Avatar

[modage]

yeah that poster's been around a long time.  fake.

[polkablues]

There's so much hype and so little info on this thing, there's no way any film could possibly live up to it.  Avatar is the Segway of movies.

[modage]

Imax Clears a Path for What Could Be a Good Long Run of James Cameron's "Avatar"

How hot is James Cameron's "Avatar"? Hot enough that Imax so far has not lined up any other Hollywood movies for its ultra-big screen theaters between Fox's release of Mr. Cameron's 3-D science fiction thriller on Dec. 18 and the arrival of Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" on March 5. Things could change. But the Imax people are mulling whether the several hundred large screens by then expected to be up and running with commercial films (as opposed to the museum-type fare) will be needed for almost three months to satisfy demand for Mr. Cameron's first feature film since "Titanic."

By contrast, Paramount's "Star Trek" got only two weeks on the Imax circuit, which by the weekend will be playing "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." And "Terminator Salvation," also opening next weekend, will have no Imax presence at all.

By the end of next year, new Imax venues should break the bottleneck that currently makes it impossible to open two films on the super-screens at once.

[Stefen]

Does this film even exist and is it as awesome as it's trumped to be? I wonder if IMAX has even seen any footage. It'd be hilarious if Jim Cameron pulls a Private Witt and is all like, "April Fools!" then gets banned from Filmmaking.

[matt35mm]

I think the hype for this movie is actually so high that it has transcended logic and cannot not live up to it.

[MacGuffin]

Avatar Running Time is Over Two and a Half Hours
Source: Slash Film

Editor's (Peter Sciretta) Note: Brendon filed this report yesterday, but I wasn't initially willing to run it based on an unconfirmed source on a Twitter account. But since that time, /Film's Russ Fischer was able to follow-up with Avatar producer John Landau, who made an appearance at the Ubisoft booth during the E3 video game convention. Fischer asked about Avatar's running time, and Landau confirmed that it is "definitely over two and a half hours."

The reason why I had my doubts is that the film is being released theatrically in 2D, Digital 3D and IMAX 3D, but the latter format does not allow for three-hour films. I contacted IMAX, and they confirmed that the longest a non-digital 3D presentation could run is 160 minutes, and that is with two separate film reels, one for each eye. I asked IMAX if they would be forced to cut down Avatar if the finished film ran 3 hours in length, and they said they'd get back to me — which of course, they never did. When IMAX first began screening theatrical upconversions, the maxium running time was shorter, and I do recall one of the Harry Potter films being shortened a few minutes of the IMAX presentation. So it is possible that the same thing might have to be done for Avatar.

You can read Brendon's original report, which claims a finished running time of 189 minutes (or three hours and nind minutes)  after the jump.


Brendon's Report begins:

According to the threadmeisters at Film Crew T-Shirts, the running time of James Cameron's Avatar is going to be... drum roll please... 189 minutes. How would they know? Well, I assume they've fostered some strong relationships with members of, quite obviously, film crews, and furthermore that one of these folks is a crew member on Avatar. Far from impossible.

Everything I know about Avatar suggests a 189 minute run time will still require a brisk pace and some tight editing to get all of the different narrative threads spun out neatly. Titanic ran over 5 minutes longer and, relatively speaking, that was a straightforward story that took far less exposition just to get the premise clear in people's minds.

Interestingly, James Cameron has had a few bouts of crew friction that flared up into Blade Runner style T-shirt wars. On Terminator 2, the crew made shirts that said ""You Can't Scare Me - I Work For Jim Cameron."

More recently, Sam Worthington raffled off an Avatar t-shirt that gave us the first definite look at artwork from within the production. It showed a silhouette of a Na'vi character and contained the film's logotype, which we've now seen in all subsequent promotions.

I don't think Cameron would be the kind of guy to buckle and let anything other than his director's cut, no matter how long it is, be the theatrical release. I can't imagine he'll be accepting a run time ceiling on his final cut contract. Sure, Aliens was released in a cut down version, and I'm still not entirely clear on whether the longer Terminator 2 was Cameron's preferred version or not, but those were both released before he was made King of the World.

