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Rottenwatch: AVATAR (82%)

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What is this, like the 4th or 5th project he's announced to be working on?
 
BattleMonkey said:
At least we will see his Avatar prequel novel before the next one :lol
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He recently said it might be out in time for the holidays.

Im actually really surprised he is going through with the idea, I thought for sure itd be one of those things he mentions but nothing comes of it.
 
International poster for Sanctum.

JCs%20SANCTUM%20International%20Poster.jpg
 
jett said:
What the hell is Sanctum?
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3D film by an Australian director (also shot in Aus) that Cameron has been producer on for the last couple years.

An underwater cave diving team experiences a life-threatening crisis during an expedition to the unexplored and least accessible cave system in the world.
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Scullibundo said:
Oh for fuck sake.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/3126923/From-Avatar-to-Amazon.html
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Now JAMES CAMERON is making another 3D movie about thousands of people whose homes are endangered by construction of a dam.

The director has thrown his weight behind a campaign to stop a hydroelectric dam from being built on the Xingu River, an Amazon tributary which will displace up to 16,000 people.

But last week Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva approved the controversial plans.
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Mr. Cameron, I think you need to look at the bigger picture here. Hydroelectric power is one of the lowest cost completely emission free sources of electricity that we have. Getting rid of the dam would probably just mean more coal-burning plants.

Yeah, it sucks for those people. But in the bigger picture, that dam probably has a lower ecological impact than not building it.
 
James Cameron is going to film scenes for the next Avatar film in a live action environment

He has commissioned engineers to design a deep-sea submersible that can reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 36,000ft down in the Pacific. He intends to dive into the trench and capture footage he can use in the next two films.

The report says Cameron's two-seater vessel will be fitted with 3D cameras designed by the filmmaker, so he can record footage for the Avatar sequels.

He's already said he next plans to explore the seas of Pandora and come up with some brand-new exotic creatures.
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http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/2010/09/avatar-sequels-to-film-in-mari.html

When can we expect the announcement that he will be shooting footage on Mars as well?
 
See I read that this morning, but without any quotes from Cameron himself, and knowing he was building that submersible in Australia for almost a year now, I'm still not sure whether its accurate to say its for Avatar 2 & 3.

Either way, I don't like the sound of the recent comments he made saying that the tribes that he visited have made him change the way he'll approach Avatar 2 - in that they said Avatar was too violent.

Also not sure how exciting the oceans of Pandora could really be, but you never know I guess.
 
Ehhh, there's no chance Avatar 2 and 3 won't have fantastic action. The only thing I can see Cameron changing in lieu of his comments is perhaps the reasons behind the action and what is accomplished through it.
 
Sadly the main problem he's not addressing with the Na'vi is he's still purposefully modeling them after Earth tribes and civilization (noticeably avoiding the more "gritty" side of these cultures) and not trying to develop anything original and truly alien.
 
Combine said:
Sadly the main problem he's not addressing with the Na'vi is he's still purposefully modeling them after Earth tribes and civilization (noticeably avoiding the more "gritty" side of these cultures) and not trying to develop anything original and truly alien.
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He's addressed it many times. His main reasoning is because he's making a movie for a human audience.
 
Combine said:
Sadly the main problem he's not addressing with the Na'vi is he's still purposefully modeling them after Earth tribes and civilization (noticeably avoiding the more "gritty" side of these cultures) and not trying to develop anything original and truly alien.
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Most movies do the same for their alien species. Its not specific to Cameron really.

Besides, I don't think Cameron is aiming for gritty with these movies.
 
Nah Bit-Bit, I love the guy but even I think that is a cop-out on Cameron's half. I would have loved for the Na'vi to be something like the Pequinos in Speaker for the Dead.
 
I really wish I'd seen this in 3D. Not only can you tell it would look AMAZING in 3D, but the movie itself is, overall, a little underwhelming and disappointing in many respects.
 
Dead said:
Most movies do the same for their alien species. Its not specific to Cameron really.

Besides, I don't think Cameron is aiming for gritty with these movies.
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They pretty much have to in order for the aliens to be identified with. Otherwise you get District 9 aliens which I tended to not being sympathetic toward. Although that movie did a very good job of not being able to figure out what to think of them.

I like the way Cameron does it better than the alien creation king, Lucas, who bases it on caricatures - some borderline racist.
Mr. Snrub said:
I really wish I'd seen this in 3D. Not only can you tell it would look AMAZING in 3D, but the movie itself is, overall, a little underwhelming and disappointing in many respects.
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I liked it better on Blu-Ray. I'm not the biggest fan of 3D though so I'm jaded.
 
