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Time magazine previews James Cameron's Avatar
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."
Avatar is slated to open Dec. 18.
By SHOWSCAN at 7:45 PM ON 03/20/09
Write the following down for later reference: "AVATAR" will be the BIGGEST bomb in movie history!
By Captain Calvin Grant at 8:05 PM ON 03/20/09
It is comming to the point that all of hollywood's movies have some form of FX in it. From drama's to love story's and especially Sci Fi. When the FX becomes more important then script/story, actors and original background. A new sort of revolution in filming will begin. It will consist of a camera or 2, a director, a writer, some actors, a crew for sound and lights. But most of all, it will have the greatest background and scenery ever created outside of a computer screen. ITS CALLED THE PLANET EARTH!!!! Believe it or not, we got jungles, and deserts and oceans and forrest, and Hey!! This planet also have snow cap mountains. Thats how it was done way before 90's and this movie may be the end of the computer generated movie genre.
By Anders at 10:48 PM ON 03/20/09
James Cameron's films have always had strong, memorable characters and stories. He was never going to be the director who made Transformers. So why are the first two comments in response to this article so negative? Cameron is simply pushing the edge in creating an ALIEN environment - the problem with shooting on Earth is that, well, it always looks like Earth. So I, for one, am keenly anticipating this film. And lets' face it, if its as "bad" as Abyss, it will be light years better than many other SF offerings of late.
By Darth Video at 11:13 PM ON 03/20/09
Having seen what the new 3-D technology can do for underwater scenes.....PLEASE REDO ABYSS FOR 3-D!
By a differen tim at 11:41 PM ON 03/20/09
I agree with Anders, however I hated titanic because of all of the 14 year old girls wanting Leo to live the 18th time they saw it. Anyways... Can't wait to see this, hope it blow the first two terminators out of the water.
By Syberwolf at 8:01 AM ON 03/22/09
Well I absolutely LOVED T2 and Aliens, 2 of my absolute favorite movies...BUT I lost alot of respect for Cameron after Titanic which was absolute garbage...I give Avatar a....meh...
By sparrrownightmare at 11:05 AM ON 03/23/09
JACCM...
(Just Another Crappy CGI Movie)
By Babak.n at 9:06 AM ON 03/27/09
I hope to see first teaser trailer for Avatar soon,i cant wait anymore.Great James Cameron makes our dream real every time with his great movies.
By TheRareJEM at 10:53 PM ON 04/08/09
James Cameron has proven to be one of the greatest directors of all time. All of his movies, including "The Abyss" have been blockbuster movies. This guy is probably the one guy to bring back the times when people actually went to the theater to see a movie. Remember this, "Avatar" will change movie making for ever. Jon Favreau, director of "Iron Man" said that he watched a little tidbit screening of "Avatar" and was blown away. Even Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer were blown away. I wonder what that means? Movie success maybe? This movie without a doubt will be a blockbuster. Guaranteed. For all those James Cameron haters, you will eat crow. Guaranteed.
By Johan at 10:00 AM ON 05/29/09
Exactly my opinion Anders! The drama and tension in The Abyss was amongst the best I have seen in any movie. Ever. And it was written and directed by a guy who most people say can´t write.
Captain Calvin: Luckily for all of us who do enjoy bluckbusters with lots of great looking cgi workd, come December you will be proven wrong. If there is one thing I worry about is that Cameron will do a Lucas, forget what made his earlier movies such a success; story and character, and concentrate too much on the effects. I´m not worried at all that we will see breathtaking visuals never seen before in Avatar and that the movie will create a technical revolution for how movies are made.
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Johan:
Exactly my opinion Anders! The drama and tension in The Abyss was amongst the best I have seen in any movie. Ever. ...More »