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James Cameron’s Avatar vision featurette

Liam — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:38:31 +0000

If the release of the new Avatar trailer yesterday was the highlight of your movie week then you will probably love this new Avatar featurette. It’s 4 minutes long and it contains LOTS of new footage (if you want to stay pure until December I would avoid this), along with interviews and sound-bites from James Cameron, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver.

The scope and scale of this movie is huge!

The marketing will soon kick in and we will get even more footage, the only problem with that is I don’t want to be too spoiled before it’s release in 2 months. If you watch every trailer and TV spot you will become saturated with the imagery and it won’t be as special when you see it on the big screen. When the marketing blitz arrives I will post some stuff, but not everything.

What are your thoughts on the featurette? Should they show more of these or should they keep their Avatarholes shut for the next few months?

Here’s the second Avatar trailer!

Liam — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:20:05 +0000

Got anything planned for the next 30 minutes? No? Good, because you’ll probably end up watching this new trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar on repeat for the foreseeable future. The only word to describe it would be ‘epic’. Watch below:

Here are the download links if you want to see it in HD!

480p

720p

1080p

What are your thought on the new trailer?

A bunch of new Avatar stills online

Liam — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:34:08 +0000

Spoiler TV were sent six super hi-resolution images from James Cameron’s Avatar. I’ve seen a few of the images floating around the net before, but they were scans from magazines and low quality. These, however, are big enough to have as a your desktop wallpaper. The image above shows Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) asking Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) how he likes his eco-friendly space coffee.

Click here to see more images, including a shot of Sigourney Weaver sitting with Joel Moore and Worthington in a lab, while Michelle Rodriguez stands behind them looking all tough.

Here’s the Avatar teaser trailer!

Liam — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:42:24 +0000

Avatar began filming in April 2007 and now we finally have a glimpse of what James Cameron has been working on for the past 2 years. Due to all the special effects work that needs to be done in post-production Cameron and 20th Century Fox haven’t released anything from the film until recently. All we’ve had for the past 2 years are quotes from the actors and people involved, hyping the film up to a level that has never been seen before. James Cameron even said that he fears the hype may kill it. However, we now have a teaser trailer so we can judge for ourselves. Watch below!

I watched it with an open mind and wasn’t expecting to see the ‘greatest movie ever’ like some of the hype suggests. The close up shots of the Na’vi are amazing, and I don’t think some people will take in that 60% of what we see is CGI. Those lucky enough to get tickets for 16 minutes of Avatar footage tomorrow (including myself) will be able to get a bigger picture of what we are actually seeing.

What do you think of the Avatar trailer? Does it meet expectations? Does it blow your mind?

Zoe Saldana’s Avatar poster

Liam — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:28:19 +0000

Last week we saw a poster featuring, what looked like, Sam Worthington’s Avatar, and now we have another poster which looks like Neytiri, an alien Na’vi played by Zoe Saldana.

Director James Cameron spoke to io9 about the look of the Na’vi aliens and how he didn’t want them to look too weird as Avatar is a love story, and if the Na’vi looked too freaky the audience wouldn’t believe that a human could fall in love with one of them.

It was a fine line to walk, between making them too alien. When some early images started to leak, and even with the banners, you know some of the fans are starting to say, “Gee, I thought they’d look more alien if you’re gonna through all this trouble to CG everything.” But If it wasn’t a love story, if it was more a story about first contact with an alien race, I think it would be. But this is really more a story about assimilation, and Jake becoming one of them. And starting to see through the eyes of people who are culturally different. Plus it’s a love story. So the physiological differences — the more alien we make them in the design phase, we just kept asking ourselves — basically, the crude version is: “Well, would you wanna do it?” And our all-male crew of artists would basically say, “Nope, take the gills out.” It was pretty simple, but then taken in a very specific degree.
We had done casts from the actors’ faces, we did Sam’s face, Zoe’s, and CCH Pounder, who played Zoe’s character’s mom. There’s a whole family… Because we wanted to capture them in the characters, but make the characters still emphasize the animal and the alien. The idea was, when we go to meet the future mother- and father-in-law, we want them to be scary and freaky. So the older Na’Vi are a little stranger than the younger Navi.
But we never asked ourselves the question, What if people won’t accept it? I think that’s the huge advantage of actually being a geek/fan yourself, but you just don’t ask yourself questions like that. I mean, the studio guys — god love ‘em, they signed up to write a big check for this movie. They backed our play 100%, all the way down the line. They would ask questions like, “Do they need to be blue?” “Do they need to have a tail?” things like that. And I thought, “Well, yeah, course they do.”