JGS said:
They pretty much have to in order for the aliens to be identified with. Otherwise you get District 9 aliens which I tended to not being sympathetic toward. Although that movie did a very good job of not being able to figure out what to think of them.

I like the way Cameron does it better than the alien creation king, Lucas, who bases it on caricatures - some borderline racist.

I liked it better on Blu-Ray. I'm not the biggest fan of 3D though so I'm jaded.
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But...I wasn't really that sympathetic at all to the Na'vi. I was very sympathetic to the prawn in District 9.

The Na'vi IMO were a joke, design wise. I ended up LOVING the wild animals, though. From the previews, they looked like modified dinosaurs, but the little details really made them unique.

As for racist...well. The entire story is Pocahontas 2.0, with a "great white hope" thrown in there. Storytelling is the movie's weakest point--the action sequences and the world they took place in are the shining point.
 
Mr. Snrub said:
I really wish I'd seen this in 3D. Not only can you tell it would look AMAZING in 3D, but the movie itself is, overall, a little underwhelming and disappointing in many respects.
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I only watched it in 2D, and I thought it was fantastic. I wonder what it's like in 3D.
 
Showed some friends this on Blu-ray recently on my Panny V-50 who have never seen a Blu-ray and they were floored. First time I watched it recently too and love it or hate it, I don't think anyone can deny that the film looks amazing.
 
Mr. Snrub said:
But...I wasn't really that sympathetic at all to the Na'vi. I was very sympathetic to the prawn in District 9.

The Na'vi IMO were a joke, design wise. I ended up LOVING the wild animals, though. From the previews, they looked like modified dinosaurs, but the little details really made them unique.

As for racist...well. The entire story is Pocahontas 2.0, with a "great white hope" thrown in there. Storytelling is the movie's weakest point--the action sequences and the world they took place in are the shining point.
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The prawn were a bunch of filthy, disgusting animals except for the smart one and his kid who were totally out of character with the rest of them. They needed a Great White Hope to save them too. If I were a more sensitive type, I would have been offended by them trying to imply they were like a human minority.

The movie again did show that there was a reason the people viewed them as I did, but it garnered no sympathy until the main guy starts turning into one. By that time, it's too late for me.

I actually didn't like most of the humans either who were far worse caricatures than anything in Avatar. Seriously they had the worst villians I have seen in a very long time in any movie. Cardboard would have been better than the soldiers or the gang. Horrible.

If Avatar was Pochahontas 2.0, it was a much better telling of it without the singing. The Great White Hope actually was the Great Blue Hope, not simply understanding the savages, but being one of them. Not quite the same. In any event anyone coming into Avatar with the thinking that the storyline (good vs. evil, greed vs. nature, love conquers all) was going to be brand spanking new was not even listening to Cameron describing it.
 
so is jake's full-blown transformation into a Na'vi a metaphor for james cameron being reborn into a more pure human (i.e. non white), in effect shedding his white man's burden?
 
JGS said:
The prawn were a bunch of filthy, disgusting animals except for the smart one and his kid who were totally out of character with the rest of them. They needed a Great White Hope to save them too. If I were a more sensitive type, I would have been offended by them trying to imply they were like a human minority.

The movie again did show that there was a reason the people viewed them as I did, but it garnered no sympathy until the main guy starts turning into one. By that time, it's too late for me.

I actually didn't like most of the humans either who were far worse caricatures than anything in Avatar. Seriously they had the worst villians I have seen in a very long time in any movie. Cardboard would have been better than the soldiers or the gang. Horrible.

If Avatar was Pochahontas 2.0, it was a much better telling of it without the singing. The Great White Hope actually was the Great Blue Hope, not simply understanding the savages, but being one of them. Not quite the same. In any event anyone coming into Avatar with the thinking that the storyline (good vs. evil, greed vs. nature, love conquers all) was going to be brand spanking new was not even listening to Cameron describing it.
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I agree with the last point, however I really wish the humans weren't so bloodthirsty. Yea there was a little remorse shown, why not show more. Or to make them seem so desperate include shots of Earth being a shit hole.
 
demosthenes said:
I agree with the last point, however I really wish the humans weren't so bloodthirsty. Yea there was a little remorse shown, why not show more. Or to make them seem so desperate include shots of Earth being a shit hole.
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Special Edition fixes some of this. They don't launch the Home Tree attack until the humans themselves are attacked and killed by the Na'vi in response to cutting down some trees.

