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Rottenwatch: AVATAR (82%)

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Scullibundo said:
Well hopefully they'll at least be in the deleted scenes. All I know is that the first cut of the movie they finished editing (before rendering) was something like 4 hours 16 minutes).

Anyway, I think its perfectly reasonable to assume he can make two self-contained films within an overriding arc - which is exactly why he addresses the problem of films like the Matrix sequels and PotC. I think it will be akin to the ending of ESB - you didn't feel cheated at all, but you knew it wasn't all over yet, just like TDK.
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Fuck that NO, are you kidding? ESB is the quintessential cliffhanger ending.
 
DrForester said:
I wouldn't mind them being totally self contained.

One thing I really hope the sequels don't do is bring back the humans to retake the planet. It would make no sense and end up being the same thing. Just do some nice adventures on Pandora.
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The sequel will deal with a terrible Pandoran oil spill that pollutes the oceans, due to an attack by the humans.
 
Yeah the special edition is going to be re-released at an IMAX cinema near me in LA (Universal City) so I'll check it out next weekend.

And I think the plot will be more than humans simply coming back, since Cameron has already said the story will be expanding a little beyond Pandora and to the other nearby moons in that system. Fuck knows how the Na'vi will get there though, if they do at all.

Leviathan1 said:
Anyone got footage of the Earth scenes?
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Only pictures so far.
 
For those who live in Seattle, you can buy tickets to a Q+A screening with Cameron!

A new, extended version of "Avatar" will fly into movie theaters next week and the world premier will be in Seattle on Tuesday night.

Eight new minutes have been added James Cameron's 3D alien planet epic. Cameron and his wife Suzy will host the presentation in the Boeing IMAX theater and the director will hold a question-answer session after the screening.

The screening is a fundraiser for early childhood learning research. Proceeds go to the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington (I-LABS) and MUSE, Suzy Cameron's foundation for early education.

There are still tickets left at $250, $500 and $1500. E-mail avatarbenefit@live.com or call 310-924-4054
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http://www.king5.com/news/local/Scr...-Cameron-in-Seattle-on-Tuesday-101271079.html
 
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1646340/20100823/story.jhtml

"We're working on that wish list right now," he said. "We're working on how to improve the system. You're working on kind of an old video game level of a reality; it's not photo-real in the Virtual Camera, because the Virtual Camera has to render in real time. So you think of it as a game engine, really, a sophisticated input device to a game engine, and as you move it around, it reacts immediately, just like in a video game."

Cameron went on to say that one update they're working on is the camera system's inability to cast shadows. "As you give it inputs, it reacts immediately, but the level of reality isn't very high," he said. "For example, the characters don't cast shadows on the ground, and sometimes shadows are a very important part of a scene; you compose the shot to the shadow. Next time, we're going to have shadows, interactive volumetric lighting, all the kinds of things we didn't have on 'Avatar.' "
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5goN53fwOgWVB7lN1xgYVDR2C4Z4wD9HP5HM81

The extended version will appear on a special-edition DVD to be released in November. It will also include a more expanded, "alternate reality version" of the film that is 16 minutes longer than the original, Cameron said.
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Could that be a clue that he is re-inserting the Earth prologue for the DVD/Blu...?

I have to say, if he doesn't, that means wed be getting 7 whole minutes of newly done Pandora footage most likely, as opposed to about 2 minutes and a half, since the Earth stuff is already pretty much done.
 
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1646399/20100824/story.jhtml
With the re-release of "Avatar" just days away, all the Na'vi and James Cameron news has been focused on the extra nine minutes of footage added to the original theatrical release, as well as the director's plans for a return to Pandora via two possible sequels — one of which he said will be set in and around the oceans of the fictitious planet.



When MTV News caught up with the Oscar winner, in addition to delving into a multitude of "Avatar" topics and Cameron's current work in the real world with NASA, he revealed a newsy fact about his next film. As has been widely speculated, it might not be an "Avatar" sequel. We asked him whether "Battle Angel" or "The Dive" might be his next undertaking.

