Cameron's "Avatar"

[xwolverine2]

yeeeeah the title NEEDS to change right now.

 

[DorkyFresh]

huh? why?

 

[xwolverine2]

i think the actual Avatar:TLA should be the one that stays with the name...

 

[matrix_ghost]

i think the actual Avatar:TLA should be the one that stays with the name...

I agree. I haven't seen the show for that matter , but i believe that itshould keep the title since it mention the Avatars and what not.

MY feeling with Cameron's Avatar is just that it deals with some Avatar ( computer image). Kinda like how The Abyss deals with an abyss although it's never really mentioned like "Hey we're going into the abyss "or "Check out those creatures in the abyss ".

Anyways i found this at IMDB's news section :
http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-01-10/

Cameron To Direct First Movie in 10 Years


James Cameron is to make new movie Avatar, his first film since 1997's Oscar-winning blockbuster Titanic. Fox Filmed Entertainment has confirmed Cameron is to start virtual photography on the sci-fi epic in April, followed by live-action work in August, ahead of a summer 2009 release. Cameron has also written the screenplay for the movie, which tells the story of a wounded marine who is sent to the faraway planet of Pandora against his wishes, and finds himself caught up in a battle of survival with the planet's inhabitants. The 52-year-old has spent years researching and developing the new filming techniques needed to create the movie's $190 million hybrid of action and animation, and he claims he's been "the busiest unemployed director in Hollywood." He vows, "We're going to blow you to the back wall of the theatre in a way you haven't seen for a long time. My goal is to rekindle those amazing mystical moments my generation felt when we first saw 2001: A Space Odyssey or the next generation's Star Wars. It took me 10 years to find something hard enough to be interesting."

Damn , 190 million.
He's really pushing the budget
No wonder Cameron's went with no big name stars.
Not only are they incredibly cheap , they also are much harder to push then big name stars.
Cameron has a history of being a notoriously difficult director to work with , who really does ask alot of his actors physically. And while it's totally worth it , it's a huge pain in the ass for the actors.
Get a rising star who can act but is a relative newbie and you can push him quite far.

Also , i'm quite interested in just how much $$$ of the budget is going into the VFX.
They're going to shoot for 31 days which is a very short time for a big budget action blockbuster.
But given that it's going to be mostly performance capture , my guess that is that the shoot will be a bit like Sky Captain/Star Wars ....mostly blue screen/green screen shoot.

 

[matrix_ghost]

dp sorry

 

[bluejake01]

Cameron has a history of being a notoriously difficult director to work with , who really does ask alot of his actors physically. And while it's totally worth it , it's a huge pain in the ass for the actors.
Get a rising star who can act but is a relative newbie and you can push him quite far.

Also , i'm quite interested in just how much $$$ of the budget is going into the VFX.
They're going to shoot for 31 days which is a very short time for a big budget action blockbuster.
But given that it's going to be mostly performance capture , my guess that is that the shoot will be a bit like Sky Captain/Star Wars ....mostly blue screen/green screen shoot.

I was on-set a couple of months ago when they were doing some pre-production test footage to try out the technique, which is image based motion capture using a series of stereo and virtual cameras for the 3D. He was very soft spoken which surprised me, as much as I had heard about his ego and his manner. His producer on the other hand was a real asshat. Of course it should be noted that it was test footage, and no "actors" were on the call sheet for the day. I dunno what he will be like to work with when principal starts.

 

[matrix_ghost]

Cool.

How did he film it ? Was it against a blue screen most of the time or did they use real sets .
Also what's the main difference between a stereo camera and a virtual camera .
Not everyone here known alot about filmmaking ( me included).


And did you see the rough footage that Cameron shot ?

Edit : I saw you said about the image-based Mo-CAP. So it's a bit like how Gollum was made using the mo-cap from Andy Serkis. Or like the iMo-CAP which ILM used to film Bill Nighy for the VFX of Davy Jones...you know combining MO-CAP and live action shooting

 

[TheComicbookKid]

I'm glad so many of you are happy to see this coming to the big screen.