Click here to read the rest of the interview!

An even better look at the Na’vi face

Liam — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:22:58 +0000

James Cameron may think he is big and clever by inventing his new, never seen before, ground breaking 3D technology for Avatar but he and whoever made the Comic Con banner have underestimated the internet fans and their photoshopping (or possibly Paint) capabilities! AvatarMovieZone used the art of symmetry and ‘flipping’ to create a full version of the Na’vi face from the half face we saw earlier.

You can definitely see some lion-like features in the face. The bioluminescence also looks quite cool. Below is a description of the footage that was shown in Amsterdam two weeks ago that gives us an idea what the creature above, possibly Neytiri, gets up to:

In the next couple of scenes Jake (Sam Worthington) meets Na’Vi Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Jake finds himself alone at night in the jungle with only a torch as protection against some evil looking dogs. Eager to fight them, Jake says: ‘What are you waiting for?’ When one of the ‘dogs’ attacks him he slams the torch in the creature’s face. A fight ensues that Jake can’t win by himself. Lucky for him, there’s Neytiri who with her trusty bow and arrow helps Jake chase away the creatures. Just when Jake wants to offer his gratitude, Neytiri knocks his reached out hand away and says to Jake that killing these creatures is a bad thing. When the scene fades out to black, my mind begins to work overtime. How the hell is it possible that I never once felt like I’ve been watching a movie where almost everything comes out of a computer?
The most beautiful scene follows directly after the one I’ve described above. When Jake wants to take his torch with him, Neytiri takes it from him and throws it in the river. Like magic the flowers and plants – even the grassy soil – begin to glow in the night. The beauty completely takes my breath away. Meanwhile we get to learn more about Neytiri and her people. Everybody who knows the story of Native American Pocahontas and John Smith, will recognize a lot of similarities. Before you can sing “Colors of the Wind,” Neytiri guides Jake through her world. Mysterious flowing and glowing seeds from a mystic tree appear out of nowhere. To Neytiri’s surprise Jake attracts them. She has a look in her eyes like he’s the ‘chosen one.’ And of course she’s right. Jake has to lead the Na’Vi into battle against the massive army of Colonel Quaritch.

Na’vi face revealed on Avatar Comic Con banner!

Liam — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:14:48 +0000

ComingSoon.net have posted a photograph taken at the San Diego Comic Con which gives us our first look at the face of a Na’vi alien from James Cameron’s Avatar. As the alien looks female I’m going to assume it is Neytiri, who is played by Zoe Saldana, and is the love interest to Jake Sully (Sam Worthington).

The San Diago Comic Con kicks off on July 22nd and anyone who is lucky enough to see the Avatar presentation will be in for a treat as they will most likely show some footage, either new or the same footage that was shown two weeks ago in Amsterdam. There is also a chance they could show a trailer, which I hope they post online in HD for everyone to see soon after.

Avatar footage reactions online

Liam — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:26:42 +0000

We found out yesterday that some lucky people (mostly media people) would be getting an exclusive look at footage from James Cameron’s Avatar. As expected 20th Century Fox had tight security so we have no bootlegs, but we do have some concept art that was projected onto walls during the after party (see above), and reactions from a few anonymous people who saw 24 minutes of footage. Director James Cameron was there to present some scenes, as were cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver.

From ComingSoon.net:

In the first scene we see Sam Worthington’s crippled ex-marine Jake Sully, who just arrived on the planet ‘Pandora.’ He’s in a wheelchair and just rolled in to hear Colonel Quaritch, played by the impressive Stephen Lang, talk to the troops. He’s giving a classic speech that every military leader gives at the beginning of a battle. Jake listens as an outsider to this speech. A melancholic smile appears on his face. Although the scene is in 3-D, I haven’t really noticed it. Finally a director who doesn’t feel the need to stick it in the audience’s face with cheap tricks like pointing objects at the camera.
In the second scene Sigourney Weaver’s Dr. Grace Augustine explains to Jake how the process of transporting your mind into an Avatar works. Although the scene is mostly exposition, we’ve got a good look at the lab and more importantly we get a first glimpse of the Avatars, the Na’Vi lookalikes. These tall blue creatures lie in water tanks, waiting for their human to ‘jump’ in their bodies. Besides Weaver and Worthington, the scene introduces Joel Moore’s character Norm Spellman. As is usually the case with Moore, his character is the comic relief.
It’s the third scene where my heart begins to pound like crazy. Jake and Norm will inhabit their Avatar for the first time. They enter some sort of capsule and – flash – their mind enters the blue creatures, now lying on hospital tables. And not before long Avatar Jake wakes up. And it took my breath away. I thought–just like you guys–that I’ve seen it all with Gollum, or The Hulk, but Cameron has done it again. These creatures seem so real, that within minutes you forget you’re watching an enormous and very blue CGI character. Even the eyes are totally convincing. The characters have real personalities and a soul.
In the fourth scene the Avatars of Jake, Norm and Grace explore the jungle of Pandora. The surroundings remind me of a planet that appears briefly in “Revenge of the Sith.” A lot of massive colorful flowers and plants grow everywhere. Jake’s unbridled enthusiasm works on Grace’s nerves. And not before long they have their first confrontation with some creatures. Some sort of rhino with a flower sticking out of his head looks like he will kill Jake, but he’s not scared and he let’s out a scream. The ‘rhino’ runs away, but not because of Jake. A more dangerous creature – a wolf? – jumps at Jake from behind.

