Done Before'
Laz Alonso provides tantalizing hints about James Cameron's top-secret upcoming flick.
Source: MTV

HOLLYWOOD — Forget about Indy whatever and Batman whatchamacallit, because everybody knows that the hardest-to-acquire movie news these days regards "Avatar," the top-secret sci-fi flick that is finally bringing James Cameron back to theaters after a 12-year "Titanic" — inspired hiatus.

Cameron recently allowed actor Laz Alonso to run loose for a few hours so he could attend the recent premiere of his film "Captivity" and, naturally, we threatened to strap him down to one of the torture chairs inside the event unless he talked to us about Cameron's flick.

"It's going great man, I mean the guy deserves every great thing that's been said about him as far as his creativity," the "Stomp the Yard" actor said of the shoot. "We work really hard, and he's really passionate, and we're really excited about what we're doing. May 2009 is a long time away, but we just feel the fever right now — it's alive."

Rumors say that the film is about a paraplegic war veteran traveling to another planet on a diplomatic mission. It involves the environment, technology, and aliens — but Alonso wasn't eager to contribute much beyond that, insisting that he's not even allowed to describe his character.

"I had to sign something that swore me to secrecy; to be honest with you, I don't know what I'm allowed to talk about or not — so just to be on the safe side, I ain't saying jack," he shrugged. "But, it's just a sci-fi movie that's going to blow your socks off."

This much we do know: From "The Abyss" to "Terminator 2", Cameron loves to unveil new technology with his films. The filmmaker has already confirmed that the flick is being shot in 3D, and will combine live-action and computer-generated characters and environments.

"The technology that he's using is something that hasn't been done before, the way that he's doing it," Alonso said before naming a few of the VIP guests that have swung by the set. "When you see guys like Marilyn Manson coming through, and Peter Jackson and Spielberg coming through to see what this new cutting-edge technology is, you know you really have something special going on."

"What we're seeing right now as far as technology is level one," he said of today's blockbusters. "What you'll be seeing when this movie comes out is roughly like a level 20."

Alonso revealed that he's been working opposite several veteran actors, and is about to start filming scenes opposite Cameron's "Aliens" leading lady. "I actually will be working with Sigourney Weaver next week — she's been in New York finishing up a project," he explained. "She's on board until the end of the picture, so we'll be working together for the next few months."

"Zoe Saldana plays my counterpart, Sam Worthington plays the lead," he said of the actors he's worked opposite. "CCH Pounder, Peter Mensah, Wes Studi ... it's a really dynamic cast, people from all different types of backgrounds. The majority of us though have done theater, so you can tell that Jim likes to work with a lot of theater actors."

Reflecting on the performance of "The Shield" star Pounder, Alonso said: "Oh man, when she comes on, and when you see her in the movie — you'll know it," he grinned. "[Her character] has this very regal presence about her. When she steps on set, you know she's arrived. [Pounder] fits very, very well with her character."

Finally, Alonso revealed that he has not been privy to Cameron's shoots in New Zealand or Hawaii, but has instead spent most of his time in front of a green screen in Playa Vista, California. "I'm primarily here in the States; we're doing it here in Los Angeles on a sound stage," the actor said. "For the purpose of this film, when you work in a digital environment, you can pretty much create whatever it is that you want. We do have that freedom to stay in one place for our section.

"The world is our oyster."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

Well my excitement level just went limp. Can they CGI replace her "acting"/one-note face?:

Lang, Rodriguez armed for 'Avatar'
Cameron film begins production
Source: Variety

James Cameron has added two cast members to "Avatar." Stephen Lang and Michelle Rodriguez will join Australian actor Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Wes Studi and CCH Pounder in the performance-capture pic, which is in production in Los Angeles. In October, the company will move to Wellington, New Zealand, close to Peter Jackson's Weta Digital, which is supervising the film's visual effects.

Lang plays a seasoned Marine Corps colonel who travels to the faraway planet Pandora to take charge of its troops. Lang is known for his New York theater roles in "A Few Good Men," "Defiance" and "Death of a Salesman." He'll wrap up 101 performances at the Roundabout Theater in his sold-out one-man show "Beyond Glory" on Aug. 19 and then take on the "Avatar" role.

