James Cameron's Avatar

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At fourteen, Cameron saw the movie that made him want to make his own: Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the first cinematically exquisite treatment of what had traditionally been B-movie material. “I saw all these cool spacecraft and I wanted to know how the visual effects were done,” he said. “I started building my own models of spaceships, from the ‘2001’ model kit and the ‘making-of’ book, which was quite thick and well researched.” After he finished making “True Lies,” Cameron called Kubrick, by then a recluse, and invited himself over. They spent a day, in the basement of Kubrick’s house in the English countryside, watching “True Lies” at Kubrick’s flatbed editing station. Cameron went over the shots—Schwarzenegger in a Harrier jet firing a missile, with the villain attached to it, through an office building and into a helicopter: boom!—so that Kubrick could learn how the effects were done.

Interesting

On the human designs...

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The idea is that Pandora has such a hot, humid climate, with incredibly powerful magnetic fields, that they can’t use sophisticated energy weapons. A lot of the equipment is retrofitted, from their perspective, because it works on Pandora. So you’ve got vehicles that are more consistent with twentieth-century warfare.” His face was flushed and happy. “It’s all just an excuse to do helicopters versus pterodactyls,” he said.

  On 11/1/2009 at 4:22 AM, vasio said:

  On 11/1/2009 at 3:33 AM, Philip Glass said:

So don't say anything about cookie-cutting, you're talking about James fucking Cameron. Even Titanic had about two hundred death on screen. Expect Avatar to be R-rated.

 

If there's a movie that looks like typical Disney is Avatar with its blue cat people. After District 9 grittiness and amazing aliens the bar has been raised.

it's just a fucking color. Relax dude, it's a JAMES CAMERON SCI-FI MOVIE

i like her stretched ears

lots of hardons in here with nothing to fuck

im fondling my balls right now

  On 11/2/2009 at 7:51 PM, kaen said:

i like her stretched anus

fixt

you have to drop extasy to know the true potential of the color blue

i've got a bet going with a friend that avatar will gross more money at the box office than transformers 2. anyone care to share what they think my chances are? i'm starting to get a little nervous.

  On 11/2/2009 at 10:48 PM, Frank Pools said:

i've got a bet going with a friend that avatar will gross more money at the box office than transformers 2. anyone care to share what they think my chances are? i'm starting to get a little nervous.

Considering the hype machine hasn't really kicked in for Avatar yet, and it's a little over a month away... I'd say you're gonna lose this bet (especially since December is not always the best month for new movies, and Transformers 2 hit the cusp of the Summer blockbuster season).

*loosens collar*

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/season/2009/11/news-on-avatar-star-trek-district-9-a-scifi-notes-on-the-town-1112.html

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When I caught up with 20th Century Fox co-chairman Jim Gianopoulos at last Thursday night's BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards at the Century Plaza, he had just seen the latest cut of James Cameron's eagerly awaited 3-D extravaganza, "Avatar," and was full of more genuine enthusiasm than I have ever heard him express for any of his films. He said there are about six scenes that just blow him away every time he sees them.

 

Another person, not connected to the film in any way, tells me he has seen 90% of the movie in 2-D and it's definitely best picture fodder. This counteracts bad buzz I heard two weeks ago, so take it all in cautiously until Fox shows the finished movie.

Cameron, who was just named today as the recipient of this year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival's Modern Master Award, is racing to complete the film before its Dec. 18 opening. However, the director will take an afternoon off on Nov. 21 to participate in a Q&A following a screening of footage from "Avatar" in 3-D and a sneak peek at the new 3-D version of his last film, 1997's Oscar giant, "Titanic." It's part of a benefit on the Fox lot for MUSE elementary school and is co-hosted by Cameron's wife, Suzy Amis. By the way, wouldn't it be interesting if Cameron finds himself nominated for best director this year opposite one of his ex-wives, "The Hurt Locker's" Kathryn Bigelow? I actually think this could happen, and that would be an academy first to be sure.

Pre-heating the oven to cook some crow next month. It's gonna be tasty.

there's no way avatar can be bad, I can't imagine Cameron letting that happen. But it does seem to be targeting the "young adult" demographic.

  On 11/13/2009 at 10:54 AM, lumpenprol said:

there's no way avatar can be bad, I can't imagine Cameron letting that happen. But it does seem to be targeting the "young adult" demographic.

yeah, I'm fine with that. That's basically Star Wars, and everyone loves that (originals). He's making Battle Angel next if Avatar is a success at the box office... he's using the same technology (but probably in better ways even) and this one is going to be R, or at least from the scriptment it can't be anything less.

edit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437086/

"Set in the 26th century, the story takes place 300 years after a societal collapse caused by a major war. In that society, it's a technological dark age following a pinnacle of achievement far beyond where we are right now. Cyborg technology is a way of life. People are augmented a lot as workers, so being a cyborg is not unusual. The main character is a cyborg. She has an organic human brain, and she looks like she's about fourteen years old. She has a completely artificial body and she's lost her memory. She is found in a wreckage and reconstituted by a cyber-surgeon who becomes her surrogate father."

Another summery:

"Alita is a creation from an age of despair. Found by the mysterious Dr. Ido while trolling for cyborg parts, Alita becomes a lethal, dangerous being. She cannot remember who she is, or where she came from. But to Dr. Ido, the truth is all too clear. She is the one being who can break the cycle of death and destruction left behind from Tiphares. But to accomplish her true purpose, she must fight and kill. And that is where Alita's true significance comes to bear. She is an angel from heaven. She is an angel of death."

Yeah, He's been talking about this manga adaptiation for ages and ages.

  On 11/13/2009 at 10:58 AM, karmakramer said:

That's basically Star Wars, and everyone loves that (originals).

I don't ...

watch them again. The Empire Strikes Back is unhateable.

I don't hate the films, I just don't like them that much. I probably would've loved them if I grew up watching the series but the first time I saw the original trilogy I was probably about 19 ....

yes just what we need more live-action manga/anime attempts by american directors! i seriously can't think of anything i'd rather have right now in the form of film. Bring on Akira live action bros!

  On 11/13/2009 at 11:30 PM, Philip Glass said:

watch them again. The Empire Strikes Back is unhateable.

empire is overrated, new hope is underrated

all the star wars movies are incredibly boring.

lol @ 3D titanic

im kind of sad that most of the new 3d movies coming out don't do very much of the gimmicky Captain EO style pop out at you 3d. I just saw christmas carol, and as good looking and beautiful as it was, the 3d effect became desensitizing, most of it was just to make every scene feel as though it had depth like a real live stage, rarely anything flying off the screen. In fact the little cheesy 3d animation imax title card thing looked incredible, much more impressive than anything i've seen in Avatar or any other 3d movie made to date. The cgi itself was shit, but the way it played with the depth was like nothing i've ever seen, everybody in the audience was trying to touch it.

avator

  On 11/14/2009 at 6:25 AM, Awepittance said:

im kind of sad that most of the new 3d movies coming out don't do very much of the gimmicky Captain EO style pop out at you 3d. I just saw christmas carol, and as good looking and beautiful as it was, the 3d effect became desensitizing, most of it was just to make every scene feel as though it had depth like a real live stage, rarely anything flying off the screen. In fact the little cheesy 3d animation imax title card thing looked incredible, much more impressive than anything i've seen in Avatar or any other 3d movie made to date. The cgi itself was shit, but the way it played with the depth was like nothing i've ever seen, everybody in the audience was trying to touch it.

what theater / 3D type did you see this stuff on (Dolby3D, RealD, Imax3D?)