ZombieKitten said:

T'was for a good cause,

I'm only interested in it because James Cameron directed and I want to fuck the lead actor.

Imago said:

who's that?

errant said:

I'm not 100% sure but it looks like Sam Worthington of Terminator fame:





I want to bend Sam over my knee so badly.

ZombieKitten said:

T'was for a good cause,

Imago said:

oh hell yes. looking at his gorgeous mug was the only good part about that last Terminator movie

Anybody going to see this?

RenHoek said:

ya see...I already got you a job on my very own thread!

Anybody going to see this?

I'm only interested in it because James Cameron directed and I want to fuck the lead actor.

'Avatar': A Race to the Finish
Crews are speeding to complete James Cameron's ambitious sci-fi tale on schedule
November 2009



Less than a month before the scheduled release of James Cameron's new movie, "Avatar," some scenes from the costly special-effects extravaganza remain unfinished.

Pressure to complete the project by the Dec. 18 release date has risen to the point where crews are working "24-8"—that is, eight days a week—said producer Jon Landau during a break from supervising the work in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Mr. Landau said that around 30 minutes of the movie remain incomplete, with issues ranging from sound mixing to more serious aspects like visual effects. The total running time is likely to fall between 2½ hours and two hours 40 minutes, not including credits.

The film is an ambitious science-fiction tale about a disabled soldier who leaves Earth for a planet called Pandora. There, using mind-projection technology, the soldier lives and fights vicariously through a blue, 10-foot-tall body, or avatar, that closely resembles those of an indigenous humanoid species. Lest that futuristic scenario scare off anyone but die-hard sci-fi fans, there's a love story involving the avatar and a native female.




"It's in the hectic last days of postproduction typical of any film of this size, but it's on schedule and preparing for its world-wide release," said Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman Jim Gianopulos.

Some of the tasks still facing the filmmakers are typical postproduction work such as scoring and "color timing," or ensuring that hues are consistent through the film. But other aspects include more basic production elements, such as special effects being generated by Weta Digital in New Zealand, the effects studio of "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson, plus seven other effects houses.




The eleventh-hour fixes are driving up costs on a project already on track to be one of the most expensive movies ever made. Several factors make the final price tag difficult to estimate, though people with knowledge of the movie's financing say the tally could exceed $300 million.



Since "Avatar" still isn't finished, the cost is growing daily. However, a 15% tax credit from the government of New Zealand is likely to soften the blow to Twentieth Century Fox and the film's other two financial backers, which took on about 60% of the production's cost. Fox is owned by News Corp., also the parent of The Wall Street Journal.


On a film like "Avatar," which is almost entirely computer-generated, Mr. Landau said, there is little meaningful difference between principal photography and special effects. The movie uses motion-capture technology, in which actors' images are loaded into computers, then manipulated and recreated using graphics software.




The process of creating Pandora and its denizens is laborious and largely untried, thanks to the new technology. Actors were filmed against green screens, their movements used as the basis for characters that in some cases were entirely computer generated. The imagery—which includes dense, exotic flora and fauna on the fictitious planet—is largely created by Weta. It is then zapped back to Mr. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment in California, where the director must approve (or not) every shot.

"It's a benefit to the consumer when studios go crazy and spend a lot of money," Mr. Cameron said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in August. Mr. Cameron couldn't be reached Thursday.

As the release date approaches, the process is getting more intense. Once the core visual elements are set, picture and sound must be locked. Theaters that display the film in 3-D can project the movie based on a digital file, but prints must be produced for theaters that still rely on traditional film projectors.

It is common for work to go down to the wire on big-budget blockbusters. But Mr. Landau said that Mr. Cameron's already-exacting standards have continued to rise even as the film comes down to the wire.

"Every shot we get back raises the standard for what follows," Mr. Landau said.

Mr. Cameron is famous for pushing the envelope when it comes to both production schedules and costs. Sometimes that process has led to expensive disasters: 1989's "The Abyss" cost an estimated $70 million to make and grossed $54 million at the domestic box office. After a similar white-knuckle production process, however, "Titanic" became the highest-grossing film of all time.

"Avatar" relies on 3-D technology developed specifically for the film, similar to the way "Titanic" used a giant water tank in Mexico built just for that movie's scale model of the eponymous ship.

Mr. Cameron said in the August interview that, whatever the movie ends up costing, he is putting Fox's money at less risk this time than it was on "Titanic" or other big, costly productions shot using traditional filmmaking techniques, because most of the work is done inside a computer rather than with elaborate sets and exotic locations. Mr. Cameron and a business partner also covered some of those costs out of their own pockets, according to a person close to the studio. And as with "Titanic," Mr. Cameron argued that the cost of developing that technology doesn't belong on the film's own books, since it can theoretically be used for other movies in the future.

"At least that was how I pitched it to Fox," Mr. Cameron said in the August interview.

I'm only interested in it because James Cameron directed and I want to fuck the lead actor.

babynoz said:

I'm a graphic designer too

they finished last week and had only parties and a game of skirmish left!

The 60 Minutes profile which aired Nov 22, 2009.

Unless ALL the humans end up blown to smithereens at the end, the idea of interplanetary colonialism doesn't seem entertaining to me.

Lammastide said:

I doubt it will be as open and shut as that...

I don't even like James Cameron as a director... ALIENS was a lowbrow rip of ALIEN (for me personally), Terminator is based on a lot of past stuff I liked, The Abyss ripped my favorite movie of all time, Titanic was cheesy, although the ending was good.

But I think, this movie will be really good. I think it will feel like you are on a fantasy vacation if you see it in IMAX, (kind of like how I felt watching the first season of LOST). I think people will want to return over and over again to get lost in this Boris-Vallejo-colored-art come to life.

I need to apply for a job working on movies like this! What company do your friends work for, Zombie Kitten?