Posts Tagged ‘Avatar’

(Reuters) – When “Titanic” director James Cameron released his film “Avatar” last year, there were not as many theaters equipped with 3D equipment to screen the 3D version as he would have liked.

So, on Friday, film studio 20th Century Fox is releasing an “Avatar: Special Edition” version of the biggest blockbuster of all time ($2.7 billion in global ticket sales) exclusively in Imax 3D theaters and venues equipped with digital 3D.

Cameron spoke to Reuters about the nine minutes of new film on the “special edition,” the movie’s success, and whether movies or science is his favored pursuit.

Q: Why a new one? The first was pretty good.

A: “There are a couple of factors. There’s footage I think people would be interested in. I don’t want to completely reinvent the movie and turn it into something it’s not. It’s really more an embellishment; it’s a fuller experience.

“The other factor is I think people want to see ‘Avatar’ in movie theaters. That’s just my instinct. This all came about because when “Alice in Wonderland” came out, they had booked all the Imax 3D screens. We were still doing well, still selling out … but we lost all those screens in one night. So, we knew there was still a market for people seeing the film.”

Q: Many people, me included, thought, ‘they already made $2.7 billion! How much more do they want?’ Money grubbers?’”

A: “Yeah, we are just money grubbing vampires. (smiles) No, I think making money is called good business. At least, in this country it still is. And two, it’s a side-effect of giving people what they want. If we’re correct and this is what people want, then we’ve done a humanitarian service (laughs).”

Q: Right, Hollywood does perform humanitarian services.

A: “Sometimes. (laughs again) Sometimes it can, but it’s usually just liberal guilt…

“No, it’s like an illuminated manuscript, there’s just more to it. I also want to encourage people to remember the movie in 3D on the big screen. And this will be the last hurrah … It’ll disappear from big screens — other than an occasional Imax may want to book it — for 10 years, 20 years, maybe forever.”

Q: So, the new footage, what are people going to see?

A: “We got different kinds of stuff. Some of it little things, 10-, 15-, 30-second pops that just show up here and there where if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll ask yourself, ‘did I see that before, or is that new.’

“Then, there are going to be things like a big action scene where they hunt these herd animals that didn’t even exist in the first movie because we’d cut them out. There are new creatures, a big flight scene, almost like a Buffalo hunt. I think it’s one of the top visual scenes in the film.

“There’s an emotional scene that plays out at the end where Tsu’tey is dying and there’s a very emotional scene with Jake and Neytiri. Everybody thought I was crazy when I took it out. I did it for pace and tempo, but I was playing it pretty conservative. I was concerned about eye fatigue on a 2-hour and 40-minute film. I was concerned about sensory overload…

“We never got much criticism about length. I was expecting a lot. I was expecting at least critics to say, ‘really good film’ or ‘pretty good film, but too long,’ but we didn’t get much of that. It seemed like we had permission to go longer.”

Q: So, you and Fox have the two top grossing films of all time. Can you now get about anything you want from Fox?

A: “Do they listen to me more, now? Probably not, if they weren’t going to listen to me after ‘Titanic,’ they’re not going to listen to me now, any more or any less.”

Q: You’re doing another ‘Avatar’ film. Is there a third?

A: “The next script will be essentially two scripts, and I don’t know if we’ll shoot it together or shoot it separately. We’ll release it separately, obviously.

“If that works, there will probably be another one, but at that point, I probably won’t be directing them. I do want to do the second and probably the third film myself just because it’s so much a part of me and my philosophy and ideas.”

Q: Beyond movies, you’ve become a bona fide expert on deep underwater exploration. When all is said and done, what do you want to be remembered for — big movies or exploration?

A: “What goes on the tombstone?” (laughs)

Q: Well, without having to ask it that way, yes.

A: “I’m satisfied with ‘innovator’ because it requires innovation to do all this deep ocean exploration. We’re building lights, cameras, robotics, submersibles, fiber optic systems, and I love all that stuff. I love imagining something, building it, and making it work in the ocean…

“On the filmmaking side, there’s the innovation of how you make the movie and there’s the innovation of what the movie is, meaning the story, the characters, the creation of a world, the imagination required for that. I love all that stuff. The problem for me is task managing in such a way that I don’t get so focused on one that I forget about doing the other.”

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Most of you know now that Cameron’s Avatar has crowned the filmmaker once again with the Worlds highest grossing movie of all time earning a whopping 3 billion dollars at te box office. While this position has contributed greatly to the traction 3D cinema currently spellbinding entertainment consumers, there is on glaring drawback in Mr. Cameron’s opinion, companies jumping on the 3D bandwagon and putting out horrible conversions.

