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AVATAR - Sci-fi epic by James Cameron @ COMIC-CON

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Scullibundo said:
He's digging up the real Abe Lincoln and having him play his younger self?
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Heh.

We really are going to enter bio-pic madness in the next few years after all of this groundbreaking mo-cap tech comes down in price. It will begin with Michael Jackson and the justification to a wary public and media that no actor could hope to replicate MJ, since his face (and its bizarre transformation) are so seared into the public consciousness. Once that's happened, the slippery-slope effect will be in motion and we'll see a host of important figures brought back through photorealistic CGI and motion capture.

You do raise an interesting point about how it works much better if an actor is playing someone resembling themselves.
 
Krev said:
Heh.

We really are going to enter bio-pic madness in the next few years after all of this groundbreaking mo-cap tech comes down in price. It will begin with Michael Jackson and the justification to a wary public and media that no actor could hope to replicate MJ, since his face (and its bizarre transformation) are so seared into the public consciousness. Once that's happened, the slippery-slope effect will be in motion and we'll see a host of important figures brought back through photorealistic CGI and motion capture.

You do raise an interesting point about how it works much better if an actor is playing someone resembling themselves.
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I don't think its ever going to become the norm for directors to ever resort to CGI-likeness for biopics.
 
We could even see something similar to that in the new Tron, right?
In that test footage we clearly see a young Jeff Bridges...
 
Jtwo said:
We could even see something similar to that in the new Tron, right?
In that test footage we clearly see a young Jeff Bridges...
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I don't think they are using perf-cap, but i'm not sure. I think they might just be using the fusion cameras.
 
Scullibundo said:
I don't think its ever going to become the norm for directors to ever resort to CGI-likeness for biopics.
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It might not ever be the norm, but I think it will be used on a few major biopics in the future (to much controversy).
 
I think Scorsese will beat Spielberg to the punch. Spielberg still has Titntin and Interstellar lined up, is supposedly working at getting Marty off the ground right now, and could possibly also do Indy 5.
I get the impression that Scorsese's Roosevelt film is a lot closer to becoming a reality than Lincoln. I wouldn't be surprised if he follows up Silence with it.
 
Neither of these guys are ever going to do these projects, or so it seems. Spielberg has been talking Lincoln for 16 years (since Schindler) and Ive heard about Roosevelt as early as 7 years ago (around Gangs' release), and neither have ever come close to materializing. Same goes for Spielberg's Interstellar.
 
SketchTheArtist said:
100% CG, no animatronics, make-up effect, dummies or any physical trickery. Just CG.

It looks a bit funky in that picture, but it looks really good in motion.
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Is this movie fully CG or are we just talking about the alien here?
 
Solo said:
Neither of these guys are ever going to do these projects, or so it seems. Spielberg has been talking Lincoln for 16 years (since Schindler) and Ive heard about Roosevelt as early as 7 years ago (around Gangs' release), and neither have ever come close to materializing. Same goes for Spielberg's Interstellar.
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I don't know Solo. Spielberg had also been talking about Tin Tin since the early 80s and Scorsese had Gangs on his plate since the 70s. It may take a while but never say never. From the tone of interviews with Spielberg, I'd say Lincoln is going to happen well before Interstellar which he hasn't commented on since its original announcement as far as I can tell. He said he in the Anniversary EMPIRE (which he edited) he hoped to begin Lincoln after wrapping Tin Tin.
 
Dont get me wrong, Ill be first in line to see both these movies (especially the Roosevelt one), but I refuse to believe anything about either from now on until one actually goes into production.
 
I could have sworn a year or two ago Scorsese had actually announced some Sci-fi project. I would love to find some info on it because its new ground for Marty.
 
Scullibundo said:
He said he in the Anniversary EMPIRE (which he edited) he hoped to begin Lincoln after wrapping Tin Tin.
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Now it looks like that won't be the case, and Harvey may well be his next film.
 
mr_nothin said:
Is this movie fully CG or are we just talking about the alien here?
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They're talking specifically about the alien in this case but a lot of the movie is CG.

The entire alien planet and all of its native inhabitants, for example, are fully rendered in CG. If they get that same sort of photorealism they managed with the Avatar hybrid to be uniform throughout the film, shit's gonna look spectacular, especially in 3D.
 
Zeliard said:
They're talking specifically about the alien in this case but a lot of the movie is CG.

