Avatar (2009)

[Cine Gear]

«Αvatar» του Τζέϊμς Κάμερον

Με τους Σαμ Γουόρδινγκτον, Σιγκούρνι Γουίβερ, Μισέλ Ροντρίγκεζ, Ζόι Σαλντάνα, Τζιοβάνι Ριμπίζι

Στις 18 Δεκεμβρίου 2009, 12 χρόνια και 4 ημέρες μετά την πρεμιέρα του φαινομένου «Τιτανικός», το καινούργιο υπέρ-φιλόδοξο πόνημα του Καναδού σκηνοθέτη (που, παρά τη δεκαετή απουσία του από το σινεμά μυθοπλασίας, πήρε 200 εκατομμύρια δολάρια και τρία χρόνια διορία από τη Fox για να εφεύρει καινούργιες τεχνολογίες και «να φέρει επανάσταση στον τρόπο που φτιάχνουμε και βιώνουμε τρισδιάστατες ταινίες»), θα συναντήσει επιτέλους το κοινό.

3D ταινία επιστημονικής φαντασίας, το «Αvatar» αφηγείται περιπέτειες και αφουγκράζεται διλήμματα παραπληγικού βετεράνου του αμερικανικού στρατού άμα τη αφίξει του σε μακρινό πλανήτη. Εκεί, ως Avatar (ανθρώπινο μυαλό σε εξωγήινο σώμα), θα βρεθεί στο επίκεντρο της διαμάχης ανάμεσα στους ανθρώπους-εισβολείς και στους εξωγήινους ιθαγενείς.

Μετά την ολοκλήρωση 8μηνων γυρισμάτων με τους ηθοποιούς του, ο Κάμερον διανύει αυτή τη στιγμή τη «CGΙ κόλαση» του διετούς post-production, ώστε να κάνει πρωτόγνωρα ρεαλιστικά τα γεννημένα στο κομπιούτερ τοπία και πλάσματα του εξωγήινου πλανήτη.

Μια ιδέα για τον τρόπο δουλειάς του δίνει η παλιά του φίλη, Γουίβερ, που ενσαρκώνει μία -ηρωίδα εντελώς διαφορετική από τη Ρίπλεϊ του «Αliens» και δηλώνει: «Τον πείραζα διαρκώς αφού, κατά τη γνώμη μου, σε αυτή την ταινία ερμηνεύω ουσιαστικά τον Τζιμ Κάμερον, απεικονίζοντάς τον ως μια ιδιοφυή, ατρόμητη ιδεαλίστρια και τελειομανή επιστήμονα, που όμως κρύβει μια μεγάλη καρδιά».

Το ότι οι λέξεις "δαπανηρή" και "φιλόδοξη" δεν είναι αρκετές για να περιγράψουν την 3-D υπερπαραγωγή του Τζέιμς Κάμερον, Avatar, το ξέραμε. Ότι μάλλον θα μιλάμε για το ακριβότερο έργο όλων των εποχών το μάθαμε από δημοσίευμα του περιοδικού Time (το οποίο βέβαια διαδόθηκε αμέσως στο ιντερνετικό cine-χωριό), που ούτε λίγο ούτε πολύ υπολόγισε το μέχρι στιγμής κόστος του πολυαναμενόμενου sci-fi φιλμ σε κάτι περισσότερο από 300 εκατομμύρια δολάρια, χωρίς προφανώς να περιλαμβάνεται στο ποσό το «τσουχτερό» χάδι των διαφημιστικών εταιρειών που θα αναλάβουν την προώθηση της ταινίας.

Αν αυτές οι εκτιμήσεις δε διαψευστούν, το Avatar θα σπάσει το ρεκόρ των Πειρατών της Καραϊβικής (αναφερόμαστε στο At World’s End του 2007), την πιο πολυδάπανη μέχρι σήμερα παραγωγή που είδαμε στη μεγάλη οθόνη (300 εκατομμύρια στοίχισαν οι περιπέτειες του Σπάροου).

Το αρχικό budget του Avatar, είχε ήδη «πονέσει» την τσέπη της Fox, αφού με το καλημέρα (πριν από σχεδόν δύο χρόνια) ο Καναδός σκηνοθέτης είχε αναλάβει για 200 εκατομμύρια να φέρει με το επικών διαστάσεων νέο του πόνημα την επανάσταση στις 3-D τεχνολογίες. Και ακόμα κι αν η παραγωγή επιμένει να διαψεύδει φήμες που θέλουν την ταινία να «καταπίνει» πάνω από 350 συνολικά, όλοι ξέρουν ότι ανάμεσα σε προϋπολογισμούς και στον απολογισμούς μεσολαβεί το χάος.

