Avatar

[Stefen]

According to MarketSaw, eight trailers "have already been made for Avatar and all of them failed the test with James Cameron. He is hard at work prepping his own trailer for the masses as he knows the first trailer has to be done right."

Why do I get the feeling that half of James Cameron's trailer is going to consist of behind-the-scenes shots of James Cameron directing?

haha. that's what the eventual whole movie is going to be. Just a behind the scenes making of about a movie that James Cameron made that he's not allowing us to see.

It'll be rife with lots of scenes of Jim Cameron acting like a pompous jerkoff to his cast and crew and berating the audience for not being smart enough to get it.

Titanic was pretty much the worst thing to ever happen if you think about it. I mean, the movie and the natural disaster, of course.

[Fernando]

Man I can't wait to see this trailer, but I don't understand why the hell he gives some company the footage to cut a teaser/trailer, he shoulda pull a Kubrick and do everything by himself from the start (marketing wise), including the poster!

[MacGuffin]

'Avatar' update: Cameron hasn't rejected any trailers
Source: Los Angeles Times

I guess the top brass at 20th Century Fox missed the jocular tone in my previous post about the blogosphere rumor going around about Jim Cameron rejecting a string of possible trailers for "Avatar," his long-awaited sci-fi thriller.

For the record guys, I was being sarcastic, and there was a reason I described the original MarketSaw blog post as "not exactly the kind of story you'd take to the bank," adding that it "was essentially a rumor-mill item."

Sometimes sarcasm doesn't come across in print, so let me be more plain: I thought it was intriguing -- coming on the heels of the blogosphere uproar over "Watchmen" -- that "Avatar" was already under the Internet microscope nine full months before its release. But did any of the posts persuade me that Jim Cameron had already rejected eight trailers and had started cutting his own? Not so much.

Just in case there was any doubt that the online uproar over the trailers was, shall we say, premature, Fox Co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos got on the phone to knock the rumors out of the park. "Jim Cameron has never seen any trailer cuts for the simple reason that they haven't gone to him yet," Gianopulos said, after admonishing me for running the speculation in the first place. "While the film's footage is essentially complete, key sequences haven't yet been rendered into the photo-realistic CG images that are now being worked on. This is the normal sequence of the production and is necessary in order to make a final trailer."

So there. "Avatar" fans can safely step away from the ledge. (OK, that's me being sarcastic again.) Once Cameron is finished laboring over the film's complicated technical components, he'll have something to show us. We're all on the edge of our seats, waiting with bated breath. (No, that wasn't sarcasm -- that was genuine enthusiasm.)

[MacGuffin]

Avatar's James Cameron refutes rumors, offers update
Source: SciFi Wire

Avatar director James Cameron wrote Ain't It Cool News to shoot down several recent rumors about the movie, including one that he had rejected eight proposed trailers and another that he planned to unspool a trailer at the upcoming ShoWest convention in Las Vegas. Cameron also updated the site on the secretive film's progress.

"As usual the rumor mill is grinding out mostly spurious stuff," Cameron wrote AICN. "I have no plans at present to go to Showest, and in any event we have decided not to unveil material there."

Cameron added: "As to the trailer story, I have no idea where that came from, but I haven't rejected any trailers (yet), since I haven't seen any yet. They're still working on them for presentation, which presumably will be soon. I'm sure I'll reject a couple once I have the chance. Right now I'm just focused on having a movie to sell."

More than 10 years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to fictional feature-film directing for the first time since 1997's Titanic. The 3-D Avatar centers on ex-marine Jake Sully, who is torn between duty and honor when he finds himself caught in a battle between the heavily armed forces of Earth's most powerful star-faring consortium and an exotic, noble alien race whose entire world is threatened by the human invaders.

"The cut is shaping up nicely and the stuff coming in from Weta Digital is astonishing," Cameron wrote AICN. "Every once in a while, as we are absorbed in some intensely detailed discussion about sub-surface scattering or the way a tail is moving in the animation, I'll just stop and have this moment of clarity, as if seeing it for the first time. And I realize that's what the lunar astronauts must have felt like. They'd be in the middle of some complex set of procedures, and they'd look out the window and go, 'Oh, yeah. That's the frickin' moon!' It feels like that."

Avatar stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Cameron's Aliens star Sigourney Weaver. It opens Dec. 18.