Lang first met Cameron 20 years ago for a role in "Aliens" he didn't get. But Cameron never forgot him.

Rodriguez plays an ex-Marine pilot. "Michelle Rodriguez is someone I've wanted to work with since I saw 'Girlfight' seven years ago," said Cameron.  Film is a $190 million hybrid of live action and animation. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment team has researched a mix of live-action cinematography and virtual photorealistic production techniques which will feature virtual characters. Thirty-one days of live-action photography will begin on Weta soundstages in October.

Pic will be produced by Cameron and Jon Landau for Lightstorm. Mauro Fiore ("Training Day," "The Island," "Kingdom") has been hired as d.p.

"Avatar," which will be filmed in a new digital 3-D format, is skedded to debut on May 22, 2009.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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modage

Quote from: MacGuffin on August 03, 2007, 12:10:15 AM
Well my excitement level just went limp. Can they CGI replace her "acting"/one-note face?:
last weekend i saw her on my street 2 blocks from my apartment.  i should've asked her about that.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

EXCL: Moore on Cameron's Avatar
Source: ComingSoon

James Cameron is making history with his next flick, Avatar – there's no mistake about it. The movie will be shot on a Cameron-created 3D camera system, using motion capture and live-action in the same shot. It's so impressive, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have both been visiting the set to watch Jim in action.

According to everyone I've spoken to, it's going to change the way we watch film. And that goes the same for Joel David Moore, who stars along side Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Wes Studi, Michelle Rodriguez, CCH Pounder, Laz Alonso, Peter Mensah and Stephen Lang. Only half-way through shooting, Joel has been amazed at what he's seen so far. "I'll be shooting that for a while; we started in February and we are shooting until February 2008 – it'll be a year of my life by the time it's done. But I gotta tell you, it's the most amazing thing I've ever done."

And that starts with working with Jim Cameron. "He's one of the biggest and best directors in the business and to be able to be put in that position of luxury and comfort is really cool. When I first sat down and read the script for the first time, it's got James Cameron, this is the most amazing thing, it's going to be a sci-fi thing. So I assumed this is just a sci-fi, but it's so much more. And even better than that is what we're doing; it's just stunning. I have to be discrete even talking about it, but they're going to blow your mind. As far as technology, it's history in movie making; people are likening this to the creation of color TV."

In Avatar, Joel and Sigourney play anthropologists, studying plant and nature life, on another planet. "We're over there trying to study this other system," Joel adds. "In that, we learn about them and learn that we like a lot about them that we may or may not like about humanity. And this is something Jim has done well – he's given an arch to all his characters that we all have our own stories and struggles; no one's just tagging along for the ride. It's pretty spectacular."

The interesting part about this system Cameron is using is that no one is allowed to talk about it. Normally, people aren't supposed to talk about their character or the plot of a movie; but this is the first time I've heard where actors and actresses aren't able to discuss what cameras are being used. "It's more of the overall technology being used; Jim knows what he's doing, but we can't talk about the way he's doing it because it's his creation. He's created this style of motion capture."

Joel also credits Jim for bringing in Sigourney, reuniting the two since working on Aliens (1986). "There's a reason she's working on this movie – he's just got that way of making films. And that way is always successful and on top of his game. And I can't say enough about Sigourney; it's just amazing to be able to work with her. She's just a fan of it; she's willing to just go along for the ride. But to watch her in this new technology, in every step of the way been giddy about it, and open to trying everything; she's in there trying with the hustle of trying this. It's me and Sigourney and Sam (Worthington) trekking off to this other world and try to assimilate to this other society, and because of that, almost every one of my scenes is with them. We really team up and get through it and she's been fun throughout this process."

With filming on Avatar not set to end until February '08, and a release date of May 22, 2009, I'd say we're in for a nice surprise.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

'Avatar' has new player with Ribisi
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Giovanni Ribisi is landing on a new planet.

The actor has signed on to James Cameron's 3-D feature "Avatar," playing a passive-aggressive character named Selfridge in the Fox film about a band of humans pitted against a distant planet's indigenous inhabitants.

He joins a cast that includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez.