Το Time επίσης καταγράφει μεταξύ άλλων σχολίων την πρόβλεψη του Σπίλμπεργκ ότι το Avatar θα είναι η μεγαλύτερης κλίμακας 3-D live action ταινία που έγινε ποτέ, τη δήλωση του Κάμερον ότι στο εξής κάθε του μελλοντικό εγχείρημα θα είναι τρισδιάστατο, αλλά και την άποψη του Πίτερ Τζάκσον ότι σχεδόν κάθε είδους ταινία μπορεί να επωφεληθεί και να αναδειχθεί από τη 3-D τεχνολογία. Κοινώς, εδώ είναι το μέλλον (-παλιότερη δήλωση του Γιον Φαβρό για το Avatar)!

Το σενάριο της ταινίας (όπου πρωταγωνιστούν οι Σαμ Γουόρδιγκτον και Σίγκουρνι Γουίβερ) είναι επίσης του Κάμερον ο οποίος βασίστηκε σε μία ιδέα που υπήρχε στο μυαλό του εδώ και μία δεκαετία περίπου, για έναν πρώην πεζοναύτη που μεταφέρεται σε έναν μακρινό πλανήτη πλούσιο σε κάθε είδους χλωρίδα και πανίδα, όπου ως Avatar -με ανθρώπινο εγκέφαλο μέσα σε εξωγήινο σώμα- βρίσκεται στο επίκεντρο της μάχης των ιθαγενών του πλανήτη για επιβίωση απέναντι στην απειλή των γήινων εισβολέων.

Τα περίπου οκτάμηνα γυρίσματα ολοκληρώθηκαν σε Λος Άντζελες και Νέα Ζηλανδία, ενώ το project διανύει πλέον ένα μαραθώνιο post-production, καθώς οι παραδοσιακές τεχνικές κινηματογράφησης συνδυάζονται με ό,τι πιο σύγχρονο στον τομέα της φωτογραφίας και των ψηφιακών τεχνολογιών, ώστε το κοινό να απολαύσει ένα υπερσύγχρονο και μοναδικό φουτουριστικό θέαμα. Ρεπόρτερς πάντως στις ΗΠΑ, στους οποίους επιτράπηκε να πάρουν μια γεύση από το τι θα δούμε στις αίθουσες στο τέλος του χρόνου, αναφέρουν ότι με δυσκολία ξεχωρίζεις την πραγματικότητα από τα εφέ, σε σκηνές που ξαφνιάζουν όσο και μαγνητίζουν το μάτι σε ένα μοναδικό πινγκ-πονγκ οπτικής ψευδαίσθησης και αληθινής εικόνας!

Δώδεκα χρόνια μετά τον «Τιτανικό», ο τελειομανής Κάμερον ετοιμάζεται να ξαναγράψει Ιστορία.

 

[HelenMel]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

Σίγουρα θα είναι η ακριβότερη παραγωγή όλων των εποχών για το Cameron που πλέον βεβαίως μετά τον Τιτανικό ότι ζητάει απλά του το δίνουν.
Παραδέχτηκα τον συγκεκριμένο σκηνοθέτη για το Terminator 2 που όσες φορές και να το δεις δεν το χορταίνεις .Αναμένουμε την συγκεκριμένη ταινία στην Ελλάδα περίπου το Νοέμβριο αν δεν κάνω λάθος. Η τεχνολογία 3D εξελίσσεται και φυσικά οι νέες μέθοδοι θα μας οδηγήσουν και στην εξελιγμένη μορφή του 3D (Imax) Θέαση ταινιών που τυχαίνει να έχω παρακολουθήσει στη Βαρκελώνη και πραγματικά έφυγα με ανοιχτό το στόμα.

 

[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

To Tag line της ταινιας αποκαλυφθηκε !!!!

An All New World Awaits

Συμφωνα με πληροφοριες ενα teaser trailer θα παιχθει μαζι με την ταινια X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Επισης θα εχουμε και ενα teaser poster !!

H ταινια θα κανει πρεμιερα σε IMAX 3D στις 18/12/2009.

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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

A Few New Avatar Behind-the-Scenes Photos from Empire

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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

Soderbergh Gives Avatar High Praise !!!

"I've seen some stuff and holy sh*t. It's the craziest sh*t ever.

 

[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

Script Review: James Cameron's Avatar

SCRIPT REVIEW:
Note: The following script review is based on an extremely early draft of the script being used by James Cameron on Avatar. The script being reviewed is several years old, and so it’s almost certain that many details may have changed since then. What I’m saying here is that what you end up seeing on screen may not match what we’re talking about in this review. You’ve been warned! Read on.