[polkablues]

"Every once in a while, as we are absorbed in some intensely detailed discussion about sub-surface scattering or the way a tail is moving in the animation, I'll just stop and have this moment of clarity, as if seeing it for the first time. And I realize that's what the lunar astronauts must have felt like. They'd be in the middle of some complex set of procedures, and they'd look out the window and go, 'Oh, yeah. That's the frickin' moon!' It feels like that."

I long suspected that James Cameron had completely lost all perspective, but this confirms it.

[MacGuffin]

Avatar's Michelle Rodriguez loves James Cameron, and f--k you if you don't 
Source: SciFi Wire

Michelle Rodriguez, who co-stars in James Cameron's secretive sci-fi film Avatar, told a group of reporters that the breadth of Cameron's direction was exhausting. "He thinks in 12 dimensions at all times, and that's what I love about him," Rodriguez said in a group interview on Friday in Hollywood, where she was promoting Fast & Furious.

Avatar combines new motion capture, animation and three-dimensional filming technology. Cameron has screened footage for select audiences in the 3-D industry.

The following Q&A features edited excerpts of our interview with the outspoken Rodriguez. Avatar is due in theaters Dec. 18, 2009.


What kind of character do you play in Avatar?

Rodriguez: I'm basically a pilot, a pilot in another planet.

How did you hook up with James Cameron?

Rodriguez: James saw me in Girlfight. It's that movie. It's the only movie I was ever a lead in, and I guess I did a good job because people watched it and liked it.

What sort of direction does Cameron give you?

Rodriguez: Are you f--king kidding me? That guy is so amazing. You could sit there and you could talk for hours about the advancements in molecular science or you could sit there and you can talk about mythology and story building, character building. You could talk about cameras, the history of film, history of Russia. You could talk about flying to another planet, you could talk about space research. You could talk about underwater adventures. You could talk about how he constructed special technology for underwater adventures. Or you could sit there and talk to him about how he developed his own fricking cameras with his brother. I mean, like, this guy is a genius.

How does the footage look?

Rodriguez: It's f--king amazing. It's hardcore. I can't even imagine anything bigger. This is the beauty of working with that technology. You just go there and you see what you're interacting with right there because it's a mixture of live 3-D footage, the props on the set and the virtual world that he spent God knows how long creating.

How would you deal with the high expectations for this film?

Rodriguez: I don't give a rat's ass how people receive whatever we did. I am just incredibly honored to have been seen by him and for him to like keep me in mind for a project that he's had for the last, what, eight years? To call me up and say, "Hey, I want you to be a part of this," because everybody was talking so much smack about me [for a DUI arrest in Hawaii, where she was filming Lost], and it's so hard to get a job when all these people are talking s--t about you in the press, just because you're growing up. You know, I used to poop in my pants, too, and I learned how to use the bathroom eventually. People were so hard on me, so it's really important for me to have individuals that get it, that know, that can see in my eyes or see me on screen and know what I'm capable of and not be scared to hire me because of some commercial hoopla that people are saying. That was very important.

[MacGuffin]

Time magazine previews James Cameron's Avatar
Source: Sci Fi Wire

Time magazine has a new story about James Cameron's 3-D Avatar, with new details based on the writer's screening of early footage.

Here's part of Josh Quittner's story, which takes a broad look at upcoming 3-D movies:

"More than a thousand people have worked on [Avatar], at a cost in excess of [$200] million, and it represents digital filmmaking's bleeding edge. Cameron wrote the treatment for it in 1995 as a way to push his digital-production company to its limits. The movie pioneers two unrelated technologies—e-motion capture, which uses images from tiny cameras rigged to actors' heads to replicate their expressions, and digital 3-D.

"The film is set in the future, and most of the action takes place on a mythical planet, Pandora. The actors work in an empty studio; Pandora's lush jungle-aquatic environment is computer-generated in New Zealand by Jackson's special-effects company, Weta Digital, and added later.

"I couldn't tell what was real and what was animated--even knowing that the 9-foot-tall blue, dappled dude couldn't possibly be real. The scenes were so startling and absorbing that the following morning, I had the peculiar sensation of wanting to return there, as if Pandora were real."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1886541-1,00.html

[modage]

New Avatar Tagline Revealed
Source: Edward Douglas
March 30, 2009

The Opening Day Luncheon for ShoWest was sponsored by IMAX, who showed a sizzle reel of recent and upcoming IMAX movies. They didn't show any footage from James Cameron's highly-anticipated Avatar, which will be opening in IMAX 3D on December 18, but they did reveal a new tagline for the film which hints on what to expect:

"An All New World Awaits"

One can probably expect the first trailer with X-Men Origins: Wolverine and maybe a teaser poster.

