"I See You" beautiful piano acoustic

This performance is truly amazing. I, myself, play piano, and find myself yearning to play this. Maybe, when I have time, I'll buy the sheet music. Oh happy day!

Awesome Avatar Trivia

 

• The word "Na'vi" in Hebrew means "prophet". A Na'vi is a visionary or someone who communicates directly with god. Its pleural "Nevi'im" refers to the prophetic books of the bible including Judges, Kings, and Isaiah.
• "Avatar" is Sanskrit for "incarnation". It is used extensively in Hindu scriptures to refer to human incarnations of God.
  
• According to James Cameron, the Na'vi are blue to create a conceptual parallel with traditional Hindu depictions of God (e.g., in the forms of Vishnu, Shiva, Rama, Krishna, etc.), but also because "I just like the color blue."
  
• Ey'wa, the deity of the Na'vi people, is a mixed-up pronunciation of "Yahweh", the God of the Hebrews.
• Sam Worthington said in an interview that it was easier for him to master the Na'vi language than the American accent.
• Matt Damon and Jake Gyllenhaal were the studio's first choice to play Jake Sully, but James Cameron decided to cast an unknown Sam Worthington in the lead role.

More After the Jump!

Who Doesn't Love Trudy?

Michelle Rodriguez has hinted that she may return in James Cameron's ocean-set sequel to Avatar.

The actress played pilot Trudy Chacon in the first film, who died during the final battle. She told Total Film that she would like to work with Cameron again.

She said: "Jim Cameron can kill me anytime. It's a pleasure to die for him! But Jim'll tell you himself... in science fiction films nobody really dies".

"I would work with him in a heartbeat. He's so intelligent. He's like Yoda, man."

Avatar 2 is set to be released in 2014, with a further sequel coming the following year.

Avatar Novel and More?

You won't see a sequel to James Cameron's Avatar in movie theaters for the next few years, according to the director, but that doesn't mean that you'll be starved of new product set in Pandora. Speaking at a press event to promote next month's 3-disc Blu-Ray release of a new special edition of the movie, Cameron talked about plans to make Avatar into the next Star Wars.

Although the next two Avatar movies - which will be shot back-to-back and released a year apart, if all goes to plan - are years away (Cameron said that he wants to make them right now, but he has to wait until the technology is in place for what he wants to do; he talked about needing to "future proof" the movies so that they'll not seem outdated five or six years from now), Cameron hasn't abandoned Pandora. He's currently working on the Avatar novel, which he described as "a big project" that won't just adapt the movie, but expand it in scope considerably, going back three decades before the opening of the movie and also containing unseen and unhinted-at plots and characters from the same period as happened at the same time as what was seen on screen. "What I want to do is say, if this movie was based on a book, what would that book be?" he explained. And it'll be more than just fiction - He revealed that he also sees this novel as "a bible" that will be used as a guide for other writers to create their own Avatar stories in "spin-off novels, graphic novels and comic books." Sound ambitious? That's because James Cameron is ambitious when it comes to Avatar; when he talked about the movie's competition, he said "We're competing with Star Wars who have a 30 year head-start, but we have to compete with the Tolkien universe, the Star Trek universe [and] the Star Wars universe."

The Amazon Rainforest and Avatar II

One of the things that didn't get as much attention as it probably should have about the announcement that James Cameron has agreed to make Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 his next projects was that, in order to convince him, 20th Century Fox made a "huge donation" to his environmental green fund. If that doesn't underline Cameron's dedication to the cause, then perhaps A Message To Pandora will. (See all of Techland's Avatar coverage)

Pandora, a 20 minute documentary that appears on the special edition Blu-Ray of Avatar released next Tuesday, is the result of two trips Cameron made to the Amazon rainforest at the invitation of the organization Amazon Watch and documents Cameron's experience meeting the indigenous and riverbank communities whose way of life is threatened by Brazil's $17 million Belo Monte Dam project - A project that would divert the flow of the Xingu River and, in the process, displace more than 20,000 people. Sound eerily familiar?

