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22 posts from December 2009

12/31/2009

AVATAR's Augemented Reality (and Extras)

Augmented realityYou knew there'd be AVATAR Happy Meals, but McDonald's also  put augmented-reality cards on each one that reveal hidden aspects of Pandora when viewed through a webcam. Ditto Coke Zero, which uses the same T-Immersion technology to let your Coke can control a Scorpion helicopter from the movie. But Mattel's betting you'd also like to hold a Scorpion in your hand, so it's created a whole line of action figures, beasties and vehicles for you—that is, your kids—to play with. And speaking of hand-helds, Gameloft's Avatar iPhone app looks (and plays) great. There's lots of other stuff—maquettes, mini-busts, jewelry, the soundtrack, to name just a few.

Sponsored by Panasonic VIERA. Return to the world of AVATAR in stunning full HD with the Panasonic VIERA HD TV.

What AVATAR extra would you want to have?

12/30/2009

The AVATAR/Matrix Connection

Avatar+Matrix At first glance, AVATAR and The Matrix don't have much in common—but wait: James Cameron compared the two flicks as immersive experiences back in August. Hmm: hero-savior who uses an artificial body to fight evil. A technologically superior force of bad guys. Confusion about what constitutes reality, both within the movie and for the viewer—but this time the virtual world is an agent of deliverance. Unlike The Matrix, though, AVATAR winds up being strangely utopian.

Sponsored by Panasonic VIERA. Return to the world of AVATAR in stunning full HD with the Panasonic VIERA HD TV.

Pandora, Matrix... which world would you rather live in?

12/29/2009

AVATAR Smashes Box Office Records

IMAX Avatar Santa brought AVATAR some unusually strong box-office momentum over the holiday weekend: another $75 million in ticket sales, bringing it to $212 million domestically and dipping just a miniscule 2 percent from opening weekend. Combined with a strong open in Japan, that brings worldwide sales to just over $617 million. Heck, it hasn't even opened in China—a country whose ticket sales could cover Avatar's budget all by itself—prompting James Cameron to spend holiday time in Beijing promoting the January 4 release.

Sponsored by Panasonic VIERA. Return to the world of AVATAR in stunning full HD with the Panasonic VIERA HD TV.

12/27/2009

James Cameron's Next Movie After AVATAR

Avatar2 With Avatar's success, what's James Cameron's next project? There are a few possibilities: Early bets revolve around Battle Angel, an adaptation of a Japanese manga series called Battle Angel Alita. Although Cameron's put a year into development, he's not yet sure he wants to do the film. Cameron may also produce a remake of 1966's Fantastic Voyage, which centered on miniaturized doctors who pilot a tiny submarine into a patient's body to fix his brain from the inside. Then there's a possible return to the seas that Cameron loves: The Dive, centered on a tragic three-way romance between a scuba diver, the woman he falls for, and the ocean. Finally there's Doomsday Protocol, centered on a Seven Samurai-like team of aliens and humans who band together to defend Earth. But will he tackle these projects or an AVATAR sequel or 2 first? Most bloggers and news sources are betting we won't hear for sure until AVATAR hits DVD and Blu-Ray in 2010. Let's just hope the next film comes sooner than the break between Titanic and AVATAR – 13 years!

Sponsored by Panasonic VIERA. Return to the world of AVATAR in stunning full HD with the Panasonic VIERA HD TV.

What film do you think James Cameron should do next?

12/25/2009

AVATAR on DVD (and 3D DVD)

Jake look If you'd like your own personal copy of AVATAR, hang on until late spring/summer 2010, when James Cameron says a 2-D version of the movie should come out, complete with deleted scenes of Na'vi tribal life. But how about a 3-D version? First there have to be enough Blu-ray DVD players in circulation, which is tricky considering that Blu-ray 3D specifications were just finalized (see here for the full story on those specs). But Avatar may actually drive the 3-D trend, so look for the first 3-D players to premiere at the January Consumer Electronics Show and a 3-D Avatar release by the end of 2010.

