Guillermo del Toro is ready to his his own comedy talkshow, really! Look out Jay leno!
In this interview (below) on the Late, Late Showwith Craig Ferguson he talks about his At the Mountains of Madness project with James Cameron, "monsters', and his 'big fat cat' who has been diagnosed as "lazy". At the end he drops the bomb announcing he is working on a TV project with David Eick, the Executive producer and writer for the Battlestar Galactica TV series! WooHoo!
James Cameron (left), James Stewart of Geneva Film Co. (right)
WE ARE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE!
At this year's Banff World Television Festival most of the hype was focused on stereoscopic digital 3D. We were thrilled to learn about all the programming in the works for 3D mobile streaming devices (phones, iPad), television and film conversions. 3D is not dying -- it is here to stay!
Remember the line from Avatar "We are not in Kansas anymore"? Well, producer/director James Stewart said what James Cameron meant by that was we're going into stereoscopic 3D and we are not going back! 2010 had been called "The Year of 3D" by many people because 3D is digital and we have the technology to create perfect imagery throughout the process. It is very successful and will continue to be. Digital has changed everything. The process of filming Stereoscopic digital 3D is captured digitally, post-produced digitally and shown digitally.
Broadcasters in Canada and worldwide are launching 3D channels. From Avatar to iPhone, 3D is the future of digital media! James Stewart is president and founder of Geneva Film Co. and a leading authority in the emerging 3D universe, speaking alongside celebrated 3D authorities such as Jeffrey Katzenberg and James Cameron in Los Angeles, Sydney, Paris, London and Singapore. Watch Stewart's presentation from Banff TV 2010 (after the jump) about where 3D came from, how it works and why is it happening.
DOP Alan Lennox says the new portable equipment is democratizing 3D production as it is all digital and utilizes the existing infrastructure. Back in the old days, you had 2 giant IMAX or film cameras locked together in pairs. It was a big tangle. Now we're down to the same old steadicam, recording 2 bit 2K streams to a computer the size of an iPad. There are no wires or cables. The control is built in. "Its just regular equipment". See the 3DCC gear from 3D Camera Company in the demo video after the jump below.
CAMERON TALKS "AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS", AVATAR & SEQUELS
Avatar hits theaters August 27th exclusively on 3D screens with nine minutes of new, Pandora set footage. The new footage will include several new or extended scenes Cameron cut to keep the running time down to 162 minutes and introduce audiences to a new Pandoran creature, Sturmbeest, the object of a Na'vi hunt.
MTV reports Cameron is working on adapting his "scriptment" for Avatar into a novel.
As for Avatar 2 and 3, Cameron won't begin working on the screenplays until the deals with 20th Century Fox are locked in. Cameron is seriously considering filming Avatar 2 and 3 back-to-back for cost and logistical reasons.
MarketSaw recently did an in-depth audio interview with Cameron. The interview covers the Avatar Special Edition re-release on the 27th, Avatar 2 and 3, 3D post-conversion on Titanic, and producing Guillermo del Toro's upcoming adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.
Here are just a few of the highlights from MarketSaw's interview:
* Cameron confirms he is producing Guillermo del Toro's At the Mountains of Madness. The movie will be shot in native 3D using next generation FUSION 3D cameras from Pace. The project came up only 2 or 3 weeks ago when when Cameron asked about if del Toro was still interested in it. As del Toro was ecstatic to do it, Cameron said "let's do it". They took it to Universal with both of them attached to the fast tracked project and now it looks like it will be going in the 2nd quarter of 2011.
* Cameron talks about 3D conversions. Titanic's conversion is taking 8 months to a year to complete.
* Cameron talks about Avatar 2's current status. He has an overall story arc for 2 and 3, but has some modifications for that after spending some time during the last few months with native tribes in the Amazon basin. The script is quite a way out yet for Avatar 2.
It is refreshing to hear it from Cameron, the man that really started it all for modern 3D in Hollywood. Give the cool MarketSaw audio interview with Cameron a listen!
Sir Ian McKellan poses with the Icon award at the Winners Boards Jameson Empire Film Awards, March 28, 2010 Grosvenor House Hotel in London, England.