I've never heard of it until now and I thought he was adapting some kind of manga story. I'm not sure the general audience is going to come out in droves to see this even with the special effects.

 

[matrix_ghost]

I'm glad so many of you are happy to see this coming to the big screen.

I've never heard of it until now and I thought he was adapting some kind of manga story. I'm not sure the general audience is going to come out in droves to see this even with the special effects.

You're thinking about Battle Angel.
He's also going to work on that too. According to the AICN interview , Jim said that it all comes down to just how much of his time will be needed for Avatar.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31191

Harry – Now, while your doing the Visual Effects work on this, will you be doing any work on BATTLE ANGEL..

Jim – Probably, Yeah, I’ll probably be sliding into PRE on Battle Angel during that time, it’s hard for me to know, until I’ve gone through the process to know what my time management is going to be capable of. You know, if I spend 5 hours a day doing Visual FX, which is probable, that will leave me time to do Battle Angel.

If it winds up being 8 hours a day. NO. But I can’t answer that for right now. I’m hoping to telescope Pre on Battle Angel into post on Avatar. Which has always been the plan.

Ideally work on Battle Angel would begin in the post prod. of Avatar. My guess is that Cameron choose to do Avatar before battle angel because he wants to see just how the technology will turn out. In many ways Avatar is an experimental flick and the same technology will be used for Battle Angel. Battle Angel also seems to be much more complex in terms of realistic VFX design since you really need VIRTUAL humans to get to that point.
Which is one of the holy grails in the VFX world. Some movies have come close ( The matrix Movies , the spiderman movies , Superman Returns) but still not so far that the character is completely realistic.

Given just what kind of moves the lead in Battle Angel needs to perform , it's really the only way IMO to go for a CG human.

It'll be interesting to see just how the CG characters in Avatar will turn out to be. Only now has complete photorealism been achieved with a non-humanoid character : Davey Jones on POTC.
Cameron plans to up that realism and i'm really looking forward to that
I do think that the general audience is going to see Avatar. it won't be a boring movie and it will have action. This is Cameron we are talking about.

The best comparison with Avatar is The Abyss IMO.
Very experimental movie , dealing with alien characters and amazing worlds.
The production budget of The Abyss was 70 million and WW it made 89 million.
Granted it didn't break even , but i'm sure that the dvd's made up for it

 

[TheComicbookKid]

You're right. I was confusing the two, Matrix. I still think the special effects aren't going to be a draw though. Everytime a movie depends on special-effects never before seen, it doesn't do well. Pirates was a shock to me on how well they did Davey Jones.

Sky Captain, was an amazing film on the tech level, but nobody cared about a retro sci-fi movie. I'd just like to hear more about the story before I get hyped. What was the last successful, non-Earth, Sci-fi movie to do well that wasn't preestablished like Star Wars or LOTR?

 

[matrix_ghost]

If you want to hear more about the story , there are numerous reviews about Avatar ( or Project 880) on various sites such as AICN.
On the previous page there was also a spoiler description of the story.

Also you asked about the last SCI- non earth fantasy movie that was succesful. I assume you're also asking about fantasy there .
That would have to be POTC 1 ( right out of the top of my head). You really can't count on the Disney Ride IMO as something that is preestablished.

 

[matrix_ghost]

Here's the review from AICN.com:

ABking visits AVATAR... and tells all!

Father Geek here, our resident Arnie & Sly spy ABking sent in the following report on Cameron's AVATAR scriptment. Now, I know some of you might have already picked up this info someplace or another, but I'm betting the great majority of our readers will be blown away by this project that James has been quitely toying with for a while now in the shadow of SPIDERMAN. This is the stuff of dreams...

Spoiler

For anyone reading this, this is what I thought about James Cameron's amazing scriptment/treatment for AVATAR. Cameron should make this right away because it will be his big version of STAR WARS. While reading this scriptment, only one movie star came to mind to play the hero. It was Jim's good friend Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I think Josh's character would be perfect for Schwarzenegger. The story start's of with Josh a bit downtrodden in a lot of ways like Arnie's character in End of Days. Maybe even more so. Avatar is the action epic that End of Days should have been, and I'm willing to bet on the epic level of With Wings As Eagles or Crusade.