The entire alien planet and all of its native inhabitants, for example, are fully rendered in CG. If they get that same sort of photorealism they managed with the Avatar hybrid to be uniform throughout the film, shit's gonna look spectacular, especially in 3D.
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Oh ok thx :)
 
The new picture doesn't really move me one way or another. While I would like to see how the characters move and animate I'm actually more interested to see how the Military vehicles such as those 'mini mechs' move.

Zenith said:
Oh, jeez, the alien DOES look like the action figure.
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Was this ever really in doubt?
 
Busty said:
The new picture doesn't really move me one way or another. While I would like to see how the characters move and animate I'm actually more interested to see how the Military vehicles such as those 'mini mechs' move.



Was this ever really in doubt?
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Yes, I think so.
Oh and while I really want to be surprised I also want to see a short glimpse of pandora in the trailer. :D
 
Is there still no news about screenings in the UK?
On Twitter the Ritzy Cinema said they were looking into screening the footage so I'm hopeful.
 
First thing I thought of when I saw that pic from Entertainment Weekly was the end of Underworld.

24.jpeg
 
I think that beast thing from Underworld looks better than the Avatar (that is what those blue things that are called right?)
 
Thats because its a guy with his face painted. The AVATAR is fully CG and is sitting in a stasis-chamber...not dirty, not detail shown and whatever detail there is, is marred by the water/blue filter. The avatars are supposed to have smooth skin like an eel.

Why don't we just wait to see some footage eh?
 
Scullibundo said:
I love the internet. :lol

OMG spoilers! http://www.dangerouslyasian.com/AvatarJarJar.jpg
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As much as I hate Jar Jar to hell and back at least the 'race' had a pretty cool design, at least in the production sketches.

One thing that pisses me off these days is how lacking and overall generic the design work of alien/creature effects in films can be. Brilliant stuff like H.R. Giger's alien or the various forms of The Thing and even something as simple as that alien assassin from The Last Starfighter seem few and far between.

I hope Avatar proves me wrong.
 
womp said:
As much as I hate Jar Jar to hell and back at least the 'race' had a pretty cool design, at least in the production sketches.

One thing that pisses me off these days is how lacking and overall generic the design work of alien/creature effects in films can be. Brilliant stuff like H.R. Giger's alien or the various forms of The Thing and even something as simple as that alien assassin from The Last Starfighter seem few and far between.

I hope Avatar proves me wrong.
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Well if it makes you feel better, Cameron apparently designed most of the creatures in this film himself. His past work can be seen in the Alien Queen, the powerloader (okay so its not a creature) and he was responsible for putting mandibles on the Predator.
 
Scullibundo said:
Well if it makes you feel better, Cameron apparently designed most of the creatures in this film himself. His past work can be seen in the Alien Queen, the powerloader (okay so its not a creature) and he was responsible for putting mandibles on the Predator.
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Yeah, he was good at designing monsters.
 
Scullibundo said:
Well if it makes you feel better, Cameron apparently designed most of the creatures in this film himself. His past work can be seen in the Alien Queen, the powerloader (okay so its not a creature) and he was responsible for putting mandibles on the Predator.
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I saw Terminator and Aliens day one in the theater...I know his pedigree.

Everything he did was tooled over based on prior artists and designer's work. The Alien Queen was just Giger's Alien beefed up, the powerloader had Ron Cobb written all over it and 'putting mandibles' on the Predator to me just says he is good at accessorizing and tweaking concepts (Much like Lucas in the effects room).

So frankly, no it doesn't. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt until we see footage but since I won't be seeing this until it comes to Blu-Ray (I go to the theater once a year if I am lucky) I'm in no rush.

In any case original ideas seem to be going the way of the dodo these days so who is to blame him?
 
Scullibundo said:
Thats because its a guy with his face painted. The AVATAR is fully CG and is sitting in a stasis-chamber...not dirty, not detail shown and whatever detail there is, is marred by the water/blue filter. The avatars are supposed to have smooth skin like an eel.

Why don't we just wait to see some footage eh?
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Sorry I should have made it clear that I was talking about the character design.
I do agree about waiting until we see footage before casting judgement though, I was just commenting on the two pictures.
 
Late to the party and have just now seen the pic ...my first reaction was honestly ..."that's ...cool!'

Seriously, it's different from what I expected and really dug that. I'm pumped.
 
NutJobJim said:
Sorry I should have made it clear that I was talking about the character design.
I do agree about waiting until we see footage before casting judgement though, I was just commenting on the two pictures.
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There is nothing for you to be sorry about, that was my point as well when I posted it to begin with.
 