There was something for just about everyone at the 2010 Jameson Empire Awards held this Sunday evening, March 28, at London’s The Grosvenor House Hotel.
Deemed by many in the industry to be the most fun awards in the British movie calendar, the Jameson Empire Awards attract A-list star-studded movie talent from around the globe. In fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to find an awards ceremony featuring teen idols, Academy Award winners, 3D blockbusters, little-seen indies, festival favorites, and lots of vampires among its nominees. The Empire Awards is an eclectic, more upscale version of the People’s Choice Awards.
Held in London each March, the Jameson Empire Awards celebrate the film industry's success stories of the year with Empire Magazine readers voting for the winners, making them the ultimate film fan awards with international profile.
Empire Awards 2010 winners are:
Best Film presented by Sony Avatar - WINNER! Star Trek District 9 Inglourious Basterds The Hurt Locker
Best Actor presented by Citroën Sir Michael Caine (Harry Brown) Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) - WINNER! Robert Pattinson (New Moon) Sam Worthington (Avatar) Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes)
Christoph Waltz poses with the award for Best Actor
Best Actress Anne-Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy) Carey Mulligan (An Education) Zoe Saldana (Avatar) - WINNER! Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria) Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds)
Best Director James Cameron (Avatar) - WINNER! Neil Blomkamp (District 9) JJ Abrams (Star Trek) Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Best British Film Harry Brown - WINNER! The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus An Education Nowhere Boy In The Loop
Best Comedy In The Loop - WINNER! A Serious Man The Hangover Up In The Air The Men Who Stare At Goats
Best Horror Let The Right One In - WINNER! Paranormal Activity Zombieland Thirst Drag Me To Hell
Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Moon Star Trek - WINNER! Avatar District 9 The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Best Thriller Harry Brown Public Enemies Inglourious Basterds The Hurt Locker Sherlock Holmes - WINNER!
Best Newcomer Carey Mulligan (An Education) Aaron Johnson (Nowhere Boy) - WINNER! Sharlto Copley (District 9) Anna Kendrick (Up In The Air/New Moon) Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank)
Outstanding Contribution To British Film Ray Winstone
Empire Hero Jude Law
Jude Law accepts his The Hero Award presented by Gwenyth Paltrow (Photo by Handout/Jameson via Getty Images)
Naomie Harris and Andy Serkis pose with the Empire Inspiration award
(Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images for Jameson)
Empire Inspiration Andy Serkis
O'Briain: "Johnny Vegas, ladies and gentlemen, who unlike Christoph Waltz and the Let The Right One In kids, went to school here. Here's the inspiration award for someone who's an inspiration even if they only inspire us to see their films. And to present it here's a woman who doesn't even wait for the end of the introduction, she's already here: Naomie Harris"
Harris: "I love this man; I love him so much that I postponed my holiday to be here to present this award, then got sick and got out of my sickbed to present this award. He's enormously talented and one of the most versatile actors in the whole world. He can lay claim to having literally changed the face of cinema with his groundbreaking performance as Gollum in Lord of the Rings, which inspired James Cameron in creating Pandora. But we all know all this. What's less well known is how he combines all that talent with his humanity. Generous, humble and incredibly hard-working, it's this humanity combined with his skill that makes his performances so compelling. Even when playing a giant gorilla, that humanity shines through and touches our hearts." It's Andy Serkis!
Serkis: "I'm nearly having a fucking cardiac arrest, I had no idea. But, anyway, listen...I have no idea what to say. I didn't know I was up for this award or that it even existed. Naomie, thank you for saying those nice things and postponing your holiday and hope you feel better. It's been an incredible journey since I took part in Lord of the Rings, but I've got to say that performance capture is very important and we've got to acknowledge that. Performances should be judged by whether they transport, move and take you on a journey. Whether it's in costume or CG, that's what matters. I've got to thank my long-standing agent, Peter Jackson and everyone that worked on sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Yesterday it was 10 years since Ian Dury died, and he was a huge inspiration to me. Finally, I have to say, Lorraine, that I adore you with all my heart and soul. You and the children are everything to me." Awwww!