I'll try to tell the story basically in three parts.

Part A: Josh ends up becoming part of a company program that mines resources from a distant planet called Pandora. On this planet are a race of 8ft tall, humanoid aliens called the Na'vi. The company has developed a process to "grow" Avatars, which are a combination of human and Na'vi DNA cells grown to full adult size. With these 8ft shells that look like the Na'vi and have enough human DNA in them, the human donor's mind can be linked into the body of the Avatar. This allows humans the ability to breath on the planet and communicate better with the aliens. See, Josh had a twin brother who was in this deal, and an Avatar was being developed for him. But his brother dies and because each Avatar costs the company 20 million to develop they go to Josh who agrees to take his brother's place. The human's mind is linked into his Avatar's body ala The Matrix.

Part Two: On the planet, Josh goes through training sessions where he learns to use his Avatar body. Eventually, he and other "controller" (humans who are linked to Avatar), learn to move around and survive on the planet, which is covered mostly by a rainforest. These forests are filled with fantastic and deadly creatures like the Manticore which is this gigantic, black-coated panther like creature with six legs and a tail with a poisonous stinger on it. Theres' also a creature called a tenticore I think, that's twice as big as an elephant, is armored and has a head similar to a hammerhead shark. There's a creature called a slinger that has a long neck, and can literally sling its dart-shaped head like a smart missile. the head nails its' prey, then it's headless body reattaches its head by regenerating the cartilage and nerves to the head, then the slinger eats its prey. Cameron creates all kinds of deadly creatures that infest the forests. Also, this planet's weird magnetic field causes a particular phenomenon. Many mountains and mountain ranges actually "float" above the planet. I can't remember enough to explain it now, but it's explained pretty well in the scriptment.

Well, the company has a camp in the middle of this forest surrounded by guard towers and electric fences to kkeep these creatures out. they also have gunships and 14-ft armored hydraulic suits (reminds me a lot like the metal carrier suit used in Aliens) but with gatling guns and flamethrowers. This camp is ran by this dude who's only interested in raping the planet of its resources and making the company profit and doesn't really care about the damage mining causes on the eco-system of the planet and its aliens. Over a series of small adventures on Pandora, Josh meets this Na'vi woman who teaches him how to survive on the planet, and they become attracted to each other. Remember the Na'vi though alien, are very humanoid. Well soon conflict rises between the Na'vi, Josh, a few controllers and the company's military.

Part 3. Basically there are several battles between tne Na'vi led by Josh and the company army. Imagine gigantic tanks crashing through forests of trees 3 times bigger than the Sequoia's on Earth. Imagine these trees are so huge, gunships are flying through them weaving in an out as they blast at the Na'vi who are on foot, or flying on the backs of giant flying creatures. Imagine a couple of aerial battles in the air as gunships dodge between the floating mountains, and waterfalls in the air then flying down into the giant forests.

Also, the creatures which the Na'vi can psychically link with are attacking the soldiers in their armored suits. There are battles like I've never imagined and plenty of action. josh jumps off one flying creature on the the back of one gunship, and manages to snatch the pilot out of the cockpit. There's even a scene where giant jellyfish-like creatures float through the air and cause several of the gunships to crash and explode.

There is literally too much to describe. I was exhausted after reading this scriptment, and it would make one of the best sci-fi/action/adventures ever made. But the cost to make this movie would be incredible. It would take literally 200 million at least, and the Na'vi, the Avatars, and the creatures would literally have to be computer generated. Actually, this movie could be made and made well even without Arnie, but to see an Avatar version of Arnie would be could. Imagine a eight-nine ft tall blue-skinned, slender but powerfully-muscled Arnie with cat-like eyes, fangs, three-fingers and a thumb on each hand and a panther-like tail. That's what Avatar would give you.