It wasn't just the parallels between the battle over the Belo Monte Dam and Avatar that moved Cameron to action - he's been an environmental activist for years ("Really since my teenage years," he said in an interview earlier this year) - but the success of Avatar has led him to be more active on the topic. In addition to using the popularity of the movie to bring attention to the plight of the people living along the Xingu, he's also spoken out about the extraction of the Alberta Tar Sands, been part of the think tank to deal with the BP oil spill and gave $1 million to the campaign against California's Prop 23 to suspend the state's global warming law (The proposition was defeated last week).

Unlike many celebrities, he's realistic about his activism; at the recent press launch of the Avatar special edition Blu-Ray, he said that it wasn't enough to simply lend his name to a cause:

"The first question I ask is, what can [I] really do? You have to make a commitment to follow-up, it can't just be a drive-by. I'm not delusional enough to think a movie can change the world. I have to follow it up with direct action."

Of course, that direct action can take many forms, whether it's traveling to the Amazon to see what's going on first hand, making a documentary about that trip to show others, or getting a multinational corporation to give a lot of money to environmental causes as a way of convincing you to make a movie that will inspire even more people to activism through heavily environmental themes. Maybe a movie really can change the world, after all.

(Article provided by Techland) http://techland.time.com/2010/11/11/how-the-amazon-rainforest-made-avatar-2-a-priority/#ixzz17e79CxrZ

Another Avatar Music Mash-up.

Wonderful Movie Insights via YouTube!

Cameron confirms AVATAR sequels and Novel

 

Returning to Pandora is now a sure thing, according to James Cameron. The colourful Canadian-born filmmaker plans to direct two Avatar sequels himself, he said this week at his Hollywood studio. "It's in progress right now," Cameron said. "I mean, there's a lot of writing, a lot of designing, a lot of tech work that we're going to do. What I can tell you is this: Our plan right now is to make II and III together as a single large production, and release them a year apart."But the process might take five or six years.

"There shouldn't be any surprise there," he said, mocking himself. While perfecting new Avatar technology, he might make another movie first, Cameron explained during presentations to promote the Nov. 16 release of the Extended Collector's Edition of the original Avatar on Blu-ray.

Meanwhile, Cameron is writing an Avatar novel, with 30 years of back story. He also is deeply involved with eco-activist causes that solicited him after the phenomenal success of Avatar, which is driven by an environmental theme. His focus includes fighting the Alberta tar sands development, which Cameron says is "poisoning" First Nations people and creating "cancer clusters" in communities downstream from the massive oil extraction projects.

THE SEQUELS: Cameron says he wants to make sure that breakthrough technology that turned Avatar into a spectacle is now pushed forward. "We need to future-proof ourselves out five, six years to the end of the third film. So we're taking the time now."
His team is "tooling up a new facility" near his current studio just for the sequels. "It's permanent in the sense that it's designed to span two Avatar films. We're laying all the foundation work right now. Nothing is holding us back." But digital technology moves quickly, and Cameron says Avatar convinced him "there are a lot of things we knew we needed to do better." The goal, he says, is to ensure "we're not obsolete when we make the last movie."

James Cameron's thoughts on Sigourney Weaver's character returning for Avatar sequels, despite her apparent death in the first film...

"Who said she died?" Cameron teased with a big grin, "Nobody dies in a science fiction movie. Whether Grace lives or dies depends more on Sigourney's agent than anything.

(Via: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=70922)

THE NOVEL: "The novel is a big project. My idea for the novel is not a novelization -- which I hate -- where you basically just take the script and put it into prose form, and add a few extra adjectives. What I really want to do is say: 'OK, if this movie were based on a book, what would that book have been?' "
Cameron is already deep into it. The novel will end like the first movie. "I don't give you one frame beyond that. But how about the 30 years before Jake gets to Pandora?"

THE ECO-ACTIVISM: Cameron says he remains committed to select causes among hundreds he has been approached about. "We've had to be selective because we can't get involved in every single cause everywhere. Even if I devoted the rest of my life to it, we can't do everything."

He intensely researches each cause he does support, including fighting the Alberta tar sands project. The goal there is to get the Alberta government and the oil companies to mitigate the effects of pollution, Cameron says.

"It's not me," he said of his influence. "A year ago I couldn't have stood up and done all that stuff -- and nobody would have asked me to. It's really that the movie has created this kind of global consciousness around this idea that we have to do something about our relationship with nature. I'm also not, by the way, delusional that a movie can change the world. But I do believe that, if you put a foot in the right direction and then you follow up ... But I can't wait until I make another Avatar movie (to act). There are too many important things that are happening right now."

