| Avatar is a fantasy film of James Cameron. The movie was released in cinemas from 16 December 2009.
In 1995, James Cameron has written 80-page script for film “Avatar”. Cameron stated that the source of inspiration for penning the script was drawn from “science fiction books, read by him in childhood” & in particular, books written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (“John Carter – Martian”) and creation of Poul Anderson “Call Me Joe” (James Cameron officially did not refer to the last work, which agitated several admirers of Anderson).
In film script “Avatar”, written by James Cameron, paralyzed person, by means of future technology, which allows joining the brain of human being to the body of specially created hybrid person & alien, embodies in one of such bodies and participates in research expeditions on Pandora planet. Particularly due to this idea, the film received the name – “Avatar".
Plot:
Jake Sully - former marine infantryman, confined to invalid armchair. Despite of ailing body, Jake still remains a soldier at heart as before. He is offered a task to travel into several light years to base of Earth dwellers on Pandora planet, where corporates extract exclusively expensive mineral, having huge value for Earth in overcoming the energy crisis.
Since the atmosphere of Pandora is toxic, a program “Avatar” was created, in which the consciousness of human being is linked to an avatar, biological body with remote handling, helping in situating in this pernicious atmosphere. Avatars – hybrids, created by means of genetic engineering & obtained by combination of human DNA & DNA of aboriginals of Pandora planet, Na’vi.
Having got a second birth in the form of avatar, Jake once again can walk. His mission is to gain the confidence of one of the tribes Na’vi, whose settlements are located on richest deposits of valuable ore. Jake was officially entrusted to find a way to persuade the natives to relocate but on the instructions of military, he also starts collecting information in case of resolving the issue through force. Beautiful aboriginal Neytiri saves the life of Jake & all things change after this. Jake is accepted into her clan & he learns to be one of them that include implementation of certain set of tasks & undergoing numerous tests.
Music for the film is scored by composer James Horner & “Avatar” is his third film with Cameron after “Aliens” & “Titanic”. In March 2008, Horner recorder some parts of music with chorus in language of alien race Na’vi. He also worked with Wanda Bryant, ethnomusicologist, to create musical culture of alien race. First session of music scoring to film were planned for spring 2009. Singer Leona Lewis has been chosen for singing the theme song of the film, which will be called “I See You”. Accompanying musical video on this score is also under production.
Marketing:
James Cameron has signed an agreement with “Ubisoft” to create an action-game “Avatar”, which was released in December, 2009.
So called “Avatar Day” was celebrated on August 21, 2009. 2minute trailer was posted on internet & some fragments of the film with total duration of approximately 15 min were shown to audience in several theatres.
Interesting facts:
* Initially James Cameron planned to direct the film in 1999. However, considering the complexity & special effects, which Cameron was to create, budget of the film should be somewhere around 400 million USD. Despite tremendous BO success of “Titanic” (1997), not a single studio could allocate such finances. Project was kept in shelf for about 10 years;
* Michael Biehn wanted to do one of the roles in the film. He met James Cameron several times. However, James did not want that the audience associated the film with “Aliens” (1986) as Sigourney Weaver has already signed the contract for shooting;
* Cameron developed special technology, which allowed him to simultaneously view computer characters along with live actors on monitors while shooting the film;
* According to Cameron, if the film is commercially successful, then he intends to make trilogy.
* Film is based on 40 % live shooting & 60 % realistic computer graphics.
* In Cameron's original script, foliage was dark blue in color as the skin of Na'vi, but finally, he decided to use green color to be more realistic.
* Majority portions of episodes of film with natural movement were shot in Wellington, New Zealand, where huge set was erected. It was similar to real big building. For constructing the set, a huge substructure was created by using more than 150 building contractors.
* Real set include communication room, where similar to sarcophagus were established, with the help of which human being is converted into body of Avatar; Bio-laboratory – premises for scientists & storage place of tanks with amniotic fluid, in which the bodies of Avatars are stored, who attained maturity during six-year travel from Earth to Pandora; Control room, which is a central nervous system of base “Hell Gate”, and military bastion Armor Bay, where mobility-reinforcing suits & helicopters are stored. |
It's less than a week until the premier of the world's most anticipated movie of the year - Avatar by James Cameron. The most expensive film in history, it took $500 million and 10 years to make. James Cameron was working on it ever since he released multiple-Oscar-winning Titanic, and we expect nothing but the best from him this time! "This movie is very personal to me", says Cameron. "It was the chance to put together all these vistas and cool creatures that have been knocking around inside my brain since I was a kid."
