Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
James Cameron: Terminator has run its course
"I've moved on creatively from The Terminator, so I'm not really interested in that imagery and even those ideas anymore—and I'm not sure the world is that interested either. It's run its course, I feel."
As evidence of this, he points to this summer's disappointing Terminator Salvation, which attempted to continue the series without Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"His persona was part of The Terminator, and when you uncouple those, you get Terminator Salvation, which is actually a fine film from a pure filmmaking standpoint—it just doesn't gel up into anything mind-blowing."
Some additional comments from a recent interview with Total Film
TF: What did you make of Terminator Salvation?
JC: It didn't quite have the emotional power that it should have had.I thought Sam [Worthington] was great, very powerful, and Christian [Bale]...people have criticised him for being one-note but that's part of the character.He was playing a guy who's furiously deicated to the survival of the human species.Maybe more could have been done with that.In T2 we showed the consequences.It drove Sarah insane.
TF: Was McG the man for the job?
JC: McG's a strong shooter and he honoured the iconic touchstones of the first two movies-almost too much so.I actually felt Salvation is like Aliens, in that it's a fan making a sequel to a movie they loved.
Sources: Sci Fi Wire/The Toronto Sun/Total Film #162 (King of the World: The Complete Works of James Cameron)
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Friday, December 18, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
'Avatar' Footage Impressions
Originally published on August 23, 2009
Avatar is a highly anticipated film.The reasons are obvious: it's the first J.Cameron film in more than a decade, the first since 'Titanic', it's a film, with brand-new technology, that promises to change the way we view cinema.Of course, one of the key factors to the success of 'Avatar' is its promotion.In an interesting move, a global event was organised, to promote the film, months before its release.
When i saw the first trailer, i was kind of underwhelmed, but i liked what i saw.Last Friday, it was 'Avatar' day.Almost 20 minutes of footage were shown in 3D, in cinemas around the world.I was one of the people, who saw the footage (which consists of 4 scenes, with a brief introduction by J.Cameron, and no major spoilers).I was certainly impressed.It seems that 3D is used to add depth to the image, and not as a simple gimmick.The film uses brand new technology internally developed in the director's studio, and the results are evident.You may not realise it, but most of the footage is computer-generated.The landscapes seem real, and you could say the same for the creatures and the Na' avi/Avatars.Pandora is a living, breathing world, and there were some really impressive shots.The purpose of the preview is to introduce us to the film, and to some of the characters, and this purpose is achieved.
It's going to be a long wait until December...
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
'Avatar' footage impressions
Avatar is a highly anticipated film.The reasons are obvious: it's the first J.Cameron film in more than a decade, the first since 'Titanic', it's a film, with brand-new technology, that promises to change the way we view cinema.Of course, one of the key factors to the success of 'Avatar' is its promotion.In an interesting move, a global event was organised, to promote the film, months before its release.
When i saw the first trailer, i was kind of underwhelmed, but i liked what i saw.Last Friday, it was 'Avatar' day.Almost 20 minutes of footage were shown in 3D, in cinemas around the world.I was one of the people, who saw the footage (which consists of 4 scenes, with a brief introduction by J.Cameron, and no major spoilers).I was certainly impressed.It seems that 3D is used to add depth to the image, and not as a simple gimmick.The film uses brand new technology internally developed in the director's studio, and the results are evident.You may not realise it, but most of the footage is computer-generated.The landscapes seem real, and you could say the same for the creatures and the Na' avi/Avatars.Pandora is a living, breathing world, and there were some really impressive shots.The purpose of the preview is to introduce us to the film, and to some of the characters, and this purpose is achieved.
It's going to be a long wait until December...
