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[Prompto]

True Grit.

Also Behind The Candelabra if that counts. And Contagion.

 

[FyreWulff]

My god, that looks like crap, Lucas had all the money in the world and it still came out like garbage.

that's 1998 technology (film came out 1999, but was filmed in 97, and the computer farm built in 1998)

 

[Lace]

that's 1998 technology (film came out 1999, but was filmed in 97, and the computer farm built in 1998)

When you present it as a Windows 98 render it becomes impressive once again. It's pretty amazing how far CG advanced in such a short time period. Avatar or even Davy Jones from pirates CG are almost indistinguishable from real life. And those were created less then 10 years after those prequels.

 

[Durock]

Have we seen anything like this since the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Spending years and years on script writing and pre-production and then filming them all back-to-back. It turned out incredibly well for the LOTR, so hoping for the same with Avatar.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

True Grit.

I love True Grit, but I meant a film he headlines. I'd call him supporting in that. Though I did really like him in it.

Also Behind The Candelabra if that counts. And Contagion.

These definitely count. The Candelabra more-so.

 

[Compsiox]

These films better be fucking fantastic. So much time and money.

Imagine if the first movie in this new series flops?

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

These films better be fucking fantastic. So much time and money.

Imagine if the first movie in this new series floppes?

Bro, how do you flop the word flop?

 

[ZeoVGM]

Must be the Canadian version of flop.

 

[Carcetti]

Every time I see the word 'Avatar' it makes me sad that a genius like Cameron is wasting his time on the worst IP of his career.

 

[Compsiox]

Bro, how do you flop the word flop?

Its 4:15AM. LEAVE ME ALONE

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

Its 4:15AM. LEAVE ME ALONE

To answer your question,

if Avatar 2 made 1.4 billion worldwide, you would still have internet movie forum experts calling it a flop for only making half of what the first film made.

So I guess it depends what you consider a flop.

 

[CloudWolf]

In a world where directors get fired from big franchises for looking at the producer wrong, Cameron is a true anomaly. He has spent years doing no one knows what on a franchise nobody really seems to care about and yet he still has the full backing of Disney.

 

[Compsiox]

To answer your question,

if Avatar 2 made 1.4 billion worldwide, you would still have internet movie forum experts calling it a flop for only making half of what the first film made.

So I guess it depends what you consider a flop.

Most people would probably see it without waiting for/reading reviews. You are correct. It probably will make that at the very least.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

In a world where directors get fired from big franchises for looking at the producer wrong, Cameron is a true anomaly. He has spent years doing no one knows what on a franchise nobody really seems to care about and yet he still has the full backing of Disney.

I think Cameron is the only director in the world right now that can do absolutely anything he wants on any budget.

I mean, Spielberg technically could, but has to answer to his stockholders.

Cameron is coming off back to back highest-grossing movies of all time.

Dude totally could have made a $250m R-rated Battle Angel if he wanted.

 

[Lace]

To answer your question,

if Avatar 2 made 1.4 billion worldwide, you would still have internet movie forum experts calling it a flop for only making half of what the first film made.

So I guess it depends what you consider a flop.

I think you mean floppe.

Spoiler

Just kidding

In all seriousness has Cameron ever had a movie flop and was critically panned by normal movie goers? I personally can't think of any examples but I'm sure there's something.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

I think you mean floppe.

Spoiler

Just kidding

In all seriousness has Cameron ever had a movie flop and was critically panned by normal movie goers? I personally can't think of any examples but I'm sure there's something.

Critically, no. Budget-wise, he came close with The Abyss, but it eventually broke even.

And no, he didn't direct Pirahana II. He worked for less than a week on that film before getting fired, like the director before him.

You'll be interested to know that at the time they were made, Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic were all the most expensive movies ever made at the time.

 

[Compsiox]

I just realized Avatar 2 is still in preproduction. Jesus.

I have no words.

 

[Lace]

Critically, no. Budget-wise, he came close with The Abyss, but it eventually broke even.

And no, he didn't direct Pirahana II. He worked for less than a week on that film before getting fired, like the director before him.

That's kind of what I thought. In my mind he's probably one of the safest bets in Hollywood.

 

[Madao]

Critically, no. Budget-wise, he came close with The Abyss, but it eventually broke even.

And no, he didn't direct Pirahana II. He worked for less than a week on that film before getting fired, like the director before him.

You'll be interested to know that at the time they were made, Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic were all the most expensive movies ever made at the time.

heh, first time i get to know how long he actually worked on Piranha II. no wonder that doesn't count.

i didn't know True Lies was the most expensive movie when it was made. he's pretty much pushing his budget to new heights with each new project (i don't remember but was the first Avatar the most expensive movie back when it released?).