Anyway, great news that we're getting over an hours' worth of unfinished scenes!
 
demosthenes said:
I agree with the last point, however I really wish the humans weren't so bloodthirsty. Yea there was a little remorse shown, why not show more. Or to make them seem so desperate include shots of Earth being a shit hole.
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I know I'm in the minority with the first point. District 9 rubs me the wrong way, but I did enjoy the direction and what they did with the money they had, but otherwise very meh.

I'm thinking Cameron really consciously went after the whole world audience this time, something I don't think he concerned himself with too much before. He had to keep the story simple because it had to be a message appropriate to the whole planet.

Despite it's simplicity, I really enjoyed it too. Predictable stories told in different ways/settings is the main reason I go out to the movies.

EDIT: Great that we're getting a more fleshed out story though.
 
JGS said:
The prawn were a bunch of filthy, disgusting animals except for the smart one and his kid who were totally out of character with the rest of them. They needed a Great White Hope to save them too. If I were a more sensitive type, I would have been offended by them trying to imply they were like a human minority.

The movie again did show that there was a reason the people viewed them as I did, but it garnered no sympathy until the main guy starts turning into one. By that time, it's too late for me.
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I didn't have much sympathy for Wikus--I had all the sympathy in the world for Chris and his cause. The feeling I got was that they ALL wanted to leave, but they didn't have a leader to mobilize or coordinate the effort, nor any REAL way off the planet.

Wikus didn't defeat anything--he helped make right what he did wrong, and helped Chris escape.

It's a far cry from being one out of six Na'vi from the beginning of time to tame/ride a Toruk, and become the most influential Na'vi (enough to influence their goddess) in a matter of a few months. Sorry, but that's straight cheese for me.

I actually didn't like most of the humans either who were far worse caricatures than anything in Avatar. Seriously they had the worst villians I have seen in a very long time in any movie. Cardboard would have been better than the soldiers or the gang. Horrible.
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I do sort of agree here, but I enjoyed the main villain (the PMC guy) in District 9. But Quaritch was great--unfortunately, the most enjoyable character in movie, but a great villain.

If Avatar was Pochahontas 2.0, it was a much better telling of it without the singing. The Great White Hope actually was the Great Blue Hope, not simply understanding the savages, but being one of them. Not quite the same. In any event anyone coming into Avatar with the thinking that the storyline (good vs. evil, greed vs. nature, love conquers all) was going to be brand spanking new was not even listening to Cameron describing it.
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I don't really buy that either. Sure, he becomes one of them, but for some reason he becomes one of their greatest warriors in a short amount of time?

I agree, I didn't come into Avatar expecting story, so I'm not really disappointed that I didn't get story. Still, Cameron is usually so good at taking a cliche storyline (robot from future, aliens in space) and making it his own--this one just had such a predictable storyline, which as disappointing.
 
Oh, and Ribisi's character was a joke. I ended up liking him a bit, because he was allowed to show some sense of remorse/regret, but prior to that, it's like a drinking game for how many cliched derogatory terms he can spit out. Savages, blue monkeys, etc.

The writing is definitely near the bottom of Cameron's work for me.
 
EDIT: Just to be clear, I DID enjoy the movie. It's a solid 8/10. For me, it was a mix of my jaw dropping for the insane action sequences, glorious visuals, and beautiful world vs. my jaw dropping over the script and writing.
 
Mr. Snrub said:
I didn't have much sympathy for Wikus--I had all the sympathy in the world for Chris and his cause. The feeling I got was that they ALL wanted to leave, but they didn't have a leader to mobilize or coordinate the effort, nor any REAL way off the planet.

Wikus didn't defeat anything--he helped make right what he did wrong, and helped Chris escape.

It's a far cry from being one out of six Na'vi from the beginning of time to tame/ride a Toruk, and become the most influential Na'vi (enough to influence their goddess) in a matter of a few months. Sorry, but that's straight cheese for me.
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Well, the stories aren't identical but the premise is the same- someone unsympathetic to the cause of the "savage" (The prawns were savages imo) becomes sympathetic after being among them. In the case of these two movies, they both literally become them.

