Archive for the 'avatar' Category

Filed under: Action & Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Tech Stuff, Exhibition, Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Comic/Superhero/Geek

The New York Times is reporting this week on a new wave of 3-D movies that Hollywood thinks will forever change the future of cinema. Christopher and Scott brought you stories about the 3-D “Tintin” trilogy that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are planning. A U2 concert film called U2 3D premiered footage at Cannes this weekend (I love U2, but I find that thing where Bono shoves his face into the camera obnoxious without 3-D technology). And James Cameron, who made the 2003 3-D IMAX documentary Ghosts of the Abyss, is shooting the highly-anticipated Avatar in 3-D using both computer animation and motion-capture technology. Avatar’s producer, Jon Landau says: “This is a different experience; it’s much more voyeuristic. The screen has always been an emotional barrier for audiences. Good 3-D makes the screen go away. It disappears, and you’re looking at a window into a world.”

3-D technology was fairly big in the 1950’s, but aside from a few sad attempts to revive it (Jaws 3-D, anyone?), it never really hit the mainstream. Recent movies like Monster House, Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, and Spy Kids 3-D have attempted to make that happen, and we’re about to see a whole lot more. Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming adaptation of Beowulf will be screened in 3-D wherever possible. Trouble is, it’s not possible in that many places. Digital projection is only in roughly 2,300 of the 37,000 theaters in America, and 3-D projection is only in 700. Theater owners have been hesitant to install the projectors, because it is unclear whether moviegoers will pay extra to see a 3-D film. Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, thinks that they will, saying “I believe that this is the single greatest opportunity for the moviegoing experience since the advent of color. It has been more than 60 years since there has been a significant enhancement or innovation to the moviegoing experience.” Katzenberg predicts that starting in 2009, “a significant percentage of the big mainstream films will be made and exhibited in this format.”

Continue reading Times Article Says Hollywood Believes 3-D Is the Future

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 20th Century Fox, Family Films, Dreamworks, Comic/Superhero/Geek

The 2007 summer movie season hasn’t even begun yet, but we’re already receiving news about release date competition for 2009. Yes, 2009. It wasn’t enough that we saw such premature territorial battling over Memorial Day, 2008 (Indiana Jones and the Fourth Installment vs. Speed Racer); the studios had to go and start the claim for that kick-off holiday of a whole two years away. There is something more significantly different about this battle, though. Both of the movies scheduled for release on Memorial day in 2009 will only be exhibited in the new 3-D format. 20th Century Fox has James Cameron’s Avatar duking it out against Dreamworks Animation’s Monsters vs. Aliens, which is being planned as that studio’s first release to play exclusively in 3-D.

The reason that this is such a noteworthy conflict is that in 2009 there may not be enough 3-D-equipped screens to handle simultaneous 3-D releases. The expected amount of screens that will be able to accommodate a 3-D movie at that time is 5,000 (currently there are only 700 screens able to do so), which doesn’t even meet the demands of Dreamworks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg, who claims he needs 6,000 screens for Monsters. And since Cameron’s film is now being said to have a budget close to $200 million, it is assumed that Fox will have a similar demand for its own title. Obviously one of the films will need to move, and it will likely be Monsters. With Avatar being Cameron’s first film since Titanic, it is certainly the more eagerly awaited picture and is therefore the most powerful. Expect an announcement sometime in the next year that states that Monsters will relocate to June.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers

Sigourney Weaver will forever be connected to the sexy, strong and head shaven woman in the Alien movies — the series was probably my first introduction to who would become one of my favorite actresses. As Weaver gets older, her film roles have become even richer and now she’s reuniting with James Cameron for the upcoming sci fi thriller Avatar. The film is about the clashing of two cultures — one culture being the human race and the other being an android race with their own ways of life. Weaver describes her role in Avatar — not a leading lady part but an older, secondary character with her own love story — as being “juicy.”

She also attributes much of the success of films involving older characters — especially to the success of her own outstanding roles — to the baby boomer generation “wanting to see interesting films.” Weaver cleverly revealed just enough about her upcoming role to keep us wondering. The character is nothing like Ripley from Alien but doesn’t mean she isn’t as strong. I don’t know how the film’s extravagant photo-realism-motion-capture effects will be done, but Weaver stated that Cameron has invented cameras to capture the world that he wishes to create.