(via Toronto Sun: http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/movies/2010/10/22/15791561.html)

Wild Blue Yonder

James Cameron is preparing to dive to the deepest point of the oceans as part of research for a sequel to Avatar, his 3-D epic. He has commissioned Australian engineers to build a deep sea submersible which can reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench - 11,000m down in the western Pacific - after deciding to set the film in the turbulent waters of Pandora, an alien moon.

More After the Jump!!

Avatar Invades Fashion Week! (updated)

And here's great big THANK YOU to Australian Fashion designer Camilla Franks for including inspiration from Pandora. She also went to the great trouble of delicately painting up some of the models to look like Na'vi. Absolutely Fabulous. Here are all of the photos I could find, including the fashion, which is beautiful.

More after the Jump!

James Cameron on Re-Release, Sequel, BP Oil spill, and more...

With the re-release of Jame's Cameron's epic "Avatar" today, speculation, questions, and interviews are flying.  Here I have excerpts from two different interviews Jim gave to MTV and The Oregonian.

The fanbase that's built up around the film is massive, and it's understandable: director James Cameron crafted a fully fleshed out universe for his story to live in. There's so much depth that a companion book was released. And still fans want to know more. MTV's Eric Ditzian and Kara Warner did a deep-dive interview with Cameron and producer Jon Landau in an effort to answer some of those last lingering questions.

Hit the jump to learn whether people age during deep space travel, why the movie was set in 2154 and more!

Re-Release This August!

When the AVATAR re-release hits theaters on August 27 get ready for 9 new minutes of never-before-seen footage of life on Pandora. Although Cameron originally planned 8 minutes, the final cut includes 9. One of the deleted scenes includes Tsu-tey's death: "There's a pretty powerful emotional scene at the end which is Tsu'tey's death ... which happens off-camera in the original release. [In the original film] he kind of falls off the back of the shuttle and that's the last that you see of him but here we follow through. We have this emotional scene with Jake [Sully] and Neytiri and some other Na'vi that gather around him in the forest," Cameron said. Cameron also says the additional AVATAR scenes include four major moments, each a few minutes long that center on when the helicopter first lands in the Pandora rainforest. There's also a new creature that turns up: the Sturmbeest. The director also said the scenes that were reinstated in the re-release version are big on non-stop action.

Cameron also revealed that he's talked to the studio about shooting Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 sequels back-to-back. “We’re actually talking about [doing 2 and 3] back to back. That’s not a decision yet but that’s something that makes a lot of sense given the nature of these productions because we can bank all the capture and go back and do cameras over a period of time… cause the way these sort of back to back productions fall apart is you’re trying to do two live-action films back to back and you’re working on it for like a year and a half shooting. Everybody’s dead- it’s not humanly possible. But this type of film it absolutely would work.”

Create Your Own Avatar!

Created by *dolldivine, I give this credit as one of the most comprehensive amateur interactive Flash games I've seen in years. The creator has given an amazing amount of in depth thought to the wide variety of body and clothing options. This production obviously took some time and thought to make. It is easy to see how the Doll Divine craze has swept Deviantart.com by storm. I recommend this game to my fellow Avatar fans because it really is as fun as it looks! The creations are endless.

Doll Divine: Avatar Character Creator

Avatar Sequal May Already be in Production...

Speculation about a sequel to AVATAR started before the movie was released. AVATAR’s success has ensured that sequel. Rumors are flying. Who will be in it and what will it be like? Here's what we know so far from comments by James Cameron, John Landau and members of the cast.

AVATAR’s sequel will be about Neytiri and Jake, but it is unlikely to be called AVATAR 2. According to SciFiWire, Cameron has confirmed that the Na’vi culture, including the spiritual aspects, will be a focus point for the movie. "Certainly I don't want to call it AVATAR 2," Cameron said "He's not an AVATAR anymore, is he? Maybe we'll call it Na'vi." James Cameron has said that scenes integral to the sequel were included in the first movie. There are three movies planned at this point, although AVATAR 3 information is mostly speculation on the part of fans.