The $190 million "Avatar" is set for release May 22, 2009, and features a blend of live-action photography and new virtual photorealistic production techniques invented by Cameron's team. The film features six computer-generated actors known as "synthespians" and is in production in Los Angeles and next month starts production in New Zealand at Weta Digital.

Cameron is writing and directing as well as producing with Jon Landau and Lightstorm Entertainment.

Emma Watts is overseeing for the studio.

The film marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since the Oscar-winning blockbuster "Titanic" in 1997.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Pubrick

it is just amazing and depressing how much time has passed since his last movie. but the weird thing is it doesn't feel like much has happened. is it just me getting old and not giving a shit about little events that used to mark big moments in my youth?

just think about the difference between 1990 and 1997. it was HUGE. but 2000-2007 was a blink. in terms of culture, major events, apart from 9/11 nothing at all has happened. that is until may 22, 2009.
under the paving stones.

MacGuffin

Fox shifts 'Avatar,' 'Museum'
Studio shuffles 2009 schedule
Source: Variety

Substantially rearranging its 2009 tentpole sked, 20th Century Fox will release "Night at the Museum 2: Escape From the Smithsonian" on May 22 and move back James Cameron's 3-D "Avatar" from the Memorial Day frame to Dec. 18, giving the helmer more time for post-production.

News reps the first official word that Fox is pushing ahead with a sequel to box office hit "Night at the Museum," directed by Sean Levy and starring Ben Stiller, who will reteam on "Smithsonian." Sequel will be the first major Hollywood movie shot at the museum complex in Washington, D.C.

Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios also announced that Fox has decided to produce "Ice Age 3" in digital 3-D. Toon was already set for release on July 1, 2009. Move signals studio's confidence in the power of modern-day 3-D.

Fox had previously announced it will kick off summer 2009 with the release of Hugh Jackman starrer "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" on May 1.

In summing up the various changes, Fox Film Group vice chair Hutch Parker said, "This is a win-win for us."

Screenplay for "Smithsonian" was penned by "Night at the Museum" scribes Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, with a rewrite by Scott Frank. Levy will produce through his 21 Laps Entertainment, alongside 1492 Prods.' Chris Columbus.

Additional casting for "Smithsonian" will be announced in the coming weeks, with some actors from the first film expected to return. In bringing the Smithsonian museum to life, sequel also will introduce historical figures to the franchise, including Amelia Earhart, whom Reese Witherspoon has been approached to play.

"Night at the Museum," released last Christmas, grossed $252 million domestically and $323 million more overseas.

"Avatar," announced earlier this year, will now open on the same weekend that Cameron's "Titanic" did in 1997. The live-action/CGI hybrid is Cameron's first feature since "Titanic," which, after a decade, remains the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office.

So far, no other films are dated for release on Dec. 18, 2009.

Pushing back the release of "Avatar" from May to December allows both more time to work on the effects and that much more time for additional theaters to install 3-D screens both here and abroad.

With the extra months, Cameron and Peter Jackson's Weta Digital will continue working on the groundbreaking technology invented by Cameron's team and Weta for the film.

"Making this change more than two years out allows Weta to achieve this unparalleled cinematic feat with the most efficient completion of the digital effects," Parker said.

Fox stressed that Cameron will soon complete live-action principal photography in New Zealand, on schedule. During its production, "Titanic" hit major delays.

Cameron and producing partner Jon Landau are producing "Avatar" through Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment. Cameron also penned the script.

Both "Avatar" and "Ice Age" will be released in conventional 35mm formats as well for smaller markets without 3-D screens.

Parker said producing "Ice Age 3" in digital 3-D still provides incentive for exhibs to install as many 3-D screens as they can by summer 2009.

"Ice Age: The Meltdown" director Carlos Saldanha, will direct "Ice Age 3." Voice talent Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah and Denis Leary are back onboard. Pic is being produced by Lori Forte and John Donkin from a script by Michael Berg and Peter Ackerman.

Original decision to open "Avatar" on May 22, 2009, prompted Jeffrey Katzenberg's DreamWorks Animation to move 3-D toon "Monsters vs. Aliens" from May 15 to March 27, 2009, out of concern that there wouldn't be enough screens to handle two such films that close together.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Sleepless

This is gonna be the dog's bollocks  :yabbse-grin:
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.