Cameron's sci-fi action-adventure stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Peter Mensah, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, Stephen Lang and Matt Gerald.

Avatar tells the story of an 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.

[polkablues]

Bad year for hyphens.

[Sleepless]

Hyphens just ain't as cool as colons. Sorry, Polk.

[MacGuffin]

Book will reveal the art behind James Cameron's Avatar
Source: SciFi Wire

Amazon.com has listed a Nov. 1 release for the upcoming hardcover The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure, about the making of James Cameron's 3-D sci-fi epic movie Avatar. The book's description also offers a few spoilers about the movie's top-secret storyline.

Here's how the Web retailer describes the book, by Lisa Fitzpatrick: "Academy Award-winning writer/director James Cameron, the maker of Titanic and the creator of the Terminator series, has been crafting Avatar for over four years.

"The film follows the story of an ex-marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on a distant planet filled with exotic life forms. As an avatar, a human consciousness in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people.

"The Art of Avatar, the companion book to this epic 3-D action adventure, explores the developmental and conceptual art used by the creative team to create the original world of Avatar.

"With over 100 exclusive full-color images including sketches, matte paintings, drawings, and film stills, The Art of Avatar reveals the process behind the creation of set designs for the imaginative vistas, unique landscapes, aerial battle scenes, bioluminescent nights and fantastical creatures. Interviews with art directors, visual-effects designers, animators, costume designers and creature makers bring insight into this creative process."

Avatar opens Dec. 18.

[modage]

Fan Fever Is Rising for Debut of 'Avatar'
By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES — In an old airplane hangar near the beach here, James Cameron has been working feverishly to complete a movie that may:

(a) Change filmmaking forever

(b) Alter your brain

(c) Cure cancer

For certain expectant movie fans, the answer might as well be all of the above.

Eight months before its scheduled release on Dec. 18, Mr. Cameron's "Avatar," a science-fiction thriller filmed with his own specially devised 3-D technology, is stirring up a kind of anticipation that until now had been reserved for, say, the Rapture.

That might foretell a hit on the order of Mr. Cameron's "Titanic," with $1.8 billion in worldwide ticket sales.

Or it might just be a giant headache for 20th Century Fox, which is backing "Avatar" and will have to spend much of the year managing expectations for a film whose technological wizardry is presumed by more than a few to promise an experiential leap for audiences comparable to that of "The Jazz Singer," the arrival of Technicolor or an Obama campaign rally.

To date, neither a trailer nor even a still photo from the film, which tells the story of a disabled soldier who uses technology to inhabit an alien body on a distant planet, has been made public by Mr. Cameron or Fox.

But a number of enthusiasts who have been swapping notes on the message boards at IMDB.com claim to have already seen the movie — in their dreams. "The special effects were mostly drawings and cartoons, but they looked 3-D still," wrote one "planetshane," whose particular dream involved a pirated copy of an early version.

"It was the best movie I had ever seen," the post continued.

Only a few weeks ago, Joshua Quittner, a technology writer for Time magazine, fed the frenzy when he reported feeling a strange yearning to return to the movie's mythical planet, Pandora, the morning after he was shown just 15 minutes of the film. Mr. Cameron, Mr. Quittner wrote, theorized that the movie's 3-D action had set off actual "memory creation."

Questioned by telephone recently at his home in Mill Valley, Calif., Mr. Quittner said he was still reeling from the experience.

"It was like doing some kind of drug," he said, describing a scene in which the movie's hero, played by Sam Worthington, ran around "with this kind of hot alien chick," was attacked by jaguarlike creatures and was sprinkled with sprites that floated down, like snowflakes.

"You feel like the little feathery things are landing on your arm," said Mr. Quittner, who remained eager for another dose.

Executives and producers of the film declined to be interviewed for this article. In a statement Fox said: "Jim Cameron is breaking new ground with this film. Like all movie fans, the studio is excited by the prospect of such an original piece of entertainment."