While Cameron worked on AVATAR for ten years, he expects the making of the first of the AVATAR sequels to be much faster – and cheaper. There will probably be additional technological developments incorporated in the sequels, but the 3D and CGI technology used in AVATAR is already on hand for the making of the first AVATAR sequel. Cameron has confirmed, in interviews with MTV and the LA Times, that there is a trilogy planned, that it will not take ten more years to arrive, and that much of the action in the sequel will take place in the oceans of Pandora. He has also said that the sequel will take place several years after the events in AVATAR.

While the oceans of Pandora were briefly glimpsed in AVATAR with a view of Jake and Neytiri swimming, much more is due to seen in the second movie. Cameron told the LA Times that the oceans would be “rich, diverse, crazy and imaginative”. AVATAR An Activist Survival Guide mentions there are rafts of floating seaweed in the oceans. The book also has an image of the Amenonoid, a bioluminescent invertebrate with poisonous tentacles, found in ponds and lakes. Perhaps there is a larger relation in the oceans…

The sequel is in production, according to IMDB, with a scheduled release date of 2014. Fans of AVATAR are speculating that while Cameron said it will take just three years to make the sequel, the reason it will not be released in 2013 is because The Hobbit I & II are scheduled to be released in late 2012 and 2013. AVATAR’s sequel will have a release date timed not to conflict with the expected blockbusters – most likely 2014. Cameron and 20^th Century Fox seem to be taking to heart the lesson learned when AVATAR’s audience share plummeted with the release of Alice in Wonderland, How to Train your Dragon and Clash of the Titans. Since there are that the Hobbit may be shot in 3D, the conflict for theater space would be even more monstrous if the Hobbit Part 2 was released at the same time as the AVATAR sequel.

It seems to be standard policy in movies that may spawn sequels to have the stars sign agreements for multi-movie contracts when they are first cast in a movie, ensuing continuity. However, not every movie pans out. With the take from AVATAR an estimated 2.7 billion, those signatures are very important. In many ways stars in AVATAR really are avatars with CGI bodies. This does not mean that the actors behind those AVATARs can be replaced easily. The distinctive personal style those actors gave their characters – and their voices – cannot easily be replaced by a different person. While Worthington and Saldana previously signed contracts for sequels to AVATAR, the terms for those contracts are likely to have changed.

More and more of the cast of AVATAR are confirming they are back in the sequel. Jake, Neytiri and Mo’at's actors are all saying they have signed on for the sequel. Curiously, Colonel Quaritch may also be back. “You think those two arrows in my chest are going to stop me from coming back?” said Stephen Lang, who plays the evil Quaritch, "Nothing’s over so long as they’ve got my DNA." Sigourney Weaver, whose character became one with Eywa in AVATAR, is going to return in the sequel too, although it is not known if she will be embodied. She has said that Cameron may be bringing the whole family together again.

Another rumor with some basis in comments by Cameron says that future movies will explore more of Alpha Centauri, especially the other moons of Polyphemus. This certainly would offer some spectacular scenery. Those moons also influence the tides on Pandora, making them important even if they are not explored in the first sequel.

The constructed language of Na’vi has a strong fan community trying to learn it. Those fans will get a vocabulary boost in the second movie. Additional Na’vi dialog and more abstract concepts can be expected as we learn more about the Na’vi spiritual beliefs. The ecological themes in AVATAR have resonated with people around the world, and variations on the themes will play out in the conflicts that can be expected between the Na’vi and the RDA.

With the news that time has passed on Pandora, and a projected release of 2014, the events on Pandora may match the real time passed here on Earth.

article courtesy of: Rebecca Scudder

 Also, it looks like said Sequel may already have a title!


It looks like James Cameron might be going ahead with his Avatar sequel much sooner than we had anticipated.

The first film took him 3 years to make. Well, if 20th Century Fox's newest production schedule is being read correctly then fans can expect to see Cameron's majestical blue world back in theaters in January of 2011.

The production report reads as follows:

January 28 -- Avatar: Na'vi - World Infinity -- Director James Cameron

Cameron was recently asked about this during a press junket for Avatar in Japan.