Sir Ian McKellan poses with the Icon award at the Winners Boards (Photo by Claire R Greenway/Getty Images for Jameson)
Empire Icon Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen has been crowned the Empire Icon for his long and varied film career at the Jameson Empire Awards 2010.
The 70-year-old actor, who won an Oscar for his role as real-life filmmaker James Whale in Gods And Monsters and is loved by many for starring in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and The X-Men films.
Sir Ian said:"I couldn't be more surprised or delighted. Middle-earth rejoices!"
Now in their 15th year, the Jameson Empire Awards are the only film awards to be voted for entirely by British film fans. Visit the EmpireOnline site for more details.
Sam Worthington as Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana as Neytiri in 'Avatar'
Oscar-winning director James Cameronof Titanic and Terminatorfame was honored yesterday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the same day his extraordinary 3D Avatar event, a sci-fi epic thriller, opened in theaters around the world. The immersiveness is a step forward for cinema as a visual experience; the lifelike animation has an expressiveness and a vitality surpassing anything we’ve ever seen. The visual detailing alone warrants repeat viewings.
Director James Cameron received a new star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, Friday, Dec. 18, 2009 Photo: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Avataris all about an evil corporation using USA military to exploit the natural resources of a foreign planet. It delivers a good "green" message.
Avatar is set in 2154 and takes place on the faraway new world called Pandora inhabited by noble savages called Na'vi. With the Earth depleted of energy sources the human race arrives on Pandora with the goal to mine an elusive and criminally profitable mineral at $20 million a kilo, that the Earth desperately needs. Pandora represents no threat to Earth. We send in the military to attack and conquer them with armored hover ships and machine guns, just like modern day politics.
Pandora's atmosphere is not breathable by humans. To venture out on Pandora we use avatars--Na'vi lookalikes grown organically (DNA of humans mixed with Na'vi). The avatar clones are mind-controlled by their humans who remain wired up in a trance-like state in chambers. While acting as avatars, they see, fear, taste and feel like Na'vi.
Sam Worthington as Jake Sully; his avatar in the background
Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully a paraplegic ex-Marine who is recruited to aid the rare mineral mining expedition on the distant jungle moon of Pandora. Only his DNA will bond with the expensive avatar that was created for his recently deceased twin brother. In avatar state he can walk again. The military leader strikes a deal with Sully to infiltrate and betray the Na'vi in exchange for restoring movement to his legs. Sully is in no danger, because if his avatar in destroyed, his human form remains untouched. The only danger is evident when his avatar goes limp and lifeless while he functions outside the chamber, as a human.
Zoe Saldana as Neytiri
Every great epic movie has a love story and complications ensue when Sully falls in love with the beautiful, seductive Neytiri played by Zoe Saldana. There are many Na'vi clans scattered around Pandora, but the one Sully comes to know is the Omaticaya Clan, who have lived inside of the 1000 foot tall Hometree for 10,000 years. The Omaticaya clan uses the different tiers of the tree's interior structure as their village. The Na’vi and the humans clash and Sully is forced to choose which side of the battle he’s on.
Zoe Saldana as Neytiri (no this isn't Beyonce and her new look)
Giovanni Ribisi plays Parker Selfridge a heartless corporate type whose only loyalty is to the shareholders of the elusive mineral found on the Na'vi's scared grounds of Pandora. Sigourney "cigarette" Weaver plays Dr. Grace Augustine a fiery, impatient, chain-smoking botanist.
Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver in a scene from Avatar
Stephen Lang embodies the macho military leader Col. Miles Quaritch. His overacting and cliche dialogue kicked me right out of Pandora a few times. I would have loved to see Col. Quaritch portrayed as a deliciously, wicked, immoral and evil military character comparable to Col. Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds, who is played by multi-award winning Austrian actor Christop Waltz.