ABking

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/5169?semperex-search

Here ya go man. Read on about the story . Sounds kick ass to me

 

[Hunter Rider]

I think this could be massive,we get so many sequels these days that some fresh mythology will be welcomed by the audience and sinc eit's come from the king of the BIG movie i expect it to blow ppl away,Cameron and Fox aren't aiming for a minor hit IMO

The studio just wanted to drive a stake in the ground and say “We’re doing this, Watch out Summer 2009, don’t plan your big summer movie on Memorial day Mr Spielberg or Disney or whatever.

 

[DorkyFresh]

What was the last successful, non-Earth, Sci-fi movie to do well that wasn't preestablished like Star Wars or LOTR?

Pitch Black (2000)...and that was a pretty low budget, horror/sci fi flick. if a small, horror/non-Earth sci fi flick like Pitch Black can be successful, i don't see why a more family friendly (and ginormous) movie like Avatar couldn't be...

 

[TheComicbookKid]

^Pitch Black is what I'm talking about. POTC did take place on Earth just with fantasy.

Thanks, I don't want to sound like a troll or anything, god knows we have enough of them.

Thanks for the link, Matrix.

EDIT: I just read the link and it's just a review but the project sounds ambitious but I didn't see the conflict in the movie for the main character. Does anyone know what it is?

 

[Sava]

I think this could be massive,we get so many sequels these days that some fresh mythology will be welcomed by the audience and sinc eit's come from the king of the BIG movie i expect it to blow ppl away,Cameron and Fox aren't aiming for a minor hit IMO

lol, i like that quote

 

[DorkyFresh]

argh...as much as i want to see this movie, i hate that fact that Fox is distributing it...

...f*** Fox.

 

[DorkyFresh]

i wonder who Cameron has in mind for a composer. if i could talk to Cameron i'd suggest to him that Ko Otani (Shadow of the Colossus) help compose. his music is very haunting in a magical way.

here are a few of the tracks from Shadow of the Colossus...

http://www.myspace.com/shadowofthecolossusmusic

 

[cryptic name]

I'm glad so many of you are happy to see this coming to the big screen.

I've never heard of it until now and I thought he was adapting some kind of manga story. I'm not sure the general audience is going to come out in droves to see this even with the special effects.

they're going to market the hell out of this movie if they know what's good for them. that and "From the Director of Titanic" will sadly get a lot of people's attention.

 

[Hunter Rider]

i wonder who Cameron has in mind for a composer. if i could talk to Cameron i'd suggest to him that Ko Otani (Shadow of the Colossus) help compose. his music is very haunting in a magical way.

here are a few of the tracks from Shadow of the Colossus...

http://www.myspace.com/shadowofthecolossusmusic

What is Shadow of the Colossus ?

Oh and i hope we don't have to wear goggles to watch this

 

[cryptic name]

What is Shadow of the Colossus ?

Oh and i hope we don't have to wear goggles to watch this

you won't Cameron says they're developing digital 3D that you can experiance with your naked eye.

 

[Hunter Rider]

you won't Cameron says they're developing digital 3D that you can experiance with your naked eye.

You sir have just made my Day along with Cameron,thank yout:

 

[Red Mask]

I'm glad he's doing this Avatar instead of Battle Angel. I have no confidence in his adaption whatsoever.

 

[DorkyFresh]

What is Shadow of the Colossus ?

it's a video game...and a damn great one at that! it's from the same people who made ICO for the PS2.

you won't Cameron says they're developing digital 3D that you can experiance with your naked eye.

i know they're developing no glasses 3d but are they going to be able to use it by 2009? i was under the impression that we'd be wearing clear glasses. if we don't have to wear anything to watch Avatar in 3d then WOW! one word...



...REMAKES!!!

 

[bluejake01]

you won't Cameron says they're developing digital 3D that you can experiance with your naked eye.

It's a similar technique to the one ILM is developing for the planned Star Tours 2 attraction in conjunction with Disney.