"Well, you know there is still 40 minutes of unused 3D footage that Avatar lovers, or I should say, the world, would give their eye-teeth to see," he offered. "I actually have the sequel ready to go. I started writing it the day I saw the first 3D images. I knew that no matter what Avatar would have an audience and I wanted to reward them before they even saw the first film."

One reporter mentioned how Cameron is apparently stewing over the fact that Avatar had to leave U.S. screens early to make way for other 3D films. Apparently, he feels this compromised the box office grosses. This might have something to do with getting Avatar: Na'vi - World Infinity out sooner rather than later.

"Yeah... obviously if the 'tar (Cameron's pet name for the film) was the only game in town, the grosses might've been well over $800 billion domestically. Once I realized what was going on I vowed that this wouldn't happen again. This made me really work extra hard at locking down the sequel. As an American I live in a capitalist society. Sure, Pandora is a beautiful planet but if you're not paying the bills those green plants dry up pretty quick, right? You can't knock me for protecting my brand. It's just good business."

Once the director left the press junket, Cameron's own press people were quick to point out that the director never committed to Fox's production announcement. However, when pressed they did acknowledge that he was shooting some footage with certain cast members from the original film (they wouldn't say who), and that the title of the sequel is going to be Avatar: Na'vi - World Infinity.

My Story: Only Hope is Left

Here's my humble continuation of the Avatar story. Read and Enjoy.

The Skypeople have been defeated. Now life must go on. Toruk Makto must lead his people into a new home and a new life. Jake, Neytiri, and their friends try to live a semi-normal life, all the while preparing for the return of the Skypeople.

Chapter 1
Palulukan Makto

Chapter 2
The Beginning of the End

Chapter 3
Toruk Makto

Chapter 4
Half Life

Chapter 5
Interlude

Chapter 6
Hubris

Chapter 7
Homo Sapien

Chapter 8
Death, Rebirth, Renewal

Chapter 9
The Hunt

Chapter 10 
Becoming One of The People






Chapter 11 ( in progress.... )

Amazing Fan Art (Updated)

So this post is a feature about some of the best Avatar Fan Art I've seen on the web. Please enjoy responsibly. Click thumbnails for larger images

 

more after the Jump...

Na'vi Photoshop Tutorials

I've been doing a little bit of searching. These are a few of my favorites. The first is definitely the most in-depth.

http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/photo-editing/angelina-jolie-as-a-na-vi-from-avatar-movie.18062.html

http://www.naviblue.com/hometree/forums/13-Avatar-Fan-Made/61961-Avatar-Tutorial-!#61961

http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/photo-editing/na-vi-avatar-photo-manipulation-exclusive-tutorial.18015.html

And here's a fabulous video by mateo785 of his process. Note, it is not a complete tutorial because there a lots of steps left out, but for an experienced hand, it's a great reference and inspiration.

Na'vi Name Generator

Kaltxi everyone. So I've been looking at the few available Na'vi name generators, and there really isn't much selection. So I thought I'd make my own, using names from the movie, game, and variations on similar languages to Na'vi. Check it out. It's pretty fly.

The Better Na'vi Name Generator 

Cameron Talks Science of Avatar

At Caltech this past Tuesday, James Cameron got together with heavy-hitting scientists to discuss the science behind Avatar.  Cameron explained his theories behind giant flying dinosaurs, floating rocks, and space travel with assembled specialists.  He was quick to acknowledge that the film is science fiction, but the explanatory “reverse-engineering”, as he described it, occupies a staggering 400 to 500 pages on the film’s wiki.

Some things, like the science of unobtaniam, was consciously designed from the beginning (in case you didn’t know, it’s a room-temperature super conductor used in yet-to-be-built fusion generators).  Others started with a “cool image,” like the moon circling a blue gas giant or men jumping out of hugheys (not the first time Cameron has tackled images of Vietnam in Sci-Fi).  When a reporter mentioned the “Epic” story, the directory quickly pointed out that many films attempt a mythic arc but are unsuccessful.  When asked for an example he said, “Krull.”  The student asking had never seen it. Whether or not all the pieces fit, it became apparent that Cameron really knows his engineering/physics/botany/biology/etc.  He waxed scientific on everything from undersea thermal colonies to high energy magnetic systems.  Cameron also mentioned what his future film plans might be.