In a brief interview reported by The Associated Press in December, Mr. Cameron said he was worried that "Avatar" could not live up to the expectations that were building around it. "Whatever they think it's going to be, it's probably not," he said at the time about those who were speculating about the movie on the Internet and elsewhere.

Yet Mr. Cameron has done his share to feed the hype with his repeated assurances that a coming wave of 3-D cinema (yes, it still requires glasses) would have the power to penetrate the brain in a way that movies never have.

Some fans believe that Mr. Cameron and his colleagues have finally crossed the "uncanny valley." That is a supposed point at which a viewer's responsiveness to a simulated human takes a sudden drop into revulsion as the image comes close to reality but strikes the watcher as being zombielike, or not quite right.

Dr. Mario Mendez, a behavioral neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, said it is entirely possible that Mr. Cameron's work could tap brain systems that are undisturbed by conventional 2-D movies. One, he said, is a kind of inner global-positioning system that orients a person to the surrounding world.

"Three-D demonstrably creates a space that triggers this GPS; it's really very stimulating," Dr. Mendez said. He added that he had used virtual-reality therapy in working with soldiers at the Veterans Administration hospital in Los Angeles — and found himself jarred by his experience with a "virtual Iraq" simulation.

"It was with me for days and days," Dr. Mendez said.

At ShoWest, a convention of movie exhibitors, a few weeks ago, Mr. Cameron in a short promotional video compared watching "Avatar" to "dreaming with your eyes wide open." (It was a neat complement to those who have been viewing the movie in their sleep.)

But, sooner rather than later, an increasingly restless group of the fans would like to sample the real thing. And that presents a conundrum for Fox, which will be hard pressed to release a conventional, 2-D trailer online — one of the most powerful ways to promote a movie these days — without undercutting the promise of a transcendental 3-D experience.

"I can't believe they would spend 12 years developing the technology and telling us in words how great this is, then show us in 2-D," said T. F. Powell, who runs AvatarMovieZone.com, an unofficial fan site devoted to the film. Mr. Powell recently spoke by telephone from Kansas.

Some fans are already teasing their peers about expecting too much.

"You would think this movie cures cancer," taunted a skeptical Danny Danger in his "movie preview extravaganza" on a MySpace blog in January.

Typically, studios have given a peek at some of their biggest science-fiction and fantasy movies during the giant Comic-Con convention, an annual summer gathering of the fans in San Diego. But that also poses problems for "Avatar," in that Comic-Con's convention hall setting has not been equipped to showcase films in 3-D.

"I can't imagine we will not have something, but nothing has been confirmed," said David Glanzer, the convention's director of marketing and public relations, speaking of the prospects for an "Avatar" moment at Comic-Con.

As for the movie's release in December, Mr. Glanzer said, "Maybe they should have nurses in the lobby."

It was a joking reference to a ploy once used by the producer William Castle. He posted fake nurses in the lobby of theaters that showed his own neuron-challenging horror film "Macabre," while insuring every member of the audience for $1,000 against "death by fright."

[MacGuffin]

Exclusive: Soderbergh Gives Avatar High Praise
Source: Edward Douglas; ComingSoon

Earlier today, ComingSoon.net had a rare opportunity for an extended interview with filmmaker Steven Soderbergh for his upcoming film The Girlfriend Experience, a timely film about a high-priced Manhattan escort played by adult video star Sasha Grey.

We had a chance to talk to Soderbergh at length about the film as well as his next two studio projects, The Informant and Moneyball, which reunite him with Matt Damon and Brad Pitt, respectively, but the real surprise came at the end of our conversation.

We were asking why he thought recent films didn't have quite the impact or longevity as the classics, and he gave us a great response about how the volume of movies being made and seen made it hard for anything to have the cultural impact of a movie like The Godfather or be remembered. He was disappointed there weren't those sorts of benchmarks in the movies being made today, but he surprised us by adding that he thought James Cameron's Avatar would be one of those benchmarks:

"I've seen some stuff and holy sh*t. It's the craziest sh*t ever. That could negate everything I just said," he told us.

A lot of people are eagerly anticipating the film, being that it's Cameron's first narrative feature film since Titanic way back in 1997, but nothing has been seen of the movie beyond a poster and a brief report from TIME last month. To have a reputable and discerning filmmaker like Soderbergh give it such high praise certainly makes one optimistic that Cameron's return will be the stuff of cinematic legend.

[picolas]

POSTER??

*google*

boom.

[squints]

fake?