James Cameron’s Avatar is like Aliens meets Lord of the Rings if it were written by Al Gore, with the battle of Endor thrown in for good measure. It’s preachy, it’s repetitive, it’s derivative, and in spite of that when you see it up on a movie screen there’s a pretty good chance it’ll be the coolest thing you’ve ever seen.

The early draft of Cameron’s script that this review is based upon, includes almost no actual lines of dialogue. Instead it’s pages are filled with lavish descriptions of places, creatures, and events. When characters must speak, the focus in the script is more on what their thinking, than in coming up with clever lines. If someone gives an impassioned speech, the script simply says “he gave an impassioned speech”, rather than telling you what he said. By contrast, Cameron has written volumes describing complicated visual sequences. It’s pretty clear he had special effects on the brain when he wrote it.

I’m going to do my best in this review to avoid spoiling the entire movie for you, while still giving you a pretty clear idea of what Avatar is about. That said, it’s impossible to talk about it without spoiling something, so if you want to go into this thing pure as the driven snow, then you might as well stop reading now. You’ve been warned.

So what the heck is this movie about? It’s pretty standard stuff really. A distant future where man has spoiled and overpopulated the Earth so badly that we’ve gone out into the cosmos searching for other planets to rape. The human race’s prime candidate is Pandora, a planet in a nearby star system inhabited by intelligent, bipedal natives. Our window into this world in this early draft of the script is a disillusioned, poverty-stricken, paraplegic war veteran named Josh Sully. There are other minor characters involved, most notably Grace, a haggard, rebellious scientist played by Sigourney Weaver and Zuleika, a way too sexy alien babe being voiced by Zoe Saldana, but Josh is the real focus of everything. My understanding is that in the most recent script being used to shoot the flick, Josh’s name has been changed to Jack Sully and he’s played by Sam Worthington. Us Joshs never seem to get a shot at being the hero. For now though, we’ll call him Josh.

Josh is, by a series of coincidences, ushered into the Avatar program. The Avatar program is what humans are using to communicate with Pandora’s natives, the Na'vi (because aliens love names with apostrophes). It’s the movie’s prime gimmick, so let me explain it. Human DNA and Na’vi DNA is fused together to create a clone which is, essentially, a Na’vi with no brain. They call it an Avatar. Human operators then use some sort of linking device which allows their mind to inhabit the Avatar, and then walk amongst the Na’vi and (in theory) better communicate with them. Those series of coincidences send Josh to Pandora to operate an Avatar, and that’s where the script gets into trouble.

Once Josh gets to the planet, the script’s first 90 of its 166 pages are spent almost entirely repeating this sequence: Josh or some other humans are attacked by the vicious alien animal and plant life on Pandora. They repel/escape/die from the attack. Repeat a few times. Take a break to tell us something about the human settlement on Pandora and the horrible way in which dumb, stupid, humans are raping the planet’s environment. Another attack by the planet’s much lauded environment. More preaching about how awful the humans are for shooting everything in sight. Keep repeating this until your eyes roll back in your head.

This will probably work better on screen, since we’ll all be much too busy being wowed by whatever amazing beasties Cameron has dreamed up to notice all the over the top (and frankly illogical in light of the planet’s hellish, anti-human nature) environmental messages we’re being clubbed to death with, or to realize that basically the movie’s just doing the same thing over and over again. At least I hope so. Otherwise, Cameron needs to step down off his soap box and then cut about 40 or 50 pages out of his script.

Eventually, Avatar does break out of that cycle of animal attack, escape, animal attack, escape, but in doing so it only gets more hippy dippy. Josh starts sympathizing with the primitive aboriginal Na’vi, who are wonderful and spiritual while humans are all dumb caricatures obsessed with blowing things up and burning them to make fast food wrappers. The other humans with him start sympathizing less with the natives, and decide to blow them up. This doesn’t sit well with Josh and the movie turns into Quigly Down Under. Actually, change that. I’ve just had a revelation: Avatar doesn’t turn into Quigley Down Under, it absolutely is Quigley Down Under right from the start. Cameron has just copy/pasted the entire script onto an alien planet, removed its sense of humor, and added more action sequences.

The whole thing culminates quite literally in an Ewoks versus Empire style super-battle, with the natives using such familiar Ewok battle tactics such as falling rocks, log battering rams, giant nets, and bolos to fight a desperate war against the encroaching death machines of Earth’s military industrial complex. The only difference really is that these Ewoks aren’t cute (though Cameron does seem to spend a lot of time trying to make his aliens are incredibly sexy and erotic), they don’t do much singing, and when they do kill something it’s in horribly gruesome, rated-R ways.