Stephen Lang as Col. Miles Quaritch
Pandora harbors a visually stunning, luscious, exotic never-before-experienced tropical rainforest inhabited peacefully by the Na'vi, a blue-skinned, golden-eyed race of 10 feet tall slender giants. The rainforest resembles a giant coral reef with trees measuring over one thousand feet, with giant ferns, fronds and mountains that somehow float. It lights up magically at night with a plethora of flourescent rainbow colored flora. A gentle tap on a giant neon spiral frond closes it and shrinks it to the ground. A smaller and gentler Pandoran species is the jellyfish-like Woodsprite, which waves silky tendrils to move gracefully through the night air. Called Atokirina by the Na'vi, they are actually seeds of the sacred Utraya Mokri "Tree of Voices," and thus an important part of the "soul" of the rainforest. When they land upon Sully, Neytiri interprets this as an important sign, and things take an unexpected turn.
Pandora's floating mountains
Pandora's diverse fauna menagerie includes the deer-like Hexapede; the ferocious Hammerhead Titanothere, a rhinoceros-like herbivore with a bad attitude and a head like a sledgehammer; and the Leonopteryx, the king predator of the sky, striped scarlet, yellow and black, with an 80-foot wingspan. The most fearsome of Pandoran creatures is the Thanator. "The Thanator could eat a T-Rex and have the Alien for dessert. It's the "panther from hell". Then there are the Viperwolves, hairless with shiny skin that looks like overlapped armor. Most disturbing are its paws, which are like leathery hands. Pandora's Direhorses resemble six-legged alien Clydesdale with moth-like antennae.
A winged creature known as the Banshee is a key figure in Sully's journey; in a Na'vi rite of passage, he must dominate and ride a banshee to assume a rightful position in the clan community. The test's stakes are further heightened by the fact that the banshee that most wants to kill him is the "chosen one" he must capture.
Pandora's many wonders include the world's neural network, through which all its plant and animal life are connected. Akin to a human nervous system, this network enables all life on Pandora to function as a single harmonious system. The center of this network - and the moon's heart and brain -is a massive, gnarled and ancient willow tree that is the Na'vi epicenter, an extension of their lifeblood, and a place of regeneration and knowledge. This "Tree of Souls" is situated at the center of Pandora's most powerful magnetic field, the Flux Vortex. Eons ago the invisible field created the unusual geological formations of arches that form rainbows of stone, above a deep caldera, with the Tree of Souls at its center.
Eric Saindon a visual effects supervisor for Weta Digital in New Zealand, said the scale of Avatar was the most challenging part. “There were so many shots and so much to do in this,” Saindon said. “It was pretty much a full-generated jungle and planet, basically. And we had three years to do it.” About 10 years ago Saindon landed his job at Weta Digital, the special effects brainchild of a group of New Zealanders including director Peter Jackson. Weta Digital just began work on Stephen Spielberg’sThe Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, and the crew also plans to return to Middle Earth with Guillermo Del Toro’sThe Hobbit.
The movie showcases a notable advance for performance capture, which is how the Na'vi were created. As was done with Gollumin The Lord of the Rings and King Kong in King Kong, the Na'vi were made with cameras and sensors recording the movements of the actors and transposing them onto the CGI Na'vi creatures. All newfangled 3-D has ways of capturing the movement of the actors, the shape of the faces, but Cameron went much further. His process, solved the problems of dead eyes.
"Jim actually used the pupil of the eye as a tracking point, and he's able to track all of the subtleties and high frequency movement of the eyes," producer Jon Landau said. "He was even able to record and reproduce the moisture level on the surface of the eye, a key to conveying emotion."
Cameron's technology captures the actor's facial performance - it's not a computer model of a static face manipulated by animators. Other directors have bragged that their computer modeling technology may replace actors, but Cameron has no such goal. "We're enabling them to play characters they would not otherwise play," Landau said.
He offered the example of a young actor playing an old man. The reason it usually looks so phony, he said, is that makeup artists can only add layers. They can't shrink a face, which is what happens when a person ages. Cameron's facial mapping can capture a face and resize it, even as animators tweak the skin composition.
An actor can be realistically old, or he can be a 10-foot-tall blue alien, like the ones Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana play in "Avatar." "We're not replacing actors," Landau said. "We're liberating them."
