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Avatar Extended Collectors Set Unveiled

October 7, 2010 By 3 Comments

Avatar, Avatar, Avatar! These days that’s all people seem to go on about, and why shouldn’t they. A film that complety domincated 2009 at the box office also destroyed DVD and Blu-ray sales.

So, as if Twentieth Century Fox and James Cameron haven’t made enough money off this movie. It was always the director’s intention to create the “ultimate box set” that went deeper into the filmmaker process and the Avatar journey for fans.

Cameron was very involved with every aspect of the development of this Avatar Extended Collector’s Edition, even coming to the lot with his producing partner Jon Landau a few weeks ago to thank the entire home entertainment team that worked on it.

The Collector’s set includes the film’s 3 versions — the original theatrical release, the re-release, and the extended special that is 16 minutes longer than the original.

“As Jim describes it, you pop the disc in and immediately see something new – as the movie with begins on Earth with Jake,” an insider tells me.

The Avatar Extended Collector’s Edition will be available on Blu-ray Disc and DVD everywhere soon, so keep an eye out for it!

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Cameron Thinks True Lies TV Series

September 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

James Cameron always one for a new and exciting project is looking to transform his 1994 action blockbuster True Lies into a TV series.

It seems that the concept of a True Lies series is currently being shopped around the US networks, in the hope that it could do slightly better than Cameron’s last attempt, Dark Angel.

The explosion-racked movie starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker, a family man by day while leading a double life as a government operative, but he has to hide it.

When Harry’s bored wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) gets caught up in one of his operations, she’s pulled into his world in somewhat hilarious circumstances.

Talk of a True Lies 2 had been thrown around Hollywood for years, but now it seems Cameron thinks the future lies in the small screen.

Dark Angel, which starred Jessica Alba as a lab experiment action heroine in a futuristic dystopia. However, after a dire second season, the show was cancelled by network Fox.

Do you think a True Lies TV series would be good, leave a comment and let me know.

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Avatar – 2009

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There is no denying that James Cameron is the master of the blockbuster, you only have to look at his track record to realise that he is in a class of his own.

Avatar is a simply spellbinding film, visually stunning and beautiful to watch. The Pandorian world is filled with a maze of spectacular scenery and wonderfully colourful flora and fauna, that prowl the landscape.

Cameron has left no stone unturned in terms of creating this fantasy world, and his attention to detail is amazing. It’s almost as if he’d been on this planet already, the only man to know of its true existence. Shame then, he couldn’t work harder on the plot.

Jake Sully (Worthington) is a paraplegic marine who steps into his twin brothers shoes after he dies, as part of an elaborate plan to infiltrate the native humanoids called the Na’vi. There his alegencies are tested when he falls in love with Neytiri.

It’s a fairly predictable storyline, which has familiar connotations from another well known film. But that mustn’t detract from the sheer brilliance of it, and it has been a long time coming, 12 years in fact since he gave us Titanic. The film does have a lag in the middle, where Jake learns the ways of the Na’vi and begins to fall in love, here we get the usual musical interlude which are probably not needed.

The cast list is a good one with Cameron teaming up again with Sigourney Weaver, as well as Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang who plays the sadistic Col Miles Quaritch.

The finale is ramped up for the battle scenes which are breath taking. With Cameron being able to shoot this picture in 3D it gave him a huge canvas to work on, and we are spoilt throughout, no question.

It certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste, but if you missed it on 3D at the cinema don’t worry, word is that the film will be released this summer with an additional 6 minutes of footage, no doubt filling Cameron’s pockets with more riches!

Trailer currently unavailable due to potential copyright infringements

Rating: (4/5)

Visit the IMDb page for Avatar

Blu-ray Extras: The Blu-ray edition is really the only one to bother getting (as it contains a standard DVD edition as a bonus disc) As for other extras there are none! More than likely these will arrive on a special edition release at some point in the future.

Please feel free to leave a comment about this film, I would love to know what you think and I will do my best to respond!

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Avatar Sets Another Record

April 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It might have missed out on a best picture Oscar, and James Cameron best director but Avatar still continues to break records. This time for the fastest selling home entertainment release of all time, in North America.

The film shifted a stunning 6.7 million DVD and Blu-rays in four days, surpassing the previous record set by The Dark Knight in 2008.

Film studio 20th Century Fox said the movie was also the fastest-selling release on the Blu-ray format alone in North America.

It was released on 22 April – “Earth Day” in the US and Canada as well as other countries – to co inside with Avatar’s environmental theme, Fox said.

The science-fiction adventure, about a marine who infiltrates a race of giant blue aliens called the Navi, is reportedly the most expensive film ever made, with a budget of at least $300m (£185m).

In January, it became the highest-grossing movie of all time, overtaking the $1.843bn (£1.19bn) taken by 1997′s Titanic – also directed by Cameron.

The figures were not adjusted for inflation or the higher cost of Avatar’s 3D film tickets.

Last week, Cameron told the Los Angeles Times that Avatar, which mixes live action with digitally-created performances, would be re-released this summer with an extra seven minutes of footage. As to how well that is going to go down is anyone’s guess.

He also told the paper the sequel to the film would be centred around the ocean on the planet Pandora. One can only imagine the budget or cost for that!

Buy Avatar on DVD and Blu-ray

Got a comment about Avatar or this story then please feel free to leave one below, I would love to know what you think!

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Oscar Deserved

April 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

With the Oscars gone for another year it is a chance for many to reflect on what might have been, what should have been and maybe what almost was. For Kathryn Bigelow the Oscars was a chance to cement herself as one of the industry’s most accomplished  directors.

By now we all know that Bigelow won the best director Oscar for her film The Hurt Locker unless you were living on another planet. The film was a look at an elite bomb disposal expert in Iraq and how he coped with the day to day rigors of the job.

The film was first shown at the Venice film festival in 2008 and released in the US in June 2009, it became an instant hit with film critics the world over for its true to life realism and explosive action sequences. It was up against Avatar, a film that had surpassed everyone’s expectations and a director that was a household name in Hollywood.

Avatar was going about it’s business as an Oscar certainty, due to its dazzling special effects and amazing script, director James Cameron was probably moving some other awards around to fit yet another gold statuette onto his mantle piece. But, he hadn’t counted on his ex-wife throwing her film into the mix and the huge following that it generated. Filmed on a very small budget The Hurt Locker barely broke even at the box office, while Avatar smashed the previous best set by Cameron’s own film Titanic.

Bigelow has a growing list of films under her belt, some though are better than others. Blue Steel, K 19: The Widowmaker and the action film of the 90s Point Break are a few of the more well known ones. So when the Hurt Locker came out it turned heads, there had already been a few films focusing on the middle east and its well known conflict such as The Kingdom, In the Valley of Elah and Body of Lies.

But the Hurt Locker was different, as a viewer you became immersed in the film and dropped right into the action, it felt like you were part of the team. This was something that Bigelow worked on and achieved very well.

And so it seemingly became a battle of two films, Avatar Vs The Hurt Locker, Cameron Vs Bigelow, big budget vs. low budget. At the end of the day the little guy won, Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar and the Hurt Locker picked up six gongs on the night including best picture.

If James Cameron had a look of devastation on his face then he hid it very well. Bigelow on the other hand deserves everything that she got, it was a brilliant film no question.

Got a comment about this article? Then let me know, I would love to hear what you think and I will do my best to respond!

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