The film will be epic and possibly unlike anything we’ve ever experienced … at least Weaver thinks so. “It is big entertainment, it’s a big, lush, old-fashioned romantic adventure the likes of which no one has ever seen.” And we won’t be seeing it for awhile — the film is due in May of 2009 — but I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Tech Stuff, 20th Century Fox

Once again, when it comes to James Cameron, it cannot just be about making a movie it’s about pioneering technology. Firstlook.net spoke with Michael Biehn during the L.A. junket for Grindhouse and he spoke about Cameron’s Avatar and his possible involvement in the project. Biehn told Firstlook, “I’ve read the script, it’s like Lawrence of Arabia in space. That’s what you’re looking at.” Biehn’s casting would make the film a reunion of sorts since Ryan gave us the news back in February that Sigourney Weaver had signed for the film. But Biehn has still not confirmed whether there will be role for him in the film.

Biehn also hinted that some of the technology behind the project would blow audiences away, saying, “Jim basically was talking to me about the technology of shooting this stuff and he said to me, ‘Well, we don’t really use a camera, Michael. We’re not talking about film, we’re not talking about HD… We don’t use a camera.’ — but, unfortunately there was not much more info on what that really entails. Cameron is known for his technological advancements in The Abyss and Titanic, I for one am curious to see what he has planned this time. Cinematical was also at the Grindhouse junket, just in a different room — our coverage is coming, as soon as we can type it all up.

[Thanks to Alex at Firstshowing.net]

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Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, RumorMonger, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels

Looks like Sigourney Weaver is making the press rounds lately; she’s been talking up her role in James Cameron’s Avatar, while preemptively turning down parts in any future Alien or Ghostbuster films. As you’re probably already aware, Weaver is reuniting with Cameron for the first time since Aliens on Avatar, where she’ll be playing a botanist and mentor to the lead character, a former marine (as played by Sam Worthington).

In one interview for EW, Weaver calls the Avatar script a “dizzying ride,” and notes that her “jaw was permanently dropped the entire reading.” Of course, the majority of all questions usually end up mentioning Aliens, her relationship with Cameron and whether or not she’d be interested in reprising the role of Ripley for any future Alien-related sequels. Regarding the latter, fortunately Weaver took the words right out of most of our mouths; she tells The Desert Sun, “I love the character, but I think the monster, once they did the other film (Alien vs. Predator), which I never saw, but that really maxes our monster out.”

But what about Ghostbusters? Apparently, Dan Aykroyd is keen on doing some sort of CGI-based third installment (which immediately has me imagining something that belongs alongside the rest of the Saturday morning cartoons; in fact, wasn’t there a Ghostbusters cartoon back in the day?). Well, according to Weaver, that’s not going to happen either; at least, not with her: “I think all of us are busy doing so many things and it’s wonderful all the films are so well loved and they certainly were fun to do. But I think if you do it right the first time, sometime it’s better to move on to something else.” And we shall move on … Avatar is set to arrive in theaters in 2009.

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Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, New Line, Newsstand, Peter Jackson, Remakes and Sequels

Director James Cameron, hard at work on his sci-fi extravaganza Avatar, is the latest person to comment on the increasingly nasty legal battle between Peter Jackson and New Line over profits from The Lord of The Rings. Jackson, for those who haven’t been keeping up with current events, accused New Line of deceptive accounting practices and demanded that the company submit to an audit. The resulting lawsuit managed to nix any chance of Jackson directing The Hobbit for New Line under their current management and time is running out for the film to be put into production before the rights switch hands again. Already there are rumors that Sam Raimi will be taking over the project before the contract expires in 2009. Premiere Magazine spoke with Cameron about the controversy because Cameron is planning to use Jackson’s Wellington studio to shoot parts of Avatar.

Cameron compared the situation to his relationship with 20th Century Fox, saying that Fox “has always been very transparent financially. It’s almost automatic that you do an audit.” Premiere also claims in their article that Cameron “intimates that the easiest explanation for New Line’s behavior is that it has something to hide”, but there was no direct quote from the director on the subject. You can’t blame Cameron for not going on the record; this lawsuit has already seemingly gotten one director blacklisted at a studio, so why tempt fate?

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