"Well, they're both possible projects," Cameron said vaguely. "I'm sort of weighing this constellation of really cool things I want to do. There's X-amount of time available. I do want to do another 'Avatar' film, probably two. I'm talking to Fox about that right now." He then added: "There's a strong possibility that I might insert one of these other movies in between before I do another ['Avatar'], but it's all up in the air."

So specific, that James Cameron. Try as we might, he would not reveal any more details. He was similarly vague when he spoke with local Los Angeles TV affiliate KTLA:

"I think three years would be the minimum, probably more like four from where we're sitting right now," Cameron said of when audiences might expect an "Avatar" sequel. "There's a possibility I might make another film on a different subject in the meantime, because that's a big commitment of time for me. ... I haven't said anything about this publicly yet. It's a film that I've been working on kind of on and off over the years, just the writing. It might be something that I do first, or it might be something I do after that. I haven't really mapped it all out yet. ... The other idea that I have is more of a live-action film." While Cameron cleverly avoids spilling any real secrets, he leaves us to ponder his next move.
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If he doesn't do AVATAR 2, then it will be either Last Train from Hiroshima or Battle Angel - of which he has been writing over the past few years and has a whole fucktonne of preproduction finished on already. Just do it Cameron, give us Battle Angel already.
 
I don't think he doubts the tech one bit now. I think its more a case of where his passion lies. He already knows he's going to be doing two more Avatar movies and in doing so knows he will be in for a long haul on the same world. Hopefully that does push him to make a different feature next (like he's hinting) and hopefully its Battle Angel instead of (the still very interesting) Hiroshima project.
 
I want Battle Angel also.

But he said the project he has been working on writing "on and off" over the years is something he hasn't talked about publicly yet...

...so that means something none of us have heard of, right?
 
Dead said:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5goN53fwOgWVB7lN1xgYVDR2C4Z4wD9HP5HM81


Could that be a clue that he is re-inserting the Earth prologue for the DVD/Blu...?

I have to say, if he doesn't, that means wed be getting 7 whole minutes of newly done Pandora footage most likely, as opposed to about 2 minutes and a half, since the Earth stuff is already pretty much done.
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16 more minutes total?!?!?

OMG...how can I be getting hyped all over again for AHBUHDAR?!?!?

Just to think, this time last year, there were a lot of doubters but Sculli (and a few others) believed that the Great Cameron would rise out of the pumpkin patch, bringing eye candy to people all over the world...
 
Am I the only one that is not aged above 23 that hasn't seen this movie? Yes, you read that right.

I want a cookie for this achievement.
 
I think that showing Earth would be good for the movie. Showing that it's a wasteland in need of resources would be good for the human side of it that they're just not insane savages bent on destroying populations for fun.
 
Dead said:
Since that charity screening was last night, I hope there was someone there who will spill on all the added stuff on the net.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to see the flick this weekend, but who knows.

btw, Cameron was on G4 showing off his Fusion camera rig. Pretty cool:

http://marketsaw.blogspot.com/2010/08/3d-geek-alert-james-cameron-showing-off.html
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That was pretty awesome. :lol The rig seems pretty big, I guess I can see why some directors don't want to shoot with it.
 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/her...i-want-to-compete-with-star-wars-tolkien.html
6a00d8341c630a53ef013486777c53970c-pi


"I think a large number of people who go see this will be the repeat offenders, absolutely," Cameron said with a smile. "I didn't want to do so much that it became a different movie. I wanted it to be the same movie you remembered if you've already seen it but with some little special jelly beans along the way. There are some real chunks with some real payoffs in and of themselves but other ones are just little 20-second bits here or 40 seconds there, enough to add a little bit but not enough to break up the flow or the pace. It's all the same experience but with a little bit more of Pandora."

