Among the scenes on the DVD/Blu Ray, fans will get to see an alternate four-and-a-half-minute opening set on Earth, where audiences will get to see a “polluted, dystopian Earth” to contrast the beauty of Pandora.

Cameron gave some insight on what lead to the scene’s absence in the film: “It was very late in the day that we took it out. I walked in one day and said to my two editors, ‘Guys, I want each of you to cut a new version of the start of the film, reel one, that doesn’t have any Earth in it at all.’ And they looked at me like I was out of my mind. And I said, ‘No — it’s gonna work.’ They had to figure out the details. I said, ‘Just grab a couple of things to use as flashbacks, and start it in space when Jake opens his eyes.’”

The box set will also have forty-five minutes of deleted scenes separate from the new edit.  The film would be about three and a half hours if all of the cut scenes were edited back into the movie.

Source: http://www.collider.com/2010/08/27/avatar-dvd-blu-ray-earth-opening-deleted-scenes/

Producer Jon Landau told the Hollywood Reporter, “There’s a whole new scene that takes place in the (Na’vi) school, there’s more night bioluminescence, there’s new creatures, and there is a new action scene. The scenes don’t just feel like added scenes — they are very organic to the story and embellish it.”

Fans will get to judge the new scenes for themselves when Avatar: Special Edition is released on DVD and Blu-Ray in November.  In 2D, of course.

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3ia4556ea7eb5985d2766fcd67146fbf56

Avatar Promo

MTV has speculated a list of possible scenes that will accompany the re-release.  Cameron himself already has confirmed that a sex scene between Jake (in Avatar form) and Neytiri was cut from the original version- which cut away as things got heated.  The re-release may include the scene, revealing how exactly the Na’vi mate…in case anyone was wondering.

Click the link below to see MTV’s speculated list of deleted scenes.

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/07/08/avatar-returns-to-theaters-with-new-scenes-but-what-are-we-going-to-see/

http://io9.com/5439885/deleted-avatar-sex-scene-opens-up-some-serious-bestiality-issues

According to The Wall Street Journal, he already has a novel in the works in an attempt to expand on the world of Pandora and the characters in the ‘Avatar’ universe. “There are things you can do in books that you can’t do with films”, the filmmaker conceded. And let’s not forget that this was a film that was cooking inside Cameron’s head for almost two decades; surely there’s more goods where the most successful movie of all time came from. Check out the article for yourself and catch ‘Avatar’ in 3D IMAX while you still can… ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is just around the corner.

This news of course comes less than a month after Sam Raimi’s decision to flee from the most successful endeavor of his career, so he can focus on smaller, more personal projects. The studio reported shortly thereafter that Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) was signed-on to direct the as-yet-untitled new film. Cameron’s involvement shouldn’t be a total shocker though, since he wrote a now infamous treatment for ‘Spiderman’ back in the ’90s. How much of that treatment will translate to Marc Webb’s film? That’s still up in the air. But it is certainly a monumental step in the right direction after the incalculable drudgery that was ‘Spider Man’. And yes… considering Mr. Cameron’s involvement, we will probably be seeing some web shooters in 3D.

Where, for instance, was ‘Star Trek’ in the lineup? Not only was that film a swift, compelling piece of entertainment in and of itself, but it was maybe the most successful franchise upstart (or in this case, reboot) in the last decade. MTV.com posted an interesting article that highlighted some of the Academy’s most overlooked films in terms of science fiction (’Blade Runner’ and ‘The Matrix’ to name a few).

Tune in to the Academy Awards on March 7 to see for yourself which way the votes will go.

http://www.ugo.com/movies/the-last-airbender-super-bowl-ad-exclusive-first-look

First, you need to remember that this screening was held months before even the poster art for the film was released. All that was known about the elusive project was that it was going to be the most technologically significant instance in cinema since the introduction of Technicolor (or so Cameron notoriously insisted). Virtually every question the audience could come up with was an attempt to extract some morsel of substantiated information about Avatar that they could go home and blog about. Cameron didn’t budge on much in the way of the story, but he did offer some candid information regarding the work that went into achieving such extraordinary images. At the time, without any kind of visual reference, it felt like a lot of mile-a-minute technobabble; you needed a dictionary in your pocket just to keep. Regardless, it all sounded assuredly revolutionary, and time, of course, ultimately proved that it was.

Popularmechanics.com recently posted a dizzying interview with Cameron that goes in-depth about the technical process of bringing the film to life. It’s remarkable how well spoken the man is off the cuff. The video interview is an absolute must for those who are interested in the filmmaking process, or anybody who wants to take a stab at understanding just how the hell this man managed to transport you to another planet. Watch it for yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aao0YSITuxc

First of all, Cameron’s decision to release three versions of the film simultaneously (standard, IMAX and IMAX 3-D) guarantees a minimum of fifteen screenings per theatre, per day. On top of that, there’s the ballooning cost of movie tickets in general over the last decade. When Titanic was released, tickets topped out at about $7.00. Comparatively today, a regular-priced, non-matinee screening goes for an easy $10.00.  You can go ahead and double that if you plan on seeing the film in IMAX 3-D (which you, the audience, are told is the only way you should experience it). What’s more, Avatar will be enjoying a prolonged stint in IMAX theatres. For most films, spending a month in IMAX is about all you can hope for, but that didn’t stop Cameron from booking them for four solid months (we’ll see, maybe more).

So what’s really propelling Avatar to that of box-office legend? Is it the inflation? The 3-D? The lure of giant smurfs? Maybe the answer is much purer than all that. Maybe you just can’t put a price on a big, bold, transcendent movie-going experience.