NYTimes Article about James Cameron & $200M

Jeremy Ordan

Jeremy Ordan

Major Contributor
January 8, 2007
‘Titanic’ Director Joins Fox on $200 Million Film
By SHARON WAXMAN
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8 — James Cameron, the director whose “Titanic” set a record for ticket sales around the world, will join 20th Century Fox in tackling a similarly ambitious and costly film, “Avatar,” which will test new technologies on a scale unseen before in Hollywood, the studio and the filmmaker said today.

The film, with a budget of close to $200 million, is an original science fiction story that will be shown in3D in conventional theaters. The story pits a human army against an alien army on a distant planet, using live actors and digital technology to make a large cast of virtual creatures who convey emotion as authentically as humans.

Earlier movies like the “The Lord of the Rings” did so on a limited basis, while those like “The Polar Express” have used live actors to drive animated images with so-called “motion capture” technology. But none has gone as far as “Avatar” will do to create an entirely photorealistic world, complete with virtual characters on that scale, Mr. Cameron said in a telephone interview.

“This film is a true hybrid — a full live-action shoot, with C.G. characters in C.G. and live environments,” he said, referring computer-generated images. “Ideally at the end of the of day the audience has no idea which they’re looking at.”

The making of “Titanic,” Mr. Cameron’s last full-blown Hollywood feature, was the stuff of movie legend. The film, released in 1997, went far over its planned cost to become the most expensive production that had then been made. But it went on to become a historic success, taking in a record-breaking $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office, and also winning 11 Oscars, including an award for best picture.

Mr. Cameron said that he had taken care to avoid the problems he encountered on his last gargantuan production, and that he was already four months into shooting the nonprincipal scenes by the time Fox gave final approval to the project today.

“I’ve looked long and hard at ‘Titanic’ and other effects-related things I’ve done where they’ve drifted budget-wise,” he said. “This has been designed from the ground up to avoid those pitfalls. Will we have other pitfalls? Yes, probably.”

For its aliens, “Avatar” will rely on characters that will be designed in the computer, but played by human actors, with tiny cameras on headsets recording their performances to be inserted into a virtual world.

Mr. Cameron has already devised revolutionary methods to shoot the film, which he has been quietly doing since the fall, and expects to create still more methods to bring to life the vision of a completely realistic alien world. He and computer experts have designed a camera that allows the director to observe the performance of the actors-as-aliens in the virtual environment in real time.

Sam Worthington, a young Australian actor, has been named to play the lead, as a paralyzed former marine who undergoes an experiment to exist as an avatar, another version of himself. The avatar is not paralyzed, but is an alien — 10 feet tall and blue. Zoe Saldana, another relative unknown, has been chosen as the love interest.

“We could do it with make-up, in a ‘Star Trek’ manner, we could put rubber on his face, but I wasn’t interested in doing it that way,” said Mr. Cameron. “With the new tools, we can create a humanoid character that is anything we imagine it to be — beautiful, elegant, graceful, powerful — evocative of us, but still with an emotional connection.”

The live-action shoot with actors will begin in April, with major effects being done by Weta, the filmmaker Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based effects company, which worked on his “Lord of the Rings.” The film is scheduled for release in summer 2009.

“This will launch an entire new way of seeing and exhibiting movies,” said Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment. “It’s once again Jim is transforming the medium. Jim’s not just a filmmaker; every one of his films have pushed the envelope, in its aesthetic and in technology. This is an astounding undertaking, and one only Jim could do justice to.”
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Wow. I wonder what he's got up his sleeve. That article sets up some pretty big expectations, and if there's anyone who can pull this off it's Cameron.
 
Dude I can't wait to see what AVATAR really is. I keep hearing SO much about it. I was hoping it'd be GUNNEM, or BATTLE ANGEL ALITA. Sheesh. Doesn't look that way, though.

There's a certain person on this board, though, that's working directly with the project. Exciting.
Edit: I like the fact that he's chosen relatively unknowns as leads. I wanna seeee.
 
Isaac_Brody said:
Wow. I wonder what he's got up his sleeve. That article sets up some pretty big expectations, and if there's anyone who can pull this off it's Cameron.
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I agree, I love what he did with Vincent Chase and Aquaman.

Since that season I have a had time taking Cameron seriously, but I like that he can laugh at himself.

Still, he is most likely the best man for the job... plus it's funny to hear the NY Times do movie talk.
 
c.g._eads said:
There has been no movie I have looked forward to more than this one for the last five years.
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And still, we're looking at a 2009 release date. I guess 06 went by fast. We've been hearing about this freaking technology of his for sooo long now. I can't really imagine WHAT the hell he's talking about. I suppose when we see it, it'll melt our eyeballs.
 
martinlandau.jpg

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what if i told you that i had this "new technology" at home in my garage and that you could use it on your next short film for free and it would guarantee you to be the next James Cameron....would that be something that you'd be interested in?
 