 

[Steve.1981]

Each of the sequels will be a stand-alone film of it's own? This is good news. I'd been worried they might try and drag one big storyline out.

I don't mind that approach in theory, for me it worked fine with the Matrix sequels, but doing it over 2 films is a much more straightforward proposition. 4 stand-alone films with an overarching thread tying them together sounds good.

 

[Saya]

The internet will break once the first trailer for the sequel hits.

 

[TAJ]

When you think about it, the visual effects should be completely ridiculous. By the time ABADAR2 drops, eleven years will have passed since the first movie. That's like two game console generations. Ten years before Avatar, this was the state of the art in CGI:

?
There's barely any CGI in that shot.

 

[civilstrife]

?
There's barely any CGI in that shot.

Yeah seriously, wtf?
That's obviously a hand built set with two hundred or so Gungan extras.
Just because they're clumsy, doesn't mean they're unhirable.

 

[duckroll]

Standalone doesn't really tell us much. Are they sequential? If they are there will still be an EPIC ENDING hyped up by marketing for the final film right?

 

[Triggerhappytel]

what the hell is a standalone sequel?

It's a self-contained story that is concluded within its own film, although being part of a series it'll probably lay some seeds for the sequels. Think of it like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides which wraps up its story and adventure in one film, as opposed to PotC: Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, where the plot is resolved across two.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

Standalone doesn't really tell us much. Are they sequential? If they are there will still be an EPIC ENDING hyped up by marketing for the final film right?

They are sequential. But there won't be any cliffhanger shit. There won't be any 'find out next time!" Episodic shit.

This isn't The Hunger Games or LotR or The Matrix sequels.

 

[CosmicGroinPull]

what the hell is a standalone sequel?

Extended Universe

 

[Discotheque]

there have been a few better blockbusters since, but for sheer cgi spectacle in its setpieces Avatar is still unmatched.

pretty interested in seeing what he has cooked up for these movies. not happy about some of the basura actors coming back though like that dork from Dodgeball.

gonna be an easy day one in theaters. and man WETA has been continuing its insane work so the mocap in here is gonna look nuts.

 

[CaviarMeths]

In a world where directors get fired from big franchises for looking at the producer wrong, Cameron is a true anomaly. He has spent years doing no one knows what on a franchise nobody really seems to care about and yet he still has the full backing of Disney.

Are you sure you're thinking of the right guy? Basically everything here is wrong.

Cameron is the producer. He wrote, directed, and produced Titanic and Avatar. In the case of the latter, he even put up a lot of his own money into developing the tech used on the film. Those two movies made almost $5b, more than most movie studios usually make in a whole year with their entire release slate. Nothing at all usual that he's basically been given a blank check at this point.

Avatar is Fox, not Disney.

And you're kidding yourself if you think nobody cares about Avatar.

 

[PhantomX1313]

When the first trailer hits I will have kids to see it

 

[nel e nel]

Bro, how do you flop the word flop?

Probably the same way you flop this:

All of them are being filmed back to back, people.

4 films shot concurrently.

Those don't mean the same thing.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

Probably the same way you flop this:



Those don't mean the same thing.

I see you.

 

[CloudWolf]

Are you sure you're thinking of the right guy? Basically everything here is wrong.

Cameron is the producer. He wrote, directed, and produced Titanic and Avatar. In the case of the latter, he even put up a lot of his own money into developing the tech used on the film. Those two movies made almost $5b, more than most movie studios usually make in a whole year with their entire release slate. Nothing at all usual that he's basically been given a blank check at this point.

Avatar is Fox, not Disney.

And you're kidding yourself if you think nobody cares about Avatar.

Avatar is Fox? Huh, I never knew. Why then is Disney World building an Avatar Park?

Anyway, I understand why Cameron is given a blank check, but it's just that he's a real anomaly. Most directors (even big ones) aren't given blank checks anymore, because big studio's want to evade exactly these kind of situations where a director seemingly stagnates and just locks himself away with his passion project for years (or even decades) and will probably cost the studio more money in the end than they will make.

 

[Ithil]

When you think about it, the visual effects should be completely ridiculous. By the time ABADAR2 drops, eleven years will have passed since the first movie. That's like two game console generations. Ten years before Avatar, this was the state of the art in CGI:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/dXGpQ0a.jpg[/IMG]

Gah.

Maybe there's a method to Cameron's madness. Eternally delaying these things just to be capable of blowing our minds again.

I feel like Starship Troopers aged much better than Episode 1, and that's from 1997.

 

[CaviarMeths]

Avatar is Fox? Huh, I never knew. Why then is Disney World building an Avatar Park?

Anyway, I understand why Cameron is given a blank check, but it's just that he's a real anomaly. Most directors (even big ones) aren't given blank checks anymore, because big studio's want to evade exactly these kind of situations where a director seemingly stagnates and just locks himself away with his passion project for years (or even decades) and will probably cost the studio more money in the end than they will make.