Sponsored by Panasonic VIERA. Return to the world of AVATAR in stunning full HD with the Panasonic VIERA HD TV.

Will you get Avatar on DVD? And are you excited about the deleted scenes?

12/23/2009

AVATAR: What We Know About Pandora

Imagine This featurette is a good intro to Pandora, but where's more on this tiny moon and its parent gas giant? Astronomers say there are certainly no gas-giant worlds around Alpha Centauri A, although we could find a Pandora-like world around another star within a decade. But hey, that's why it's called science fiction, so both Wikia and Pandorapedia have extensive entries on Pandora. Check them out to learn about this moon's gravity and atmosphere, creatures and plants, and how humans attempt to stay alive in its hostile environment.

Sponsored by Panasonic VIERA. Return to the world of AVATAR in stunning full HD with the Panasonic VIERA HD TV.

What's your favorite thing about Pandora?

12/22/2009

AVATAR: Will There Be a Sequel?

Cameron zoe sigourney Ready for an AVATAR sequel? James Cameron has no objection if AVATAR is successful, but hints about it are tough to come by. If there is a sequel, one of Cameron's first stops for ideas is the video-game wizards at Ubisoft, and Cameron says AVATAR's time-intensive motion-capture technology "makes more sense if you play it out across several films," so maybe game and camera tech will drive the next plot. Where would a sequel take place? Back in September, producer Jon Landau hinted that the surface of Pandora appears in AVATAR but that "the interior remains to be seen." On the other hand, there's this nagging rumor that an AVATAR sequel might not take place on Pandora at all. Journo Rebecca Keegan managed to overhear Cameron & Co. fleshing out some possible sequel plots, but gives nothing away.

Sponsored by Panasonic VIERA. Return to the world of AVATAR in stunning full HD with the Panasonic VIERA HD TV.

Should there be a sequel (or prequel) and what would you like to see in it?

12/21/2009

AVATAR: Biggest December Open Ever?

Cameron filming20th Century Fox says AVATAR sold over $232 million in tickets for the second-biggest December open ever, despite an East Coast blizzard and not even being released in China or Japan yet. And AVATAR definitely set a record for best 3-D opening. Oh sure, there are haters, even if they wanted to like it—but thousands of tweets sound pretty pumped and 92 percent of viewers are recommending it to friends. Oops—this just in: Fox was actually too pessimistic. AVATAR actually is the biggest December open ever with $77.3 million, edging out Will Smith's I Am Legend.

Sponsored by Panasonic VIERA. Return to the world of AVATAR in stunning full HD with the Panasonic VIERA HD TV.

12/20/2009

AVATAR Review: Ho... Lee... Frak!


Matt from YourGeekNews.com here with a video review of AVATAR. James Cameron definitely made the most of nearly 15 years and 300 Million dollars making Avatar, because it looks and feels completely unlike any movie ever. Maybe it's the tasteful use of 3D technology, maybe the striking resemblance the CG characters have to their human actor equivalents, or maybe it was the fact that an entirely computer generated world actually felt REAL for the first time ever, but Avatar definitely knocked us both out... what about you?

~Matt Campagna Host Geek, YourGeekNews.com

AVATAR Ticket Rush

Neytiri glow Favorable early reviews of AVATAR are driving potentially record-busting online ticket sales; as of noon Thursday the movie was 87 percent of Fandango's sales and 70 percent of MovieTickets.com's. And it's outselling the reboot of Star Trek, with somewhere between 68-78 percent of buyers being male and 75-89 percent of sales going to 3-D or IMAX 3-D screenings. AVATAR is already helping boost U.S. and Canadian movie ticket sales over $10 billion for the first time ever.

Pre-ordered your tickets yet? Encountering sold-out shows? Let us know! Or post to the community for a chance to win free tickets!