Many of the recent posts on the Film Crew T-Shirts Twitter feed have been about Date Night with Steve Carell and Tina Fey, on the set of which they witnessed some car stunts, and GI Joe, about which they revealed nothing, gagged by an NDA. While they retain their anonymity they stand a very good chance of digging up some really good scoopage.

[MacGuffin]

Cameron's game-changer?
'Avatar' looks to alter Hollywood videogame biz
Source: Variety

The track record of film-based videogames has been spotty. While there have been a handful of critical and commercial successes, the majority have been average at best -- and, frequently, embarrassing.

James Cameron plans to change that. Fox has scheduled a December release of his 3-D film "Avatar" and the filmmaker has pushed game publisher Ubisoft to create the vidgame industry's first stereoscopic title.

What's more, Cameron was so impressed by some of the shots developed by Ubisoft Digital Arts, a computer animation studio owned by the game publisher, that he will use some of them in the film.

Admittedly, these are small steps, but they signify a game-changing alliance with a multibillion-dollar industry, as Hollywood and gamemakers begin to work more closely.

And while few gamers -- or anyone else for that matter -- have a TV that will support the spectroscopic feature, a non-3-D version of the "Avatar" game also will be sold, and will bear Cameron's mark of approval. What's more, the 3-D game plants the seed for the Holy Grail of creating stereo 3-D at home in much the same way Cameron's commitment-obsession to 3-D film is being eyed as a significant step in even wider use of the format.

Ubisoft doesn't plan to end its association with high-powered directors after "Avatar" ships. The company announced at tech confab E3 in Los Angeles this month that it would work with Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy on a gaming adaptation of the upcoming "Tintin." The film marks a reteaming for the company with Peter Jackson, with whom Ubisoft worked on 2005's "King Kong," a launch title for the Xbox 360.

"We can create good games, but we are still very junior at creating movies, so why not join forces with the best of the best to make our visions come to life?" says Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft chairman-CEO, who co-founded the company in 1986.

Cameron and the company began work on the game version of "Avatar" 2½ years ago, an incredibly long gestation period for a film-based game. The long development window was deliberate to ensure the game would match the quality of the film, Cameron said during a surprise appearance at the E3 press conference for Ubisoft.

"Movies are on a one-year track," he said. "One year after someone pushes the button, it's in theaters. Good games can't be made that fast."

While affairs between studios and game publishers aren't always smooth, both sides say the "Avatar" relationship quickly became collaborative. As both sides contributed to each other's work, Cameron's passion for the project pushed Ubisoft to experiment with technologies that have never before been tried in the videogame space.

The partnership is part of Ubisoft's strategy to blend its game studios with filmmaking. Last July, the company bought Hybride Technologies, the visual effects house behind films such as "300" and "Sin City." Today, it uses Hybride to create new technologies for both films and games.

The plan behind the strategy, Guillemot says, is to lower expenses as it pushes new boundaries: "We need to make sure we can reuse our animations and graphics with other mediums, so we can reduce the cost of making games."

Both the film and game versions of "Avatar" are set in the 22nd century on Pandora, a large moon of a gas planet teeming with exotic new forms of life. Among the creatures who live there are the Na'vi, a humanoid race with blue skin, tiger stripes and heights of up to 10 feet. Humans cannot breathe the air on Pandora, but have created a living, genetic hybrid (known as an Avatar) into which they can insert their consciousness and explore the world.

Ubisoft was given full access to the film's CG shots to re-create the world. With Cameron's blessing, though, the game will tell a different story than the film, allowing it to be released at an earlier date.

"They brought the same passion to 'Avatar,' which is a licensed game, (that they bring to) their own games," Cameron said. "The world of the Avatar game is, in some ways, richer than what you'll see in the film. At the same time, it doesn't have any spoilers in it that will ruin the film for you."

