Jim here. HAHA! Cameron looks right at home here - is he making a cameo CAMO appearance as a machine gunner in AVATAR? Joking. But he does look good. :-)
Oh and to those few naysayers out there that questioned the validity of one of my sources sending me a spy shot of the heavy machine gun being used in AVATAR. Today's photo CLEARLY shows that it is the same weapon that the soldier in my exclusive post way back in January was holding. Most folks know by now that my trusted sources are bang on.
A good source of mine in the UK saw this over at Empire and not only told me about it but also scanned in the article for us! So I am including the content right here for all you AVATAR fans and recommend you buy the whole magazine.
Here is excerpts of what is inside Empire Magazine concerning our favorite epic:
Perched in the office of Jon Landau, Empire is staring with some fascination at a picture of Sigourney Weaver. It's an arresting portrait shot that an excited Landau has beckoned us inside just to take a peek at. In out hands a younger Weaver gazes earnestly at us, a glint in her eyes and the slightest hint of a smile tugging the corner of her azure-tinted lips. Did we mention she's blue? A deep cerulean, in fact, with dusty cobalt stripes across the cheeks and a scattering of white, luminescent tracks tracing patterns beneath her ears - pricked up, high on the sides of her head. The effect is striking, subtly feline one, but for all the alien attributes it's clearly Weaver. Circa 1989.
"That's Sigourney's avatar," explains Landau with an obvious surge of pride. "In the story it was created 15 years or so before the movie opens and the avatars don't age with us. So we designed it based on the Sigourney of the early '90s."
If all that sounds like utter gibberish, it's because you need to dive into the universe of AVATAR, a story director James Cameron has been developing for a similar decade and a half. The tale takes place a humdred years hence, with Earth all but stripped of its natural resources and money-hungry corporations now looking to the stars to replenish waning energy supplies. One such foray has led to the lush, densely forested world of Pandora, where a mining operation is under siege by hostile wildlife, including the planet's single sentient species, the feline, blue-skinned Na'vi. A group of scientist's lead by Weaver's Dr. Grace Augustine have bio-engineered hybrid human/Na'vi bodies using their own DNA, and it's via these biological 'avatars' that they walk among the natives in an attempt to gain their trust and study the planet's flora and fauna up close.
If this all sounds more David Attenborough than James Cameron, rest assured that AVATAR is anything but a sci-fi-themed nature doc. Vast set-pieces pit embattled Na'vi against the bristling arsenal of the human security forces, with aboriginal defenders mounted atop great beasts tearing chunks out of soldiers in hulking power armour. The star of this interstellar fracas is Sam Worthington's Jake Sully, a paraplegic ex-Marine who finds both new life and limbs in his powerful avatar.
"It's a movie about bullies," says Worthington when we catch up with him on set in Wellington, New Zealand. "The humans here have come to tear into the Na'vi planet and strip mine it. Meanwhile you have Sully, a guy in a wheelchair, who's lost but comes to this planet and has his eyes opened. He gets to stand up to the bullies. And, even though we're going to another planet, we're telling a story that's relevant now."
So guys - what do you think of Cameron in camo?? :-)
Further, Cameron has CONFIRMED his intention to convert TITANIC to 3D next year - this WILL BE his next project: "We're going to do Titanic in 3-D! We've already done a 90 second clip of it and it's phenomenal and gorgeous, so that's going to be the project for next year. It's a conversion of it, not native photography; we can't go back."
When asked about converting to 3D any of his previous works he said: "You know, we've thought about Terminator 2, which could be fun because I think that's a film that stands the test of time for me. I think that Aliens was a really good film in its time, but visually it doesn't quite hold up; we've kind of evolved beyond that now. I mean, for me it doesn't. Terminator 2, I think, is the cusp of where it still holds up, through now. True Lies, I don't think so; it doesn't feel right to me. Titanic absolutely, slam dunk! I want to see it!"
The TITANIC conversion sounds like something he can do on the side though - as much of the heavy lifting is done by a conversion company; unless he intends to create brand new software to do the switchover, which wouldn't surprise me terribly. I still see Cameron tackling either THE DIVE or BATTLE ANGEL next. A sequel to AVATAR is the one unknown factor to me - that could be interjected anywhere into his schedule should the demand be there - and I am sure it will be :-)
