Avatar Even Further Away

James Cameron's next magnum opus: Avatar has been pushed back from a 2009 Memorial Day release to December 18th '09. I certainly wouldn't have noticed it but other sites have pointed out that December 18th is the same date on which his last film, the mega-hit Titanic was released 10 years ago.

In its place on Memorial Day weekend will be the sequel Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian. On a side note, what's with all these super long sequel titles lately?

I thought the first Museum was a cute family movie but I haven't exactly been waiting with anticipation for a sequel. Bummer we'll have to wait an extra seven months for Cameron's 3D extravaganza.

Source: Sci Fi Wire

Avatar Alien (Not) Revealed?

Nothing like a little controversy to get the ol' movie blogosphere's juices flowing...

A few days ago we posted an image of what was supposed to be concept art depicting a lead alien character from James Cameron's next magnum movie opus: Avatar. It had already been out a few days prior on a number of sites and was originally posted up by a site that covers 3D movies called Marketsaw.com.

The reason we let it simmer a while before posting it is because sometimes images or news items pop up online and before you can say "huh?" it's all over the place being reported as unofficial but solid. Now we're not perfect, but here at Screen Rant we try not to report on every little whiff of news that comes out just for that reason. Sure, we post stuff that isn't "official" but we try to gauge whether or not it is likely to be true.

So, the reason that we carried the story was due to the fact that Marketsaw was contacted by Fox Studios and told to remove the image. That implied the image was legit.

Avatar Alien Revealed!

[UPDATE: It looks like this may not be from the movie after all. AICN is reporting that James Cameron himself is saying this is NOT what the alien will look like. It's either an older concept drawing not shown to him, or a piece of fan art.]

The anticipation has been slowly building for Avatar, James Cameron's return to the big screen since Titanic became the biggest movie ever a decade ago. And now we get our first look at one of the aliens from the movie!

I wasn't expecting the alien to look like this, and in some ways, it kind of hearkens back to the aliens in Cameron's The Abyss. More details about the movie plus a bigger version of the photo can be seen after the jump.

For a year or two, Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment was developing two projects, Avatar and his Battle Angel adaptation. His goal: Whichever was the first to be ready to shoot, was the one we'd see in theatres come May 2009. Obviously Avatar won out and has a healthy $190 million budget. Wow, Cameron always commands big budgets!

Let's Talk 3D Movies

Beowulf in 3D did huge business, and with many more 3D movies on the way, this could very well be the future of entertainment.

What is most remarkable about Beowulf is the animation style: Nearly photorealistic. But what is also interesting is director Robert Zemeckis' decision to make the movie 3D. The primary goal of Zemeckis, the producers and the studio was to make a 3D movie first, and a traditional 2D movie second.

According to the Denver Post, only 20% of theaters screening Beowulf were 3D, yet they accounted for 40% of the opening weekend gross of $28.1 million. And in it's second weekend, IMAX theaters accounted for 17% of total box office grosses although they accounted for only 2% of total screens! Of course, theaters screening in 3D charged extra, but the attendance numbers were huge. With that kind of success, what's next for 3D film entertainment?

Poster For Avatar?

Update: Replaced image with a larger and clearer one from Planet Pandora.

Is this the poster for James Cameron's next project: Avatar?

Yes, it's fuzzy, I tried to enlarge and clean it up from the image that originally came from AICN but I found over at /Film.

AICN seems to have pulled the story/image but it's still up over at /Film, so I don't know how long it will remain there or this one will remain up here. :-)

The plot of Avatar, according to IMDB.com:

James Cameron's Avatar: No Pressure, Eh?

So it's finally official that James Cameron is finally going to start work on his long-time project Avatar. The man certainly knows how to make amazing, gripping films... heck, my number one all-time favorite movie was directed by him: Aliens. And much as I hate to admit it, yes, I actually like Titanic.

I could be WAY off the mark, but the thing that worries me a little bit is that it's been 10 years since Cameron has directed a feature film. That's a long time to be out of the director's chair.