FilmBoy77 said:
martinlandau.jpg

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what if i told you that i had this "new technology" at home in my garage and that you could use it on your next short film for free and it would guarantee you to be the next James Cameron....would that be something that you'd be interested in?
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This is the second time I'm on this forum today without my nunchucks!

(great post, BTW)
 
The technology is wisdom. James Cameron has spent 1 year in the Tibetian mountains with me and my donkey on a trek to ascertain the Diamond Sutra. Upon reaching the summit of the mountain we were blessed by the presence of beautiful weather. Looking down upon the land James and I realized. Be not expectant my son, close your eyes and you will realize that you are already in the theatre. The movie is about to begin.
 
here some informations about this :

Production

"In 1995, director James Cameron wrote a screenplay for Avatar.[4] In August 1996, Cameron announced that after completing Titanic, he would film Avatar, which would make use of "synthetic", or computer-generated, actors.[5] The project would cost $100 million and involve at least six actors in leading roles "who appear to be real but do not exist in the physical world".[6] Special effects house Digital Domain, with whom Cameron has a partnership, joined the project, which would begin production in the summer of 1997.[7]
In June 2005, director Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880" parallel to another project, Battle Angel.[8] By December, Cameron said that he planned to film Battle Angel first for a summer 2007 release, and to film "Project 880" for a 2009 release.[9] In February 2006, Cameron said he had switched goals for the two film projects — "Project 880" for 2007 and Battle Angel for 2009. He indicated that the release of "Project 880" would possibly be delayed until 2008.[10] Later that February, James Cameron revealed that "Project 880" was "a retooled version of Avatar", a film that he had tried to make years earlier.[11] Cameron's early script for Avatar circulated the Internet for years. When the project was re-announced, all scripts were subsequently removed from websites.[12] In June 2006, Cameron said that if Avatar was successful, then he hoped to make sequels to the film.[13]
In July 2006, Cameron announced that he would film Avatar for a summer 2008 release and planned to begin principal photography with an established cast by February 2007.[14] The following August, the visual effects studio Weta Digital signed on to help Cameron produce Avatar.[15] Stan Winston, who has collaborated with Cameron in the past, joined Cameron's Avatar to help with the film's designs.[16] The project would have a budget of $200 million.[1] In September, Cameron was announced to use his own Reality Camera System to film in 3-D. The system would use two high-definition cameras in a single camera body to create depth perception.[17] In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough. The director planned to create photo-realistic computer-generated characters by using motion capture animation technology, on which he had been doing work for the past 14 months. He also added that he had given directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson a chance to test the new technology. Cameron planned to continue developing the special effects for Avatar, which he hoped would be released in summer 2009.[4]"

Here is the link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_880
 
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Check out how Battle Angel just disappears in that timeline. =(

That makes me sad. But, I hope Avatar is everything that it's sounding like.
 
Yawn ...

We'll see how yet another 3-D technological advancement plays out. It sounds like Jimmy is focusing more on technology than story

I really like Cameron. He hit massive drives with Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies and everybody's favorite Titanic ...

But those were story driven; this sounds like throwing together an idea to test new technology.

Time'll tell but I'm not desperate in anticipation over it. I just want Inglorious Bastards.
 
This seems like another gimic that will disappear faster than A Scanner Darkly (and that's pretty damned fast).
 
HorseFilms said:
This seems like another gimic that will disappear faster than A Scanner Darkly (and that's pretty damned fast).
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i literally fell asleep on that movie two nights in a row. maybe i was tired but i had a hard time staying put to watch that movie.
 
John_Hudson said:
Yawn ...

We'll see how yet another 3-D technological advancement plays out. It sounds like Jimmy is focusing more on technology than story
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Completely disagree there. I think that technology can help with once in a while and if anyone can prove that possible, that is why we need Cameron. Look at what he has done with the films you have listed.

Terminator - A ton of technology, special effects, make up
Aliens- He took what he did in Terminator and went beyond it, more special FX
The Abyss- C'mon, the man created a new SCUBA mask (round to see through)
Terminator 2- The most FX of any movie up to that time, and it worked
Titanic- C'mon, biggest stage ever created, huge tank??? Special FX up the arse!

This is just another evolution of everything and this is the man to do it...

In my opinion.
 
Scanner was pretty neat, I didn't watch it in theaters though.

Also, CAmeron wrote the script how long ago? I don't think it was done specifically for technological advancement. Then again, who knows?

We have til 2009 to hear more and more about it.
 
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