James Cameron's Avatar

No its not Shyamalan's 'The Last Airbender', but it's Science Fiction hero James Cameron's labour of love Avatar. I must have been living under a rock to have not heard more about this $200 million film. The movie's premise is being described as, "an emotional journey of redemption and revolution. It is the story of a wounded ex-marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in biodiversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival. The film's star is Sam Worthington who, ironically, was recently cast in the new Terminator: Salvation, the film series that Cameron is responsible for bringing to life.

Born out of an 80 page script that Cameron wrote back in the mid 90's, and it has been said that the films delayed release is due to the lack technology available to properly bring us into that world. Well, Avatar is set to be released this December using technology so advanced that Spielberg, Lucas and Peter Jackson have been involved in testing it. Cameron wanted to be able to create entirely CGI characters are photo realistic using motion capture. Wikipedia reports that: unlike previous performance capture systems, where the digital environment is added after the actors' motions have been captured, Cameron's new virtual camera allows him to directly observe on a monitor how the actors' virtual counterparts interact with the movie's digital world in real time and adjust and direct the scenes just as if shooting live action. This would also included the most advanced methods for capturing facial expressions ever used. If that wasn't enough the film will also be filmed in 3-D using proprietary equipment developed by Cameron.

Other interesting tidbits that only serve to ramp up this films skyrocketing expectations include an intricately conceived world that Stan Winston (who also worked on the Terminator films) will design and music by James Horner (Aliens, Titanic) that will include choral arrangements in which an entirely new alien language will be sung.

Reading this kind of news almost makes me forget how disappointing the new Terminator film was. Here's a video report on the film for more info.

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