As for that additional footage, there are three with the sturmbeest. Why so many? Cameron says two shorter scenes with the burly creature were edited out when that primary hunting sequence ended up on the editing-room floor. "The other little scenes felt like orphans with the big-tuna scene so we took them out as well. Now you see the sturmbeest in the battle scenes toward the end of the film."

"It's not all endless stuff of people talking back at the base," he said. "It's all CG stuff or a few live-action shots with CG elements. It's the good stuff. We have another 20 minutes [we could have added] of people talking back at the base, absolutely, but I didn't think that's what people wanted to line up for."

There's also more of the iridescent rain forest-at-night scenes, a new flying sequence with the banshees, the winged dragon-like creatures that glide past the hovering mountains of Pandora. More compelling from a narrative standpoint, however, is the restored death scene of Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso), the strong, scowling Na'vi tribesman who is betrothed to Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) before the arrival of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as the earthling intruder in the dangerous Eden that is Pandora. Cameron had joked that he faced a near mutiny from his creative team when he decided to chop out the evocative battlefield death scene. Now he concedes that his team might have been right.

"This was a powerful emotional scene that we took out because I thought it was almost too many emotional beats toward the end of the film," Cameron said. "I was really worried about fatigue. I think subconsciously I was concerned about a 3-D fatigue mixing with an experimental fatigue, and then when we put the film out there I started to think I erred on the conservative side."
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Dammit Cameron, I want those talking scenes back in the base. I'll happily take an extra 20 minutes of that.
 
Lame. My closest theater is playing it again on friday, but not the extended cut. Looks like I'm gonna have to make like an hour drive if I want to see the new footage...
 
Over at MTV:
When MTV News caught up with Cameron recently to discuss the film's re-release, we asked if fans will ever get to see everything via bonus features, extended cuts, etc.

"There are things you will never see," Cameron admitted. "But there's a whole lot of stuff that will definitely satisfy the appetite of even the most hard-core fan in a big box-set DVD that we're actually preparing right now."

In addition to preparing the film for the re-release, Cameron said his team is also prepping the special-edition DVD and Blu-ray versions. "It's all happening at the same time, because the deadline for mass-producing stuff for the Christmas marketplace is pretty much now anyway," he said. "The re-release that we're doing now with the nine additional minutes is carefully architected for the theatrical experience. But we have more extended-play versions of the film or an extended version of the film that will be available in the Blu-ray, and there will be a whole bunch of supplemental stuff with about 45 minutes of deleted material."

Cameron explained that the reason fans won't ever get all of "Avatar" comes down to money. "We got the budget to finish this nine minutes, and we got the budget to finish the 16-minute longer version [the special extended edition], and then beyond that, it didn't make sense to finish all the extra CG and digital effects."
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The bluray can't come soon enough. I certainly hope a good chunk of that footage will be available via the (hopefully included and not just talked about) branching user-cut of the film.
 
We wills see Future Earth!!!

from: http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2010/08/interview_with_james_cameron_o.html

(It's a GREAT interview - definitely read the whole thing)


"Q: That ties beautifully into my next "Avatar" question: I've read the "Avatar" screenplay that Fox posted online around Oscar season, and I'll admit the thing I want to see re-inserted into the film are the opening scenes set on the polluted, dystopian Earth -- the shots of lead character Jake in a sports bar -- the polluted, crowded cityscapes. You shot this sequence, correct? Any chance we'll be seeing that?

A: Well, if you buy the box set in November, you can sit down, and in a continuous screening of the film, watch it with the Earth opening.

Q: Oh, really.

A: Yeah. It works very well. It just takes a long time to get the movie started. You have to be sort of predisposed to like the movie like a fan, you know what I mean? And then you can sit and you can have a great ride -- a different telling of "Avatar." Not inconsistent -- it's just the stuff that happened off-camera.

We call it "the Earth opening." It's about 4 1/2 minutes of stuff. And it was in for the longest time. It was very late in the day that we took it out. I walked in one day and said to my two editors, "Guys, I want each of you to cut a new version of the start of the film, Reel 1, that doesn't have any Earth in it at all." And they looked at me like I was out of my mind. And I said, "No -- it's gonna work." They had to figure out the details. I said, "Just grab a couple of things to use as flashbacks, and start it in space when Jake opens his eyes." "

And he says a lot on Battle Angel too - it's a very good interview.
 
HOLY FUCK YES. THANK YOU CAMERON

In another notw, I'll be seeing the movie later this afternoon. yay :)

suffah said:
Catching the re-release tomorrow. $800M here we come!
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Movie won't get to 800 Million. This is too small a re-release, and too soon. Itll make maybe 15-20 million total
 
9uvy40.png


Cameron says in addition to the 16 minute longer cut (that includes the newly finished Earth opening), there will also be 45 minutes of other deleted scenes
 
I will buy this. Hopefully all the discs are blu-rays. I shed a tear when I found that all the supplemental material in the Blade Runner "complete" collector's edition I had just bought came on filthy, dirty DVDs. :|
 
btw, I read somewhere that its possible that the Collector's edition Blu-ray and DVD won't include the Theatrical Cut (like the LOTR EEs), so just in case, hang on to your original discs.
 
Wow. Um. In a surprising turn of events, this is playing like 15 minutes away. Did not expect that to happen. And that cover rocks.

So, the Earth scenes aren't on the version that hits theaters today, only on the Blu-ray? I just ask because I know there's only 8 minutes or so of new footage and he said the Earth stuff is about 4.5 so that makes me think its not on the special edition for theaters cut...
 
My shitty local cinema in the UK which isn't showing Scott Pilgrim (wtf) IS showing this, one showing a day. Hopefully I'll take a friend who didn't see it first time.
 
Nah, he's said in a previous interview that it will include the theatrical cut.

And no, the Earth scenes aren't on the special edition released in cinemas today. A release which has completely snuck up on me as I didn't realise till just now it was out today. Got a lot of editing to do and probably won't be able to catch it till Sunday.

That cover is pretty nice, not great, but nice. I'm REALLY looking forward to that Bluray in November.
 
Scullibundo said:
Nah, he's said in a previous interview that it will include the theatrical cut.
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So awesome. I think it will make for a better opening myself. I understand why it was cut, the original edit sort of got you right into Pandora and did a good job of setting everything up but I think this will add a nice bit for the Jake character.
 
Scullibundo said:
Nah, he's said in a previous interview that it will include the theatrical cut.

And no, the Earth scenes aren't on the special edition released in cinemas today. A release which has completely snuck up on me as I didn't realise till just now it was out today. Got a lot of editing to do and probably won't be able to catch it till Sunday.

That cover is pretty nice, not great, but nice. I'm REALLY looking forward to that Bluray in November.
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Well the new DVD/Blu-Ray set has apparently been changed to a 3 disc set, rather than 4 according to a leaked image from Fox europe (which also says there will be a $150 limited and numbered box set released as well)

So if its only 3 discs, I can see them dropping the theatrical cut, especially since it has sold so well.
 
Dead said:
Well the new DVD/Blu-Ray set has apparently been changed to a 3 disc set, rather than 4 according to a leaked image from Fox europe (which also says there will be a $150 limited and numbered box set released as well)

So if its only 3 discs, I can see them dropping the theatrical cut, especially since it has sold so well.
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$150? That last disc better contain the fucking elixir of life.
 
For Dead:

I wanted to ask you as well about the DVDs. There’s another DVD coming out in November?

Cameron: Right, for the holiday season. And that’s the all-singing, all-dancing, all-bells-and-whistles DVD.

And will that have the special edition on it?