The developers also had a few improvements they wanted to make to Pandora. Ubisoft came up with the idea of adding bioluminescence to the plant life. When he saw it, Cameron was so impressed, he added it to the film.

"Let's face it, some games based on movies have sucked," Cameron said at E3. "We had very ambitious goals for this film and we knew we wanted to choose our videogame partner very carefully."

[squints]

i wonder what we'll all make of this in say....3 years



(i hope xixax is around long enough for this to be answered.)

[MacGuffin]

'Avatar' footage in action at Cinema Expo
James Cameron promos clips from sci-fi movie to exhibitors
Source: Hollywood Reporter

AMSTERDAM -- "The future's so bright I gotta wear shades!" James Cameron cried Tuesday as he strode onto a stage -- with his 3-D glasses on -- to unveil the first publicly shown clips from his $300 million 3-D sci-fi actioner "Avatar."

The fittingly epic film promo literally added an extra dimension to Fox's presentation at the ongoing Cinema Expo.

"Avatar" actors Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana and Stephen Lang, pic producer Jon Landau, and Fox film chairman Jim Gianopulos also greeted the clearly wowed exhibs at the RAI convention center auditorium.

"Three years ago, I stood up here and said the 3-D renaissance is coming," Cameron said. "And from what we've seen in the business, we can now say it has arrived."

In introducing the 24-minute assemblage, Cameron said much of it came from the first third of the film but that there were also glimpses from unfinished portions of later battle scenes involving warring sides clashing over control of the fantasy world Pandora.

The filmmaker also said the action gets nonstop in the latter portions of the film, which throughout is populated by strange life-forms in a world of unprecedentedly rich fantasy elements. Worthington plays an avatar -- a remote-controlled character created by melding his crippled human form into a super-human being -- whose fate lies ultimately in doing battle with his own former race.

Fox made media covering the event agree not to report details of the "Avatar" images or to interview audience members for reactions. But from the sustained applause at the conclusion of the presentation, suffice to say Fox didn't hurt itself at the event.

A cinematic hybrid of CGI, motion-capture animation and live action, "Avatar" is Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's "Titanic." At that year's Cinema Expo, Cameron showed eight minutes of the effects-laden disaster drama before it rang up a still-record $1.84 billion worldwide boxoffice and copping Oscar's best pic statuette.

Cameron encouraged theater owners to add 3-D capability as quickly as possible. But acknowledging "Avatar" will have to play in a mix of conventional and extra-dimensional venues due to insufficient number of 3-D auditoriums, he added, "I just want to say that I think 'Avatar' is going to play great in 3-D, 2-D, any 'D.' "

"Avatar" is set to open around the world on Dec. 18, though it's become sport in Hollywood to speculate on whether the famously painstaking filmmaker will wrap the production in time. Cameron's high-profile promo appearance should go a long way toward soothing any anxieties.

"They wouldn't be doing this if it weren't coming out," a top distribution exec from a rival studio said.

Much of the technology used to capture actor performances was developed especially for "Avatar" and its effects crews at WETA Digital in New Zealand and Industrial Light + Magic in Northern California.

Before the "Avatar" presentation, international distribution co-presidents Tomas Jegeus and Paul Hanneman showed a reel of clips from other upcoming Fox pics. Those included first-quarter titles such as the family comedy "Tooth Fairy," starring Dwayne Johnson; Chris Columbus' family adventure "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" and Fox Searchlight's Mira Nair-helmed Amelia Earhart biopic "Amelia," starring Hilary Swank.

The studio also screened its 3-D three-quel "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs."

Also Tuesday, Sony screened the romantic comedy "The Ugly Truth," starring the notably not-ugly Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. Sony's worldwide distribution president Rory Bruer is making a first-time visit to Cinema Expo, grabbing some quality time with regional exhibs.