EDIT: About influencing Eywa. None of them but Jake tried because they thought Eywa was neutral which wasn't the case. Eywa was just Pro-Pandora overall. If they had asked for help, the shared conscious (not magic or religion) of the planet would have jumped sprung to action, Jake was too ignorant about the religion to realize that he wasn't supposed to ask.
Mr. Snrub said:
I do sort of agree here, but I enjoyed the main villain (the PMC guy) in District 9. But Quaritch was great--unfortunately, the most enjoyable character in movie, but a great villain.
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Agreed about Quaritch who is a great villian, but straight cliche. However, for some reason I like Worthington's acting style. Not sure why but I liked him in his other action roles too.
Mr. Snrub said:
I don't really buy that either. Sure, he becomes one of them, but for some reason he becomes one of their greatest warriors in a short amount of time?
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He was smarter than the typical Navi (not all of them). All Great White Hopes are because they have the outsider knowledge plus they learn the basics of another civiliazation. I agree that 3 months is too short of a time, but he retained all the knowledge he had as a human and a soldier, plus literally becoming a Navi made him have their abilities and instincts (Which he doesn't have to "learn"), so it made sense that he knew human tactics better, was up to snuff on Navi considering his teacher, as well as not having a hang up over ingrained superstitions the Navi would cling to regarding Turok.
Mr. Snrub said:
I agree, I didn't come into Avatar expecting story, so I'm not really disappointed that I didn't get story. Still, Cameron is usually so good at taking a cliche storyline (robot from future, aliens in space) and making it his own--this one just had such a predictable storyline, which as disappointing.
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I think he succeeded with that. It was everything I expected from a Cameron movie which, with the possible exception of the Abyss until the ending, have tended toward a simple premise but admittedly with a much fuller script.

As an aside I remember some were worried about True Lies because Cameron gave Arnie too many speaking lines! That controversy is not evident in Avatar.
 
Cameron tops Forbes' list.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/15/ho...arning-men.html?boxes=businesschannelsections

LOS ANGELES -- There have been few movies that have fundamentally changed Hollywood like Avatar. The movie is the highest-grossing film of all time (not adjusting for inflation) with $2.7 billion in box office earnings. It revolutionized computer-generated images with new motion capture techniques and, most importantly, it paved the way for a true 3-D revolution. In the wake of Avatar, almost all Hollywood blockbusters, from Harry Potter to Tron, now need to be in 3-D.

The film's incredible success has helped catapult director/writer/producer James Cameron to the top of our list of the Hollywood's Top-Earning Men. Cameron earned $210 million between June 2009 and June 2010.
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Jesus. And consider that for 5 months of that period, Avatar wasn't even out.
 
Beated?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-film-Avatar-sequel-7-miles-seas-surface.html

it has been announced that the multi-Oscar-winning film director James Cameron plans to add his name to the very exclusive club of those who have travelled to the ­bottom of the Challenger Deep, part of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, and the deepest known point in the world’s oceans.

Cameron — who, after all, made a fortune with Titanic — plans a follow-up to his billion-dollar 3D blockbuster Avatar, this time set in the teeming oceans of the film’s fictional alien planet of Pandora.

And last weekend it was reported that he has commissioned a bespoke submarine, built of high-tech, man-made composite materials and powered by electric motors, which will be capable of surviving the tremendous pressures at a depth of seven miles, from which he will shoot 3D footage that may be incorporated in Avatar’s sequel.
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The supplemental material for the upcoming Blu-ray re-release of Avatar is being passed through the BBFC. So far, only a handful of items have been passed, but they’re rather interesting.
The key item is probably the one labelled “Deleted Scenes – Never Before Seen”. Though there’s no breakdown of just what scenes are contained, we can see that the full running time is 68 minutes and 4 seconds. There’s also something attached that they’re calling “USER’S GUIDE FOR VIEWING AVATAR SCENES WITH UNFINISHED SHOTS” – which, if my mathematical skills haven’t failed me, will run to three minutes and ten seconds.
Wow. That’s a big run in. The disc’s producers sure don’t want us to view these “SCENES WITH UNFINISHED SHOTS” without the proper prep. I guess nobody wants the fans (see image, top of post – or, for that matter, me) feeling all confused when a space bush looks a bit under-detailed or Neytiri’s complexion seems rougher than usual.
Meanwhile, there’s also something called The Night Before Avatar, running 4 minutes and 46 seconds. What’s this going to be? A video diary of Fox execs having panic attacks?
Some of the featurettes have been classified under the umbrella of “Production Shorts 1″. These include Sculpting Avatar, The Amp Suit, Na’vi Costumes, Speaking Na’Vi and Pandora Flora. In total, they clock in at under 27 minutes.
Perhaps the biggest surprise so far is the inclusion of some very interesting test footage from an entirely different film…
Back in 2002, Cameron was planning to adapt Patricia Anthony’s novel Brother Termite. It’s a kind of alien invasion story that warps a lot of cliches of the genre, not to mention of tabloid newspapers, into a quite cunning sci-fi satire. In order to make the film the way he wanted to, Cameron was wanting to use the performance capture technology that later made Avatar possible.
So, he tested his nascent performance-capture tech on an actor, pointing a number of cameras at his face to generate the data for a CG character’s expressionns. For reasons that I’m not entirely clear on, the project was shelved and the footage vaulted.
However, according to the BBFC’s records, there’s going to be almost two minutes of this test footage on the upcoming Avatar disc. Incredible – I thought we’d never see it. For real Cameron nuts, not to mention fans of the book, this might the most exciting, unexpected gem in the whole package. On the other hand, it could be two minutes of an actor making funny faces with little cameras strapped all over him. Can’t wait to find out.
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/09...tails-of-the-upcoming-avatar-blu-ray-bonuses/
 