Movies like Clash of the Titans andThe Last Airbender were shot in traditional 2D and converted into 3D after seeing Avatar’s success.

“I think it’s horrible and absolutely the wrong way to go,” Cameron said before the re-release of Avatar in 3D with added footage.

“I think it’s a quick, knee-jerk reaction to seeing the gold rush happen and the studios just wanted to jump in on it and that’s the only way they could do it. It’s the studio making the decision and then handing it over to some company to process it through a sausage grinder and come up with some kind of faux 3D, or a 2 1/2D mess,” he added.

The interesting footnote is he plans on re-releasing 1997’s Titanic in a 3D redux. Cameron fully admits that the conversion will be a “2.9D”, but goes on to add, “We won’t succeed. It will wind up being 2.9D, but it will still be .9 better than the 2D we released before. These other slapdash conversions, where they are not spending the time and money and not involving the filmmaker, are like 2.2D,” The Herald Sun quoted the 55-year-old filmmaker as saying.

It was announced this week that James Cameron’s box office destructor Avatar will be released again, just over 8 months after its initial run that started in December last year.

It seems as if the film’s $750 million box office success hasn’t satisfied 20th Century Fox, as it could have earned even more if almost every 3D screen had to stop running Avatar and start running Disney’s Alice in Wonderland because of contractual obligations. Read the rest of this entry »

As the 3D film industry burgeons, its perhaps a good time to stop and look back at the 50+ years of studio 3D cinema and draw breath.

There have been moments of terror, of laughter and of pain, both emotional and physical.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s finally happened – porn has arrived in the third dimension of the film industry. Titillation just got more titillating. Read the rest of this entry »

A few months back  James Cameron’s claims that Avatar will be released on 3D Blu-ray by the end of 2010 were quickly falsified by Fox Pictures. In a recent turn of events, it appears that the director was almost right with his claims. According to 3DHollywood.net, numerous inside sources have revealed that a 3D Blu-ray copy of Avatar will be made available this November with every purchase of Panasonic 3D Blu-ray equipment. The 3D Blu-ray of Avatar is reported to be exclusive to this Panasonic deal and is not scheduled to be available for retail or rental anytime soon. Not only will Avatar be made available to Panasonic 3D consumers on 3D Blu-ray this year. According to reports, Disney is currently in negotiations with Sony Electronics to strike a deal that will see a 3D Blu-ray version of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ offered exclusively with the purchase of Sony 3D technology this fall. Read the rest of this entry »

“It all depends on how you do it” says legendary Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Armageddon, G-Force, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bad Boys, Black Hawk Down and basically the list goes on and on) when talking about 3D movies in a recent interview. In the interview with IGN, Bruckheimer gave his opinion on 3D movies and talks about Hollywood’s latest 3D releases. He said that, “3D adds another dimension which puts you inside the movie, which I love. But it’s always about the story telling”. Read the rest of this entry »

Avatar director and 3D expert James Cameron recently revealed his latest three dimensional plans. The 3D enthusiast announced in a recent interview that when he finishes adding another dimension to his 1997 film Titanic, he plans to re-release Aliens and Terminator in stereoscopic 3D. The 3D conversion of Titanic, which Cameron is calling ‘2.8D’, is expected to be released in 2012 to mark the 100^th anniversary of the ships maiden and final voyage.

A UK cinema recently experienced how popular the 3D format currently is after being pressured into installing 3D technology in its theater. Jersey’s only movie theater which is operated by Cineworld is now installing 3D technology in two of its screens at the Waterfront cinema in St Heliers. The power of social networking and the popularity of stereoscopic 3D assisted in motivating the movie theaters owners to purchasing 3D technology Thousands of people joined an online campaign on Facebook which called for a 3D screen to be installed at the theater after audiences had to miss out on 3D blockbusters such as Avatar, Clash of the Titans, Alice in Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon.

James Cameron recently announced in an interview that his hit 3D movie will be getting re-released in movie theaters worldwide this summer. In the interview, Cameron mentioned that the Avatar team is “working on finishing an additional six minutes of the film… for a theatrical re-release in August.” However, people need to be aware that Cameron has a history of announcing something that isn’t entirely true or fully arranged. Last month the director revealed in an interview that Avatar would be released on 3D Blu-ray in the near future raising peoples excitement. Unfortunately, Fox Pictures quickly falsified Cameron’s claims and said that a 3D Blu-ray is planned but still some time away. Read the rest of this entry »