You’re probably getting the idea by now that I hated this script. Hate might be too strong a word, but disappointment is pretty accurate. However, I remain convinced that it’ll work as a movie. It’s just not much of a read. The real focus of Avatar’s script is in stunning, massive, over-sized, awe-inspiring visuals and I expect the movie to deliver those in such massive quantities that the stupidity of the pages on which its based on will go almost entirely unnoticed. I think the word I’m looking for here is “spectacle”. The visuals really are over the top, and if you’ve heard the rumors that this may end up being a primarily computer-generated movie, they’re dead on. Judging from what’s in the script, it’s likely that for at least 75 percent of the film you won’t see anything on the screen that isn’t a computer rendered construct. The entire planet and all the aliens on it will have to be completely CGI, and most of the movie is spent following them around in Pandora’s forest, with no real human present on screen except those which are wearing alien (and CGI rendered) Avatars.

It’s a visually ambitious project, and how well it plays on screen is likely to have more to do with how good WETA Digital’s computer artists are than whether or not the script bears a strange resemblance to Quigley Down Under. Besides, this is a pretty early, rough draft I’m talking about, from what I understand written several years ago. It’s a decent framework to start with, and with a few rewrites it could easily have gotten better. I guess what I’m saying here is that the script kind of sucks, but that doesn’t mean Avatar will suck as a movie too. It has big-budget, brainless popcorn potential, assuming they tone down the extremist environmentalism guilt trip and focus more on aliens, aircraft, and blowing shit up. But don’t expect anymore from that. It has lofty ambitions of making grandiose statements about the nature of humanity and the dangers of technology and disrespect for the environment, but it’s too clumsy, too cartoonish, too unrealistic, and too heavy handed to do any of that. It’s a blockbuster, and if it tries to be more than that expect Avatar to fall flat.

 

[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

Συντομα το 1ο TEASER !!!!

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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

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[Χρυσόστομος Μ.]

Re: Avatar - 3D (2009)

teaser 4 λεπτά!!! COOL!

 

[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

James Cameron's Avatar Getting Three Month IMAX Run

As Neo would say, whoa! Michael Cieply over at the NY Times is reporting that James Cameron's Avatar will most likely get a three month IMAX run. That means that IMAX is booking it to run for three full months, starting on December 18th, before they switch movies. I don't think I need to explain that IMAX can only run one movie at time - since most theaters only have one IMAX screen.

If this isn't yet another indication that almost everyone in the industry is getting very excited for Avatar, then I don't know what else is? I'm sure the best way to see Avatar in 3D will definitely be in IMAX starting this December.

Cieply is saying that the next movie IMAX has lined up after Avatar is Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, also in 3D, which opens on March 5th. IMAX usually only books features for a very short amount of time, since they have to switch out what is showing on their screens, and the studios like their movies to be IMAX as well these days.

Cameron's last big feature, Titanic, became the biggest movie ever made because it played in theaters for so long. It opened on December 19th, 1997 and played all the way through to May and June the following year. So are they already predicting that Avatar could be the next Titanic?
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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

So what exactly is this?

It's a "Powersuit" much like the one Cameron had Ripley get in to fight the queen in Aliens. "Apparently, these 14-feet tall Powersuits are worn by human troopers on the surface of alien planet Pandora.

One sequence is going to show a group of Powersuited troopers, led by Matt Gerald's Corporal Lyle Wayne fleet, laying waste to a Na'vi village." Not surprisingly, I'm reminded of Matrix Revolutions, but instead this is coming from James Cameron's brilliant mind and set in a different futuristic 3D world.

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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

Cameron Says Avatar Won't Be Shown the Same Size Everywhere

Most of you may be wondering "what does that mean?" Well, we'll explain exactly what that means. James Cameron recently appeared at a special showing of The Abyss and Aliens in 70mm back-to-back at a theater in Santa Monica last night. I couldn't attend (as I couldn't get tickets), but a scooper over at Ain't It Cool News did and sent over some details from the Q&A with Cameron. The only interesting thing he revealed was that apparently the 3D presentation of Avatar will be shown in 1.78:1 aspect ratio, while the 2D will be in scope, with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It's sort of half of an IMAX conversion (I'll explain below).