Yeah you know the hype has gone through the roof with this movie and honestly that picture didn't really deliver :-/. It's only a still though so I'll hold out for something in motion.
 
womp said:
I saw Terminator and Aliens day one in the theater...I know his pedigree.

Everything he did was tooled over based on prior artists and designer's work. The Alien Queen was just Giger's Alien beefed up, the powerloader had Ron Cobb written all over it and 'putting mandibles' on the Predator to me just says he is good at accessorizing and tweaking concepts (Much like Lucas in the effects room).

So frankly, no it doesn't. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt until we see footage but since I won't be seeing this until it comes to Blu-Ray (I go to the theater once a year if I am lucky) I'm in no rush.

In any case original ideas seem to be going the way of the dodo these days so who is to blame him?
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As far as I know from the making ofs he totally redesigned the power loader of of the artists drew for him. The artists took that as a reference. Also there's a concept drawing by Cameron somewhere out there with the fight of the Alien queen and the powerloader. I can't find it, though. :(
Here are some of his sketches I found:
temrinator sketch. (close to what you finally saw in the movie, isn't it?)
Alien Queen
Alien Queen 2
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XhAzekAG0tg/Sf7uSB-yQnI/AAAAAAAADEE/0LyGAzJ33kw/s320/James+Cameron+-+Alien+Queen+Egg-Sac+(2).jpg
Terminator sketch with lance henriksen
There was a similar drawing with arnold but I can't find it either. The internet disappoints me. >: ( In a making of Stan Winston said that Cameron basically drew all the sketches that were needed to build the Terminator. So my point is: he's pretty good at designing stuff.

Also talking about original ideas...when was the last time you saw a movie with a fully realised alien world, including vegetation and everything? At least that's what the concept and early impressions say and it sounds fresh. If there's anything like that already out there, I want to know it because I would watch it at once.
 
msdstc said:
Yeah you know the hype has gone through the roof with this movie and honestly that picture didn't really deliver :-/. It's only a still though so I hold out for something in motion.
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Try rewinding the still, cranking the sound on your speakers up, make sure subtitles are on so you don't miss any important plot info and putting on 3D glasses. Still nothing? I can't put my finger on why.
 
Well Cameron came into film from the art and visual effects dept working under Roger Corman. Its why the man knows what looks real and what doesn't.
 
Scullibundo said:
Try rewinding the still, cranking the sound on your speakers up, make sure subtitles are on so you don't miss any important plot info and putting on 3D glasses. Still nothing? I can't put my finger on why.
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I don't really get this... you're bashing me for judging a still when literally right in the post you quoted, I said I'll hold out for something in motion.
 
Scullibundo said:
Well Cameron came into film from the art and visual effects dept working under Roger Corman. Its why the man knows what looks real and what doesn't.
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Right, with flying pirhana.

;)

I wonder if Cameron worked on Humanoids from the Deep, another great Corman epic. I should check into that. A big favorite of mine when I was younger that had some great creature effects.

DieNgamers said:
As far as I know from the making ofs he totally redesigned the power loader of of the artists drew for him. The artists took that as a reference. Also there's a concept drawing by Cameron somewhere out there with the fight of the Alien queen and the powerloader. I can't find it, though. :(

Also talking about original ideas...when was the last time you saw a movie with a fully realised alien world, including vegetation and everything? At least that's what the concept and early impressions say and it sounds fresh. If there's anything like that already out there, I want to know it because I would watch it at once.
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Right, I've seen the queen sketches however as I said they were based on an already pre-designed creation (By Giger). Don't get me wrong, the queen is awesome, but it wasn't technically a pure Cameron design so to speak.

And look, once again, it isn't just Cameron but basically all of Hollywood these days that is lacking in this respect however with the amount of hype and lead up this film is getting we better be seeing something new rather than generic and old hat.

If anything I am hoping for the best here.
 
womp said:
Right, with flying pirhana.

;)

I wonder if Cameron worked on Humanoids from the Deep, another great Corman epic. I should check into that. A big favorite of mine when I was younger that had some great creature effects.



Right, I've seen the queen sketches however as I said they were based on an already pre-designed creation (By Giger). Don't get me wrong, the queen is awesome, but it wasn't technically a pure Cameron design so to speak.
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Yep, that's true. :)
 
I was discussing the problem about Avatar's marketing with some friends last night and the one who didn't know what Avatar really was was like "Wait, is James Cameron directing Avatar: The Last Airbender?" :lol I said "THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"

I mean, shit, even the ones who sort of knew what it was still needed me to explain some stuff to them.
 
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