Sci-Fi movies, more than any other, are the target of Hollywood’s new 3D craze. Just about every decent, science fiction blockbuster being release this year will require the use of goofy glasses. And while 3D is fun, a lot of people are starting to wonder whether we really need 3D on every film. In fact the people asking that question includes the guy who’s largely responsible for this new fad: James Cameron.

Cameron’s Avatar is a big part of why Hollywood’s so hot for 3D. But he’s not sure it’s a good thing. Cameron vented his frustration to Deadline today:

I shoot complicated stuff, I put real elements into action scenes and honestly, I am not sold right now on the conversion process. [...] Right now, it looks like fake 3D, with layers that are very apparent. You go to the screening room, you are hoping to be thrilled, and you’re thinking, huh, this kind of sucks. People can say whatever they want about my movies, but they are technically precise, and if this isn’t going to be excellent, I don’t want to do it. And it is my choice.

read this entry »

Talking to Le Grande Journal Weaver revealed that she’s spoken to James Cameron about Avatar 2 and she plans to reprise her role as Dr. Grace Augustine… even though by the end of the first movie Grace was very, very dead.

Should that have come with a spoiler warning? Oh come on, if you haven’t seen Avatar by now you’re probably never going to. read this entry »

James Cameron wants to fill in some of the gaps left in our knowledge of Pandora, and I’m not talking about explaining why Michelle Rodriguez basically commits suicide for no reason. Instead MTV says he’s working on writing an Avatar prequel. No, it’s not being used as the script for the next movie. Instead the plan is to release it as some sort of companion novel.

“[We] won’t have time to do [these stories] in the movie, or maybe in sequels,” Landau explained of what Cameron will be writing about. “[So the novel will] give a foundation for the world. “It would be something that would lead up to telling the story of the movie, but it would go into much more depth about all the stories that we didn’t have time to deal with — like the schoolhouse and Sigourney [Weaver's character] teaching at the schoolhouse; Jake on Earth and his backstory and how he came here; [the death of] Tommy, Jake’s brother; and Colonel Quaritch, how he ended up there and all that,” Landau explained.

The following parody video would be a lot funnier, if we didn’t all know that somewhere out there, people are actually doing something stupid for real. Some day one of your friends is going to come up to you with a can of blue spray paint and ask you to go hang out with him in the forest. When he does, when that happens, walk away and never speak to that person again. Otherwise, you could end up like this:

Friends don’t let friends participate in Avatar LARP.

And just when you thought the world’s Avatar obsession couldn’t possibly get any worse… there’s this. Palestinians have taken to painting themselves blue and dressing up as Na’vi to protest the Israeli occupation of the west bank, after watching an illegal bootleg of the film.

I’m not quite sure they understand the movie. So they’re saying they’re freakish, impossible to understand aliens and the Israelis are humans? I’m pretty sure if an Israeli said that they’d be a racist. Maybe someone should show them Dances with Wolves. It’s only a matter of time before Fern Gulley is used to recruit terrorist cells.

Mostly they saw an opportunity to get attention. So here it is. Their attention. Check out the protest:

There are far worse ways to protest. Why not have a little pop culture fun while you do it, thus eliminating any chance that your cause will be taken seriously. I look forward to a bright, happy future when all protestors will be forced to dress as Ewoks.

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and unless you want to spend the rest of the year sleeping on the couch, odds are you’re making plans to woo the special lady in your life. Or if you are that special lady, you’re making plans to sit back and be wooed. It’s good to be a woman. Love isn’t easy and, no matter how hard we try, things don’t always go as planned. But no matter how your Valentine’s Day turns out, find solace in this simple fact: It could be worse. At least your significant other doesn’t have tentacles. These are the strangest romances in science fiction.

Starman: Jenny Loves An Alien Replica Of Her Husband
In Starman an alien (Jeff Bridges) comes to Earth and, discovering a lock of hair from a woman’s dead husband, decides to re-create himself in her deceased lover’s image. Jenny (Karen Allen) sees him and, confused and conflicted, befriends him. She helps him on his journey to leave Earth and return home, and in the process falls in love with him. But is she in love with the creature who’s impersonating the man she once loved, or is has she convinced herself that the alien is some recreation of the man she misses? Maybe it’s a little of both, but once her star man leaves the planet, this widow’s going to need a lot of therapy. read this entry »

Historically, science fiction has been all but ignored by Hollywood’s “legitimate” awards. Geeks have been forced to go to places like the Saturn Awards, for their favorite genre films to get the attention they deserve. This is the year that changed.

The 2010 Oscar Nominees were announced this morning and not one, but two science fiction films were nominated for Best Picture. The Academy’s expanded ten nominee format allowed both District 9 and Avatar to get recognition. This isn’t some Benjamin Button cop out either. These aren’t standard, Oscar bait dramas which steal a little sci-fi ideology to bring in crowds. By any measure, both films are hard science fiction. The real deal. Geeks are taking over.

Below is the complete list of this year’s Oscar nominees. In addition to Avatar and District 9 sitting comfortably in the Best Picture category, you’ll see movies like Star Trek and Transformers 2 dropped in the technical categories, traditional realm of the forgotten science fiction movie. Not this year. This time it’s different. read this entry »

Avatar’s animators deserve a lot of credit for making the movie’s blue cat people the Na’vi look real, but it takes more than processing power to create realistic characters. To do that, James Cameron put his actors in motion capture suits and had them provide the performances on screen. The following featurette explains how they did it while also giving you a taste of what Avatar might look like with people instead of animated Smurfs. Here’s a hint: You’re better off with the Smurfs. Take a look:

20th Century Fox has just released the full, official plot synopsis for James Cameron’s potentially groundbreaking sci-fi movie Avatar. Word coming out of Comic Con is that this thing’s going to blow our collective minds. For now, read what it’s about and gaze into the eye of an alien.

In the epic action adventure fantasy AVATAR, James Cameron, the director of Titanic, takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination. On the distant moon Pandora, a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love — as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization.

The story’s protagonist, Jake Sully, is an ex-Marine who was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down in combat on Earth. In order to participate in the Avatar program, which will give him a healthy body, Jake agrees to travel to Pandora, a lush rainforest environment filled with incredible life forms – some beautiful, many terrifying. Pandora is also the home to the Na’vi, a humanoid race that lives at what we consider to be a primate level, but they are actually much more evolved than humans. Ten feet tall and blue skinned, the Na’vi live harmoniously within their unspoiled world. But as humans encroach on Pandora in search of valuable minerals, the Na’vi’s very existence is threatened – and their warrior abilities unleashed.

Jake has unwittingly been recruited to become part of this encroachment. Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars are living, breathing bodies in the real world, controlled by a human driver through a technology that links the driver’s mind to the Avatar body. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake can be whole once again. Moreover, he falls in love with a young Na’vi woman, Neytiri, whose beauty is matched by her ferocity in battle.

As Jake slides deeper into becoming one of her clan, he finds himself caught between the military-industrial forces of Earth, and the Na’vi – forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world.

Conceived 14 years ago and over four years in the making, AVATAR breaks new ground in delivering a fully immersive, emotional story and reinvents the moviegoing experience.