^ So far BBFC has rated close to 4 hours worth of bonus content, and there is obviously still more. The release is going to be PACKED
 
Yep, this is definitely the release that is worth waiting for.

I think Solo will be happy he wasn't an early adopter when he can watch a 17 minute longer cut and have pretty much the whole thing be relatively fresh.
 
Only thing Im worried about is if there is commentary or not. I'll be let down if there isn't one.

edit: here's a look at production materials that will be on the disc:

(THE ART REEL)
(THE ILM PROTOTYPE W/ PIP)
(THE ILM PROTOTYPE)
(SAM WORTHINGTON AUDITION)
(SAM WORTHINGTON SCREEN TEST #1)
(SAM WORTHINGTON SCREEN TEST #2)
(SCREEN TEST: ZOE SALDANA)
(ZOE'S LIFE CAST)
(JAMES CAMERON SPEECH)
(ILM VFX PROGRESSION)
(FRAME STORE VFX PROGRESSION)
([HY*DRAU"LUX] VFX PROGRESSION)
(HYBRIDE VFX PROGRESSION)
(PRIME FOCUS VFX PROGRESSION)
(LOOK EFFECTS VFX PROGRESSION)
(SOUND DESIGN)
(ZOE AND SAM EDITED SCREEN TEST)
(ZOE AND SAM DUAL SCREEN TEST)
(ZOE AND SAM FINAL SCREEN TEST)
(SCREEN TEST: STEPHEN LANG)

77 minutes for all that. And this only a slice of the pie.
 
Well there are going to be 3 discs right? 4 for the deluxe or some shit.
I'm more interested in the quality of the transfer considering the barebones release had pretty much maxed out the disc with its bitrate.
 
Its just 3 according to that one leaked promo sheet from FOXs french distributor.

Disc 1 - Theatrical cut + some kind of special feature(s)
Disc 2 - Special Edition + some kind of special feature(s)
Disc 3 - Special Features.

Would be my guess
 
Finally got to see the Special Edition in theaters tonight. I didn't think I'd get to, but it rolled through our local discount theater, which just upgraded to a very good 3D digital projector (RealD system), and my wife flagged it for me.

It's been gone over, but every single addition made the film better. Several of the little scene extensions struck me as Cameron taking a second pass at editing the film and realizing he'd nipped and tucked a bit too much. My four favorite additions, in no particular order:

Neytiri playing with the fan lizards.
Neytiri yelling, "Hell yeah!"
Neytiri's buzz over the group heading up the vines to get their ikrans.
"...with you. With you. With you."
Tsu'tey's death.

The first three all fleshed out Neytiri's character a bit. In the original cut it was clear that she and Jake were these kindred spirits, warriors with an impulsive playfulness to them. But those little extensions helped flesh out Neytiri's side a bit. Especially the fan lizard scene, because it's the first time in the training sequence she stops doing serious, by the book stuff and opens up a little bit, showing Jake her playful side. Those scenes added some needed beats to their relationship.

Tsu'tey's death was as advertised: the performance work was incredible. I knew of the scene of course, but I did not know that Jake had to mercy kill him. That caught me off-guard; I thought it was just Tsu'tey passing on the baton and conking out. The line about how toruk makto was his last shadow, and then Jake's shadow rising up over him was beautiful and incredibly powerful, both thematically and visually. It also added a bittersweet note to the ending that it was lacking. In the closing shots as the human force is being escorted out, Neytiri and Jake are looking melancholy, not celebratory. That scene explains why; it completely changed the tone of the ending. I don't think it interfered with the rhythm of the ending, and I wish Cameron had included it in the initial theatrical run.

Good stuff. Can't wait to see the longer (finished) cut.
 
That article said Avatar made almost 2 billion dollars...lawl

Anyway, yeah I can't wait to hear about the shit Cameron finds down there. Pioneer only begins to define the man.
 
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