Avatar like working on moon landing Cameron reveals

28 May 2009

John Howell

James Cameron, director of the upcoming sci-fi epic Avatar, recently emailed AICN, putting to rest rumours that he had already rejected 8 trailers for the new movie. At the same time, he provided an update on the film’s status, news that a trailer would be released soon, and revealed how working on the complex (US$200 million plus) project has made him feel.

“I haven't rejected any trailers (yet) since I haven't seen any yet,” wrote Cameron. “They're still working on them for presentation, which presumably will be soon. I'm sure I'll reject a couple once I have the chance. Right now I'm just focused on having a movie to sell.”

He went on to reveal that the Avatar movie cut “is shaping up nicely and the stuff coming in from Weta Digital is astonishing.”

Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital is creating the special effects for Avatar, which has been filmed using cutting edge 3D technology developed by Cameron and his team specifically for the project.

“Every once in a while, as we are absorbed in some intensely detailed discussion about sub-surface scattering or the way a tail is moving in the animation, I'll just stop and have this moment of clarity, as if seeing it for the first time,” wrote Cameron. “And I realize that's what the lunar astronauts must have felt like. They'd be in the middle of some complex set of procedures and they'd look out the window and go ‘Oh, yeah. That's the frickin' moon!’ It feels like that.”

The star of Avatar (and the recently released Terminator Salvation), is Australian actor Sam Worthington. Worthington plays Jake Sully, a paralyzed retired Marine who undergoes an experiment to exist as an avatar. Apparently his Avatar is a 10 foot tall blue alien.

Cameron recently presented Sam Worthington with a Breakthrough award at Australia’s In Film Awards. While onstage, he spoke about how central Worthington’s role is to Avatar:

“We were making a $200 million-plus movie and it’s all about the journey of one guy, Jake, “ he said, “and he’s in every scene in the film, from beginning to end. It all hangs on that one piece of casting.”

Cameron was also interviewed on the red carpet at the awards, saying that Avatar “takes place in another world and you’ll feel like you’ve been to that world.” You can watch the complete interview from the awards below.

Now that Star Trek and Terminator Salvation have been released, Avatar is one of the few movies I’m holding my breath for. It has the potential to push 3D cinema into the mainstream and set the bar for science fiction films for years to come. On the flip side of course, it also has the potential to be the biggest overhyped, overproduced movie of all time.

The Avatar trailer should give us a strong indication one way or the other. Although I guess we’ll have to see the trailer in 3D to really know won’t we?

Latinoreviews.com posted a rumour that Avatar’s first trailer would be played before the upcoming Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. However, Fox has denied this. Still, if Cameron said that the trailer is coming soon, it can’t be far off.

Cameron’s 3D movie Avatar will be released 18 December, 2009. It can’t come soon enough.

Update!
Read our review of Avatar here.

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