Director James Cameron, known for creating the “Terminator” franchise and making “Titanic,” hasn’t made a full-length feature film since he sank that ship in 1997.
He has been working on his new film “Avatar” for the past decade. What took so long was that he had to wait for technology to catch up to his ideas for this ground-breaking 3-D sci-fi fantasy.
Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully, a paralyzed former marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. He undergoes an experiment to exist as an avatar, a human mind in an alien body that’s 10 feet (three meters) tall and blue.
As an avatar he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people.
In speaking with CanMag, Cameron discussed what he thought was more important to the film: the technology or the story.
“There are a lot of technology stories here - the 3-D, the facial performance capture, the CG, all that stuff - but that's not what people want to hear about. They want to hear about the story. So I think it finds its own level and if you do it right it's transparent.”
Bruce Snyder, president of domestic distribution for 20th Century Fox (which is handling the release of the movie) revealed that the running for "Avatar." will be 150 minutes (2 hrs 30 mins).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this will allow cinemas to offer three daytime showings and two evening screenings. The film will play in both 3-D and standard 2-D formats as well as having an IMAX run lasting until March.
“Avatar” hits theaters December 18 and cost about $230 million to make. The marketing campaign behind the film has been running and putting out all the featurettes shown in this post as well as airing a 13-minute segment on "60 Minutes."
Does this look like a movie you want to see this winter break?
