The big news for film geeks yesterday was the long awaited announcement of James Cameron's official return to movie making (after having made a few ocean based documentaries). Cameron's Avatar is scheduled to come out in the summer of 2009 (!), and Cameron claims it's going to be revolutionary. Using cameras that he helped design, the film is to be shot in 3D for exhibition in new digital 3D theatres (I'm guessing there'll be a 2D version for the rest of them). The film also promises to offer revolutionary CG characters that will be beyond the likes of Gollum and Davey Jones, together with detailed CG worlds. Most promising is the fact that Peter Jackson's Weta Digital, a group who have been on the cutting edge for the last few years, will be working on the effects.
Hyperbole aside, the prospect of a 3D, mostly CG sci-fi action film from the director of the Terminator films (parts The Terminator and Terminator 2 - Judgment Day), Aliens, and The Abyss is a mouth watering prospect. Cameron has apparently been nurturing this idea for nigh on a decade, and it apparently revolves around a war between humans and aliens on the aliens' homeworld hundreds of years in the future. His dialogue may be clunky at times, but the man knows how to write and direct a good sci-fi yarn. Although, he did also create Dark Angel. Ok, he also made Titanic, which isn't great but which I reckon is unfairly maligned because of its success. Plus, Titanic wasn't sci-fi or action, but it still had some amazing sequences in it (once you get past the first couple of hours).
Motion capture filming has already been in progress for a few months, relatively unknown leads have been cast, and there'll apparently be around 18 months of post production. Which means it'll be a long while before we see anything of the film - the first still from the film isn't expected for at least another year. Regardless, I haven't had this much early anticipation for a film since Lord of the Rings; it's going to be a long wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment