Time Confirms My Estimate Of "Avatar" Budget: $300 Million Plus

**UPDATE: March 20: Time has "corrected" an error on their part: "The original version of this story misstated the cost of the film Avatar as being in excess of $300 million. The correct figure is in excess of $200 million."

Well both versions of their story is true in my books. $300 million plus is still in excess of $200 million lol. We will see what the final tally is. And I can guarantee you it isn't $200 million.

Jim here. WOW! For all you naysayers who said my budget estimates were way out of whack for AVATAR - I have news for ya - just as I calculated - AVATAR is a $300 million PLUS beast of an epic. And it is going to rock your world.

Here is that segment excerpt for you:
"Cameron's Avatar, due in December, could be the thing that forces theaters to convert to digital. Spielberg predicts it will be the biggest 3-D live-action film ever. More than a thousand people have worked on it, at a cost in excess of $300 million, and it represents digital filmmaking's bleeding edge. Cameron wrote the treatment for it in 1995 as a way to push his digital-production company to its limits. ("We can't do this," he recalled his crew saying. "We'll die.") He worked for years to build the tools he needed to realize his vision. The movie pioneers two unrelated technologies--e-motion capture, which uses images from tiny cameras rigged to actors' heads to replicate their expressions, and digital 3-D."

I recommend you read the entire piece over at Time right here.

Oh and here is a sign of the times - the most successful director of all time had this to say about working with 3D: "Every movie I made, up until Tintin, I always kept one eye closed when I've been framing a shot," Spielberg told me. That's because he wanted to see the movie in 2-D, the way moviegoers would. "On Tintin, I have both of my eyes open."

Another great quote from Cameron: "(On 3D viewing) ...is so close to a real experience that it actually triggers memory creation in a way that 2-D viewing doesn't." His own theory is that stereoscopic viewing uses more neurons. That's possible. After watching all that 3-D, I was a bit wiped out. I was also totally entertained."

Man, this movie keeps building and building. What an epic photo of three, 3D visionaries! Is there anyone who is NOT pumped about AVATAR yet? :-) Thanks to Darkoo for bringing this to my attention!