Cameron: There will be three cuts of the movie on that. There will be the original release, the special edition with the additional nine minutes and then there will be an extended-play, FM mix that’s even longer than that – that’s 16 minutes long. And that’s got the original opening of the film that takes place on Earth. The story starts differently. But that just felt like that was going too far afield, that was going back into the annals of the development of the movie. And that’s not something I wanted to do for a broad audience in a theatrical marketplace. But that’s the beauty of DVD. You can experiment with alternative versions and giving fans a deeper, longer experience of the movie, if that’s what they want.
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2010/08/talking_with_james_cameron_abo.html
 
Ah, thanks. Ok thats good to know.

I kinda hope that 16 minute number goes up by the time we get to November. Kinda like how the 6 minutes eventually became 9 :lol
 
Dead said:
9uvy40.png


Cameron says in addition to the 16 minute longer cut (that includes the newly finished Earth opening), there will also be 45 minutes of other deleted scenes
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FUCK YEAH!
 
This fall is going to be absolute murder in terms of Blu-Ray

The Aliens set, Apocalypse Now, Back to the Future, Avatar collectors edition, Grindhouse, just to name a few :lol
 
I wonder if they're gonna split the movie in two discs. If not the original blu-ray will remain the reference disc for video quality.
 
Saw it earlier in the afternoon.

Heres a list of all that I noticed was new:

New scenes:

- Grace's school. Great scene, I can't fathom what it was taken out in the first place. Not much more to say.

- Sturmbeast hunt. Awesome little action scene, with one of my favorite additions to the movie (Neytiri yelling out "Hell yeah!"). But I'm disappointed in the fact that Cameron didn't reinsert the party that comes after, as the two scenes really go hand in hand. Oh well, hopefully on the Blu-Ray. Oh yeah, Jakes line about being a "stone cold aerial hunter" make a lot more sense now :lol

- Tsu'tey leading a raid on the humans, killing a bunch of them and destroying their equipment. Again, good scene, should have never been taken out of the film in the first place, it simply makes more sense of the decision to attack the Tree.

- Tsu'Tey's death. Okay. Cameron has been talking up the quality of this scene, but nothing he says does it justice. The quality of the CG and the performance capture is jaw dropping, easily the best in the entire film. They don't simply jump over the uncanny valley, they beat it up, drag it out to a shed, and utterly destroy it. As for the scene itself, its a great scene with some nice emotion and definitely deserves to be in the movie, it perfectly segues into the ending, so no trouble there.

Extended scenes:

- The flyover of Pandora in the helicopter, a new part added where they observe a herd of the Sturmbeasts. Nice, but this is more for continuity.

- Dinner scene when Jake meets the Na'vi. A nice little extended scene where Jake tries to find out Neytiri's name. This scene was kind of pointless originally, but in the new cut it earns its place

- Extended arrival to the floating mountains where Jake gives a brief "explantion" of the mountains through his voice over (this was in the script)

- Some extended night jungle scenes in the training montage. Nothing important, but its kind of a nice/cute extension.

- When Jake and the Na'vi cross the beanstalk to reach the Banshees, theres an additional moment where Neytiri flies around them and has a little moment with Jake

- Extended love scene. Basically just the two character attaching their ponytails. If anything, with the extension of this scene, its overall better edited.

- Extended bits in the final battle. Theres a great shot where the Sturmbeast gores one of the pilots of the robots and pins him against the wall. Brutal

- Extended "death" of Tsu'tey. You see him fall through the jungle and land, in mortal pain.

There was several other little extensions here and there that I cant remember atm.

Overall, the movie is the same. Its Avatar, and I guess that was Camerons goal as he stated he didn't want to fundamentally change the movie. With the kind of additions made, there's really no point to the original theatrical cut anymore. This Special Edition is basically just a "fuller" version of the original cut. The full scene additions are all great imo, and all the smaller extensions feature neat little moments that just further sell the atmosphere and relationship in the movie.
 
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