I guess because Fox doesn't have their own theme parks. Universal's parks have Harry Potter and King Kong, WB properties.

I think the difference with Cameron is that once he actually starts shooting, he's an animal. Pretty notorious workaholic and seemingly handles these huge productions with relative ease. You got guys like Joss Whedon talking about how stressful it is to shoot two Avengers movies, meanwhile Cameron is like "hold my beer."

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

I guess because Fox doesn't have their own theme parks. Universal's parks have Harry Potter and King Kong, WB properties.

I think the difference with Cameron is that once he actually starts shooting, he's an animal. Pretty notorious workaholic and seemingly handles these huge productions with relative ease. You got guys like Joss Whedon talking about how stressful it is to shoot two Avengers movies, meanwhile Cameron is like "hold my beer."

That's because nobody has helmed more difficult shoots than Cameron.

Except maybe the director of ROAR! lol

 

[gamz]

I guess because Fox doesn't have their own theme parks. Universal's parks have Harry Potter and King Kong, WB properties.

I think the difference with Cameron is that once he actually starts shooting, he's an animal. Pretty notorious workaholic and seemingly handles these huge productions with relative ease. You got guys like Joss Whedon talking about how stressful it is to shoot two Avengers movies, meanwhile Cameron is like "hold my beer."

Behind the scenes of Abyss and Titanic are insane! Dude is fucking nuts.

 

[Ahasverus]

Same old dance of years and years. They're not happening.

 

[Bit-Bit]

Behind the scenes of Abyss and Titanic are insane! Dude is fucking nuts.

After shooting those two films, Shooting all 4 Avatar on a gigantic Soundstage must be child's play to Cameron.

I cannot wait to see the behind-the-scenes development for these movies.

 

[Neff]

I'm still waiting to hear which composer they'll bring in and if Horner did some additional stuff before he died.

Unless Cameron drags Brad Fiedel out of retirement (unlikely, I'd love it, but unlikely), or returns to Alan Silvestri, he'll be working with a composer he's never worked with before. That's an exciting prospect in itself.

 

[SpaceWolf]

Ten years before Avatar, this was the state of the art in CGI:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/dXGpQ0a.jpg[/IMG]

Gah.

Fond memories of playing this game.

 

[TheMan]

goddamn by the time these movies come out, everyone who saw the first one will already be dead.

 

[shira]

Standalone doesn't really tell us much. Are they sequential? If they are there will still be an EPIC ENDING hyped up by marketing for the final film right?

I don't even know what JC can do here? Environmental message? Huge interstellar battle?
Touching death-circle of life?

Every trope has been played out 101x.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

Sigourney Weaver updates on Avatar sequels

Sounds like they're shooting Avatar 2&3 simultaneously in one block of shooting, then 4&5 in another block of shooting, which explains the gap in release dates between the third and fourth films.

“I love the way we’re doing them, we’re kind of doing 2 and 3 simultaneously and it’s going to work very well”

“There’s a very good reason why it turned out to be four sequels,” she tells EW of the sequels planned for James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi drama Avatar. “Having read all four of them, I think they’re absolutely extraordinary and worth the wait.”
Weaver calls the follow-ups, which will star Game of Thrones alum Oona Chaplin, “a big, big story” that examines the same issues around race and the environment the original did. “These films are very much about the peril of this beautiful planet, and [Cameron] is continuing the same themes of greed and callousness of the corporations and plight of the indigenous people

“A lot of the heavy lifting has already been done in 1, opening up the world and the characters and everything and I think that Jim has had a wonderful time writing these four, and it’s going to be very exciting bringing them to life.”

“It’s the most ambitious project by far I’ve ever been involved in, and the most moving, the most astonishing, beautiful,” she adds, pointing out that movie technology has once again advanced since Avatar ushered in an age of 3-D filmmaking. “I think all of us who get to be a part of it are just in awe when we see the artwork. It’s just incredible to be living now when we can bring this kind of film experience to the public. Because I think as much as Avatar changed what people want in a film experience, this goes a hundred times farther.”

 

[Zackat]

These movies are gonna look amazing. Can't wait.

 

[jett]

Maybe they should show us some of that amazing artwork damn it.

 

[border]

Is this being shot in HFR? Or has Cameron lost interest in that stuff?

 

[Krev]

That's because nobody has helmed more difficult shoots than Cameron.

Except maybe the director of ROAR! lol

What about Coppola and Herzog?

Never underestimate the yüngle.

 

[shira]

Oona Chaplin

Hnnnng

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

What about Coppola and Herzog?

Never underestimate the yüngle.

The Abyss shoot makes Coppola's Apocalypse Now shoot look like a walk through the park.