Cameron was joined at the panel by Jess F. Adkins (Geochemistry), John P. Grotzinger (Geology), Jared R. Leadbetter (Microbiology), and Robert Hurt (Astronomy).  Before the scientists revealed their impressions of the film, Cameron reminded the audience that it’s science fiction and is meant to create a sense of wonder.  His priority was to make a compelling story, and then to create a scientific backstory to back up the film’s evocative images.  An example is the blue Na’vi, admittedly inspired by Hindu philosophy.  Cameron even wanted multiple arms but that proved too difficult for the actors.  He went with blue and invented backstory along the way.

SPACE TRAVEL
One of the first items addressed was the opening sequence with the spaceship ponderously drifting through space.  Cameron said that he wanted to have the spaceship travel below the speed of light, to avoid “warp speed” and other standard tricks that ignore Einstein’s scribblings.  His craft is propelled through the chilly void by a beam of energy, shot from earth of course.

This causes the ship to approach obscene velocities, but still not enough to span the galaxy.  But that lead to another problem.  If a spaceship can’t travel through a new-rave dance party on its way to work, then its final destination had better be pretty damn close.  They made it as close as possible.  Pandora “exists” in the Alpha Centauri system, the nearest to earth at a paltry 4.5 light years.

UNOBTANIUM?
Unobtanium has actually been around for a while as a euphemism used by disgruntled, budget-strapped engineers.  Cameron co-opted the term for use in the film.  The “hard” science of Avatar envisages unobtanium as a really, really expensive room temperature super-conductor.  But in an interesting aside by the director, he said its main function was metaphor.  Whether it’s furs, gold, or spices, “there’s always some damn thing that some group needs that some group has, that causes them to get in a ship [go there]... and shoot them.”  Cameron then said that the aforementioned summary is the past five hundred years in a historical thumbnail.  Everyone clapped.

JUNGLES AND FLOATING ROCKS
The scientists really started to speak up when the discussion got out of space and into the glowing jungles.  Grotzinger, a geologist for NASA, asked about the dearth of volcanoes.  Cameron responded, “sequel, sequel…”  In fact, they had planned a lot of Volcanism, but it got lost among deadlines and art-departments.  The molecular biologist, Leadbetter, said he got really excited when he saw the soldiers put on gas masks.  Cameron explained that the air of Pandora is toxic with sulfides (as one scientist pointed out, that would produce one hell of an acid downpour).  The air is also very dense, otherwise the creatures we see flying so gracefully would fall to the rocks below.  As for the floating mountains, well, they’re held up with magnets.

The magnetic field around the Tree of Life is so strong that it lifts the nearby, Unobtanium enriched rocks into the air.  Cameron acknowledged one of the slight problems with this idea is that such a field would be so strong it could rip the hemoglobin right out of your skin.  Spontaneous self-explosion does require a certain poetic license.

SCIENTISTS ARE GOOD GUYS
Throughout the dialogue, the scientists expressed their gratitude that Cameron hadn’t portrayed them as “Ted Kazinski” while simultaneously creating a palpable sense of wonder and discovery in the film’s characters.  Cameron agreed that he’s, “...tired of hollywood showing scientists as evil or boring lecturers”, and going further, that they have, “...poetry in their souls.”  It was fascinating to watch the director trail off into latin-speak and sea floor terminology.  Hard to follow at times, but there was a clear sense of mutual respect.  Moreover, it was relieving to see a filmmaker, who cares so deeply about knowledge, engaging with university personnel and scientists.  When Cameron later fielded questions from students (ignoring some of the older, established journalists), he brought an informed opinion to bear on each climate/environmental topic, even occasionally, and courteously, correcting the questioner.

SEQUEL
Cameron is aleady planning a sequel.  He plugged Fox’s Avatar Tree Initiative (which, regardless of how cynical you may be, is a good thing).  I doubt that Murdoch, or whoever, would be interested in a post-facto environmental PR event unless there was some Avatar promo value. After all, they are planting a million trees.  Cameron was quick to point out that even one million was a drop in the bucket.

After the panel I asked Cameron if he would return to films with darker themes, after the environmental victory of Avatar.  He said that he is really interested in developing the world of Avatar and working on the story, then quickly added he hasn’t officially decided yet.
 
courtesy of   http://blogs.indiewire.com