The report says that "Cameron never thought he'd shoot a new movie in 1.85 ratio, but he loves the way 3D looks in that ratio, so audiences seeing the film in 3D will get a 1.78 presentation versus audiences who see the film in scope (widescreen) in 2D." Flat and scope are the two standard aspect ratios in use today. Typically, scope (the wider ratio) is used for action, so that more of it can be captured and it looks much more epic because it's so wide. Flat (the taller ratio) is usually used for close ups and more personal shots. We've included an example photo of the differences in visual size once the image is projected (see below).

The reason I referenced IMAX earlier is because, if you look at that image above, you'll see that you get to see more of the total image when seeing the "flat" or 1.78 aspect ratio version (in 3D). Those of you who saw The Dark Knight know that the screen got much taller when it switched to the scenes that Christopher Nolan shot with IMAX. And it seems like Cameron will be presenting the 3D version in that "taller" format, whereas 2D will most likely be cropped down so that it fits the scope aspect ratio. I'm curious whether this could become controversial again considering the big screen size fiasco with IMAX from a few weeks ago.

In addition to that reveal, Cameron humbly said that Avatar "may not make film history, but there are a few shots in the film that he knows for certain will be quite memorable." He also claims that his CGI special effects "aren't necessarily revolutionary," but rather that the way that he shot the movie, with instant in-camera feedback with a rendered image, "could very well change moviemaking." I don't mind if he's humble about all this, because as long as my expectations stay grounded, then I'm likely to be even more blown away in the end. As for the aspect ratios, this is the one time I'll say that you better see this in 3D!

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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

Ubisoft - AVATAR Game

Mε τις εικονες που εδωσε στη δημοσιοτητα η UBISOFT μας δινεται η δυνατοτητα να δουμε εικονες απο τον πλανητη, και γενικα τον "κοσμο" στον οποιο θα μας μεταφερει η ταινια του CAMERON.

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[mayori]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

ΕΙΜΑΙ ΦΑΝΑΤΙΚΑ ΠΟΡΩΜΕΝΟΣ ΚΑΜΕΡΟΝΙΚΟΣ!!!!!!!!
Θεωρω οτι ειναι ο κορυφαιος αμερικανος σκηνοθετης των τελευταιων 30 ετων.
Την περιμενω πως και πως αυτην την ταινιαρα!

 

[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

Avatar's Heavy Lifter On Display at E3

If you've been following the recent developments on James Cameron's Avatar surrounding the debut of the video game at E3, then you've probably already seen the screenshots. But that's not all that was being shown at E3. A few weeks ago we posted one small "spy shot" of a power-suit mech from Avatar. It was our first real glimpse at any machinery from the movie and for some of us, it was quite exhilarating to see. Well, it looks like that spy shot came from the show floor early on, as Ubisoft has the full heavy lifter mech on display.

Word is that these powersuits are "worn by human troopers on the surface of alien planet Pandora. One sequence is going to show a group of Powersuited troopers, led by Matt Gerald's Corporal Lyle Wayne fleet, laying waste to a Na'vi village." We still haven't seen a trailer or much else, but with all this being revealed, I think we're getting much closer. We're definitely expecting this to show up at the San Diego Comic-Con in July as well.

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[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

Will You Be Able to Watch Nearly 3 Hours of Avatar in 3D?

We're all anxiously waiting for James Cameron's Avatar and hoping that it will change cinema as we know it. I, for one, am anxious to see if it finally shows us what 3D is truly capable of, in terms of enhancing the storytelling (and not just being used as a sales gimmick). But I know people always complain about the glasses and the eye strain of 3D. SlashFilm reports that they talked with producer Jon Landau at E3 today and got confirmation that Avatar is at least two and a half hours long, maybe even three, depending on how Cameron cuts it together in the end. Will you be able to watch nearly three hours of Avatar in 3D?

Of course, my answer to question is "hell yes!" I'll be watching Avatar no matter how long it is. But I don't think everyone else will say the same. Landau said that Avatar was "definitely over two and a half hours." That kind of running time isn't really a shocker for a Cameron feature. Aliens ran 2 hours, 17 minutes (plus an extra 17 mins for the special edition); The Abyss ran 2 hours, 18 minutes (plus an extra 33 mins for the special edition); Terminator 2 ran 2 hours, 17 minutes (plus an extra 17 mins for the special edition); True Lies ran 2 hours, 21 minutes; and Titanic ran 3 hours, 14 minutes. So 3 hours plus seems quite possible.

Not only are there issues with IMAX, since a platter can only hold up to 160 minutes, but I get the feeling not everyone would be able to sit through a three hour, 3D movie. I know I won't mind, but my eyes don't get strained watching 3D. Is this even plausible or likely? Would you sit through three hours of 3D?

 

[Cine Gear]

Απάντηση: Avatar - 3D (2009)

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