from Larry Carroll at MTV News: James Cameron Explains Why ‘Avatar’ Aliens Are Blue
Moviegoers got a sneak peek at one of the year’s most anticipated films on Thursday, straight from legendary director Jim Cameron himself. Unsurprisingly, when the “Avatar” director held court for an exclusive MTV Q&A online, one of the most eye-opening questions came from a fan.
“Jim, what inspired you to make the Na’vi blue?” asked Sarah T., one of the many moviegoers who logged on to MTV.com to watch the chat.
“Well,” the director of such classics as “Titanic” and “Aliens” began. “We wanted to say that there was an otherness, an alien-ness to them. But we wanted to keep them human enough that we could understand their emotions. So, they were going to have two eyes, and they were going to have a mouth.”
Read More here
By Bob Thompson at Vancouver Sun: James Cameron’s brave new world: Avatar goes where no film has gone before
There’s no doubt that Avatar pushes the boundaries of special effects into a brave new cinema realm.
Opening Dec. 18 to much anticipation, the James Cameron sci-fi extravaganza is the filmmaker’s most ambitious undertaking yet.
The movie shows off the latest in 3-D technology, combined with photo-realistic computer animation and live action blended with motion-capture — establishing a never-seen-before movie universe.
It’s not surprising Avatar took almost two years to make, and that it cost far more than an estimated budget of $200 million US by the time the wizard Cameron and his crew finished filming every scene and re-imagining it in post-production.
In the film, Worthington, of Terminator Salvation fame, portrays a paraplegic ex-soldier who agrees to undergo an experiment allowing him to transform himself. He becomes a mobile, three-metre-tall otherworldly avatar, and is re-located to a new planet, Pandora.
Read More, See More Photos and the Trailer here
via Sci Fi Wire: Rumor control: Resident Evil IV pushed back to 2011?
Is Resident Evil: Afterlife, the upcoming fourth installment in the game-inspired horror action franchise, being pushed back to 2011?
That was the report on ShockTillYouDrop, which said Screen Gems was pushing the movie to Jan. 14, 2011.
Originally, the movie was to be released on August 27, 2010, but everyone involved probably realized it would take a lot longer for the post-production 3D processing work, so they’ve given [director Paul W.S.] Anderson a few more months to finish the movie and have moved the manga-based vampire thriller Priest, starring Paul Bettany, up to fill that open Aug. 27 slot.
But star Milla Jovovich said the decision hasn’t been made yet, according to her official Twitter feed:
We r trying as hard as we can to still meet the summer deadline though, so for the moment its still on for Aug. RE Afterlife IS NOT officially pushed.There have been talks of pushing it as they r not sure they can have it ready by july.
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By Robert Niles at Theme Park Insider: Universal Orlando to reveal more Harry Potter details on Blu-ray/DVD release
Universal Orlando next Tuesday will reveal (officially, at least) more details about its Wizarding World of Harry Potter attractions, which open in Islands of Adventure next spring. The reveal will happen in the bonus extras on certain editions of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince DVD and Blu-ray discs, which drops Dec. 8.
From Universal’s press release:
“The Blu-ray combo pack and 2-Disc Special Edition DVD includes a special 11-minute video that reveals more about the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter than has been announced to-date. The sneak peek featurette includes interviews shot on location with stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and more – with each sharing new details and their excitement about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.”
More Details here
by Christina Radish at iesb.net: Interview: Peter Jackson on The Lovely Bones, The Hobbit and More!
The Lovely Bones, based on the beloved, best-selling novel by Alice Sebold and directed by Oscar winner Peter Jackson, centers on Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), who was just 14 years old when she was murders in December 1973 on her way home from school. Following her death, she continues to watch over her earthbound family while her killer (played by Stanley Tucci) remains at large. Trapped in the world of the in-between, Susie must choose between her desire for vengeance and her yearning to see her loved ones move on.
At the press day, the film’s director/writer/producer Peter Jackson talked about what drew him to the intimate family tale, and also gave a little bit of insight into writing The Hobbit.
Q: What drew you to doing The Lovely Bones, after doing some of the most epic science fiction/fantasy films ever? Was it a challenge to get back to doing a really intimate story?
Peter: It’s not a challenge to direct a different style of film, in terms of the acting, because you’re always dealing with a screenplay and a screenplay has particular needs and a style that is appropriate…
Read More here
By Nicholas Deleon at Crunch Gear: The 10 best Sci-Fi movies of the past decade
It’s the end of the year. There’s pretty much zero tech news to discuss and all we want to do is play in the snow. So let’s mix it up, list style! Over the next few days we’ll be doing a few “best of the decade” lists primarily for our own entertainment. The first list is “Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies of the Decade.”
Sci-Fi is weird because it’s so broad. Do comic book or superhero movies count? What about fantasy? You can see we wrestled with this.
So, presenting the “Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies of the Decade,” as determined by your friends at CrunchGear.
10. X-Men (2000)
This was the first superhero movie done right in a long, long time. If it weren’t for X-Men, there’d be no Batman reboot, no Spider-Man, and no Watchmen. In many ways, the 2000s was the decade of the superhero movie, for better or worse.
See the Rest here
Resident Evil is one of the few movie series that get better as they go, so I hope the fourth follows that trend. And I’m glad they finished Avatar in time, they were cutting in really close.
What do you think of the news today?