Elsewhere around the RAI, the confab's large trade-show floor opened with tire-kickers drawn by a Dolby-sponsored lunch mingling among more serious customers. Dolby is showcasing its latest digital servers and other d-cinema products.

Recession-impacted vendors sent fewer reps this year, but Disney's large exhibit promoting Tim Burton's live-action take on "Alice in Wonderland" -- set for release in March -- compensated nicely. The display included costumes, props, production designs and even an entire dining room set.

Steady floor traffic fluctuated only when events drew attendees elsewhere.

"It picked up after the movie screening let out," Imax rep Sandie Green noted.

Cinema Expo always boasts a few food-and-beverage exhibitors -- Polish popcorn purveyor PCO Group has a large space -- but most of the floor is taken up by tech companies. Among them: d-cinema vendors Barco, Christie and NEC, German audio-equipment marketer Ernemann and Milan-based film-projection specialist Cinnemecanica.

Sony Electronics mounted its usual large booth, staffed by reps from Sony's London offices. The company is touting tech and financial offerings for digital cinema as well as video displays for theater lobbies.

"We want to start a dialog with people we haven't met before and also reach agreements with some other people," Sony spokeswoman Elizabeth Pierce said.

[Gold Trumpet]

I really want this to be good because if James Cameron can mesh a great story with this new technology, he can make a film that will define Hollywood entertainment for years to come. It will put every other big filmmaker in a race to try to copy his accomplishments and they will always come up short. Then Cameron would have defined an ideal, but if it sucks, then it shows that technology usually hinders good filmmaking. When Cars was released, the director only trumped the great new technology in the movie. It's all he talked about in interviews and it was a bad sign because no other director of a Pixar film acted that way in promoting their film. It's the big hype for Avatar, but I trust in Cameron to do the movie better.

[Stefen]

My biggest fear is that story wise it sucks but technologically it's a marvel and audiences flock in droves. See: Transformers.

[Stefen]

[Fernando]

I think this is the first official teaser poster/publicity of this damn thing...




Found at:
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/avatarnews.php?id=56824

[MacGuffin]

James Cameron starts 'Avatar' hype machine early
Source: Los Angeles Times

The King of the World isn't leaving anything to chance.

Six months before "Avatar" hits theaters, director James Cameron and 20th Century Fox are holding a full-court press with the nation's leading exhibitors at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood tomorrow to tout his upcoming release.

"Avatar," a blend of live action and CGI animation, is Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's "Titantic" and has generated a frenzy of interest. During the five-hour meeting (he has never been one for short presentations), Cameron will show 20 minutes of scenes from the film and answer questions about the making and marketing of the movie.

Cameron and Fox hosted a similar event recently in Amsterdam at Cinema Expo and are expected to also show excerpts from the movie at the Comic-Con trade show this month in San Diego.

Fox has plenty of incentive to court exhibitors. The movie, which stars Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver, is a big gamble for the studio. With a budget of nearly $240 million, "Avatar" is one of the most expensive and anticipated films ever made.

It's also the most high profile 3-D movie to date. Although 3-D films are enjoying a resurgence in Hollywood, the small number of theaters with 3-D screens has limited the returns. The rollout has been delayed by the credit crunch. Only about 2,500 screens in the U.S. are 3-D ready, about half what many studio executives had anticipated.

Cameron himself has urged exhibitors to add more 3-D screens, although he has predicted the movie would do well in any format.

"The main purpose of the event is to expose exhibitors to what 'Avatar' the movie is about,'' said Jon Landau, who is producing the movie with Cameron. "Certainly, our goal is to have as many 3-D screens out there as possible.... We would like every exhibitor who is on the fence to stand on the side of 'yes, let's convert.' Not so much for 'Avatar' but for the whole industry."

[picolas]

James Cameron starts 'Avatar' hype machine early

are you fucking serious?

release a goddamn still. or a teaser with no footage from the movie in it. no stupid or casual moviegoers (the most profit-giving demographic) even know this thing exists. you dolt.