Read more!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
SDCC 2009: 'Avatar' Impressions Roundup
[Photo from the 'Avatar' video game]
-- "25 minutes of Avatar in 3D played, and it surpassed all expectations and anything the guy who gave us Terminator 2 has ever done. What Cameron has done with CGI and performance capture, and making it look photo-real in 3D, is akin to what Miyazaki has done with animation." -- Phil Pirrello, IGN
-- "Basically, today James Cameron walked into a room with 6,000 people and pulled out his dick and slapped it on the table. With an HD camera pointing right at it ... Avatar is really, really, really, really cool. It is not photoreal." -- Drew McWeeney, HitFix
-- "Sorry, folks, but while the most fully realized and wholly immersive CGI achievement in cinematic history probably won't cure peptic ulcers or reverse male-pattern-baldness, it will definitely make you go "whoa" more times than Keanu Reeves on his first visit to the Long Beach Aquarium." -- Seth Abramovitch, Movieline
-- "Cameron proves again that he can combine high-octane thrills with human drama, creating palpable emotional depth both for and between the characters even as he subjects them to physical derring-do that otherwise seems impossible." -- Todd Gilchrist, Cinematical
-- "This is an evolutionary jump, not a revolutionary leap. I didn't experience movies in a whole new way, and nothing I saw on screen left me feeling more than impressed. What the movie represents is someone putting real money into the current CGI and mocap tech and shoving it an extra step forward." -- Devin Faraci, CHUD.com
-- "What I saw were glimpses at a fantastic bit of storytelling, a rich fantasy tale, by a master of the artform, but the CGI creatures and characters are just that. They're amazingly executed, no doubt, but it's not like when you saw your first CG dinosaur and you said, "This is a game changer" to yourself." -- Quint, AICN
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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Mind-Blowing 'Avatar' Footage Screened in Amsterdam (CinemaExpo)
Quotes:
"Overall I was really impressed by what I saw. The effects are in a league of their own." ... "It took my breath away. I thought–just like you guys–that I've seen it all with Gollum, or The Hulk, but Cameron has done it again. These creatures seem so real, that within minutes you forget you're watching an enormous and very blue CGI character. Even the eyes are totally convincing. The characters have real personalities and a soul." -- Coming Soon
"The audience afterwards was stunned. Everyone just gasped, wondered and just couldnt believe what they saw." ... "Until now, all we saw was the base in 3D, mostly humans and now the 2 N'avi Avatars. They look NOTHING like the drawing you've seen. They're living creatures with blue skin, bigger yellow eyes than humans with tails. The avatars even look like their human connectors. You will NOT believe the detail." ..."
The world outside is amazing. It all lives, breathes and works." -- MarketSaw
"It makes me want to create a time machine like Cartman from South Park, so that I don't have to wait till the 18th of December to watch the finished movie. If it's anything like the scenes I saw, it's going to be one of the best movies of the decade." -- IESB
[via SciFi Squad]
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
E3 2009: James Cameron talks about 'Avatar' (Movie and Game)
From the Ubisoft press briefing
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Sunday, May 31, 2009
'Avatar' Concept Art
Avatar tells the story of a paraplegic ex-marine war veteran (Sam Worthington) who's sent to establish a human settlement on the distant planet of Pandora, but winds up in a battle against the planet's indigenous population, the Na'vi.
For full-resolution pics and more info: 'Avatar' Concept Art
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Saturday, May 16, 2009
Salvation by cyborg: McG helms next chapter in 'Terminator' saga
By Ethan Alter, filmjournal.com
April 27,2009
It's safe to say that any die-hard Terminator fan would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of the office where Joseph McGinty Nichol met with James Cameron to discuss Terminator Salvation, the fourth installment in one of most successful science-fiction franchises of all time. In one corner you had Cameron, who co-wrote and directed the original Terminator in 1984 and went on to make such revered action films as Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Lies. And in the other corner sat Nichol—or, as he's more commonly credited, McG—a music-video director who broke into feature filmmaking with the Charlie's Angels movies, which were filled with the kind of silly, deliberately over-the-top set-pieces Cameron has always avoided. Now McG was about to continue the Terminator legacy and he felt he couldn't do so without first paying homage to its creator in person.
"I wanted to be respectful and tell Jim that I intended to honor what he put into motion," says the 38-year-old, Michigan-born, California-raised director, on the phone from his L.A. office. "And I believed him when he told me that he finished telling the story at the end of the second film. So I brought it to him that the story was still worth exploring because [Terminator Salvation] was about the future war between the machines and humanity. He nodded his head and said, ‘That's interesting’ and went on to talk about how when he was making Aliens, everyone thought he was full of shit. Like 'Who does this guy think he is, following Ridley Scott?' Remember, he had only made a few films by that time. He wished me well, but added, 'I reserve the right not to like it.' And I said, 'That's fine, I reserve the right not to like [Cameron's new film] Avatar.' And we laughed as two directing colleagues would and that was that. I look forward to having a private screening [of the finished movie] with Jim, most likely at [Hollywood super-agent] Ari Emanuel's screening room. It's neutral turf, so if we get into a fistfight, Ari can break it up!"
Salvation by cyborg: McG helms next chapter in 'Terminator' saga
Read also: The Battle for Terminator 5
Terminator Salvation: Beyond the Charismatic Killing Machine
Read more!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Clash of the Titans Casting News
In March,it was reported that Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace),Sam Worthington (Avatar,Terminator Salvation),Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale,After the Wedding) and Alexa Davalos (Defiance,Chronicles of Riddick) joined the cast of the Louis Letterier (Transporter 2,Incredible Hulk) remake.The Hollywood Reporter reports that Liam Neeson has signed on and Ralph Fiennes is in final negotiations.Neeson will play Zeus,king of the gods and father of Perseus (Sam Worthington). Fiennes will play Hades, ruler of the underworld who aims to overtake Zeus and rule over all. Read more!