Click here to read the rest.

20th Century Fox have said that this footage will not be released online (which is probably a good thing), however we should be getting a trailer in the upcoming weeks.

Zoe Saldana compares Star Trek and Avatar directors

Liam — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:54:43 +0000

There are two big sci-fi space movies being released this year and actress Zoe Saldana managed to bag a role in both of them. She will burst onto everybody’s radar with the release of Star Trek next week, and then in December we will see her again in Avatar (although it is possible we physically won’t, as she plays an alien and will be all CGI/motion-captured up). Saldana recently spoke to MTV and gave praise to the directors of both films, and she also reveals she has high hopes for James Cameron’s Avatar.

“It’s amazing for an actor to work with J.J. and Jim,” Saldana gushed. “They are similar in that they are exquisite at what they do, and they are young at heart.”
When comparing the two A-list directors, Saldana said: “J.J. has made a very important place for himself in Hollywood by being an exquisite writer. And Jim has done the same by being an amazing voyager and visionary, and a great filmmaker.”
Of the Oscar-winning Cameron, Saldana said he is the true Captain Kirk. “He goes where no man has gone before.”
The futuristic tale revolves around humans who discover life on another planet in a distant solar system, leading to a war between the two species as they go head-to-head in a battle for survival.
“‘Avatar’ by far is the most physically strenuous film I’ve ever done,” Saldana, no newbie to the biz, admitted. “A role had never challenged me to the point where it freaked me out and scared me. And ‘Avatar’ definitely did that.”
With so much riding on a film that James Cameron has been envisioning since 1997’s “Titanic” but was put on hold for almost a decade due to sky-high production costs, everyone involved seems to have a sense of nervous apprehension. “I really have high hopes for it,” Saldana explained. “Because for two years I gave every bit of me in that part.”
When asked if Saldana had seen the film, she admitted to glimpsing an early cut. “I have, yes,” she revealed, struggling to find words to describe it.
“I can’t curse so I’ll just say it looks nice,” she laughed. “What I really want to say is going to get bleeped out.”

In other Avatar related news ComingSoon spoke to Ocean’s Eleven trilogy director Steven Soderbergh who also had a few things to say about the footage he’s seen:

“I’ve seen some stuff and holy sh*t. It’s the craziest sh*t ever.

Avatar has a habit of causing people to use this type of language, or gives them the urge to. I wonder if December 19th 2009 will win the ‘most profanity used in a single day’ award.

Idris Elba and Zoe Saldana join The Losers

Liam — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:13:48 +0000

Zoe Saldana (Star Trek, Avatar) and Idris Elba (The Unborn) are in talks to join The Losers, an adaptation of the Vertigo/DC Comics book. From The Hollywood Reporter:

The actors will join Jeffrey Dean Morgan for the action film, which follows a Special Forces team betrayed by its handler and left for dead. The “losers” regroup in the interest of revenge, the opportunity to remove their names from a secret CIA death list and to conduct covert operations against the CIA and its interests.
Elba will play a character named Roque, the group’s scarred second-in-command who is motivated by money. Saldana will be Aisha, a cold-blooded loose cannon.
Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt worked on the script.

This sounds interesting, although Warner Bros have chosen a director who hasn’t really proven himself yet. Sylvain White previously directed Stomp the Yard and a few straight to video films, but I suppose everyone has to start somewhere. Peter Berg (Hancock) and James Vanderbilt (Spider-Man 4) have worked on the script so it should turn out okay.