Avatar's stunning visuals deliver! The 3-D world he created cost $230 million, the kind of investment that studios usually expect to be repaid, with interest. A sequel is rumored. It would be far less expensive to produce. All of the complex computer models, the entire roster of characters, are alive in some hard drive in New Zealand, waiting for marching orders. Cameron's sequel will no doubt focus on further character development and more on the story itself now that the characters and 3-D technology have been perfected.
Avatar is an extraordinary movie with the essence of love, family, relationship, humanity, action, and adventure. It is destined to become a cult classic much like that of Lord of the Rings. The out-of-this-world Pandora adventure totally immerses and captivates for an entire 2 hours and 40 minutes. James Horner's sumptuous score takes the mystical and spiritual experience to a whole new level. Be prepared to leave the theater awestruck, bedazzled, and mesmerized. A truly unforgettable jaw-dropping trip!
Bravo James... we can hardly wait for the sequel!
MPAA rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking. Rated 4.5 stars (out of 5)
August 21 has been declared by 20th Century Fox as an Avatar day, but the studio apparently will give out first taste of the sci-fi fantasy a day earlier. Promoting for the online debut of the movie's first trailer, Apple has put up a countdown clock which reveals that the sneak peek will be made available at 7 A.M. on Thursday, August 20.
Previously, it was announced that the first trailer for this James Cameron-directed feature film will be shown in theaters worldwide on the "Avatar" day. The trailer was planned to be outed to coincidence with the free screening of fifteen minutes of the film in 101 selected IMAX venues in the U.S. and Canada.
Days earlier, 20th Century Fox has come out with the ticket detail announcement for the scheduled Avatar day. The studio will be giving away free first-come, first-serve tickets through the official Avatar website, AvatarMovie.com, starting on Monday, August 17 at noon PST for the film's 15-minute free screening.
The screenings will be run twice at 6:00 P.M. and at 6:30 P.M. The sneak peek itself will include an introduction from the director, footage shown at screenings at exhibitor events in Hollywood and Amsterdam, and some new footage that were not shown at 2009 San Diego Comic Con.
To be released in the U.S. on December 18, Avatar centers on a wounded ex-marine, who is thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, and eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival. Directed, produced and written by James Cameron, it stars Sam Worthington,in the lead role and supported byZoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, and Michelle Rodriguez.
Free tickets will be distributed online starting Monday for special Imax presentations of a 16-minute trailer for the 3D sci-fi action movie Avatar.
The extended trailer of the 20th Century Fox film, featuring an on-camera intro by director James Cameron, hits 101 Imax venues in the U.S. and Canada on August 21 in a promotional push that was announced at the recent Comic-Con International confab in San Diego. On the same date, theaters worldwide will begin showing 2D and 3D "Avatar" trailers of more conventional length.
Fans will be provided theater information and other "Avatar" tidbits via AvatarMovie.com. Visitors to the site also will see ticketing instructions and links to individual movie theaters.
"It will be two tickets to a customer to keep people from hoarding," Fox distribution boss Bruce Snyder said Wednesday. "We expect a tremendous amount of interest from the fans who are aware of 'Avatar.' "
The extended "Avatar" trailer will play just before and after separately ticketed screenings of Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." At most of the specialty venues, the trailer will be shown between 6 and 7 p.m., running twice within the hour span.
"I think it's going to be a bit of a stampede," Imax Filmed Entertainment chief Greg Foster said. "But I can't wait for everyone to see the footage."
The extended trailer will contain much of the "Avatar" footage shown at screenings this summer at exhibitor events in Hollywood and Amsterdam, and also at Comic-Con. But at least one unspecified new scene will be included.
"Avatar," Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's "Titanic," unspools worldwide December 18.
Peter Jackson and James Cameron were part of San Diego Comic Con's 'The Visionaries' panel. The two Oscar winners discussed the worlds they create and the worlds they hope to. Both have films in theaters later this year (The Lovely Bones and Avatar, respectively).
A few attendees captured as much as they could (8 YouTube clips below).
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Photosource: Gary Deocampo
