All screenplays on the simplyscripts.com and simplyscripts.net domain are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. This screenplaymay not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
Yeah this is gonna be a spectacle, that's for sure. Even if the story itself sucks, which is basically impossible seeming how its James freaking Cameron writing the script, at least we'll have something amazing to look at. Though I think the story and the characters will be top notch, it seems to be Cameron's strong point: creating a great plot with believable characters AND having kick-ass action. He has always done it really, really well and thank God he's finally getting back to it.
Looks like there is already some controversy surrounding the name of James Cameron's sci-fi epic. Again, this is taken from http://www.comingsoon.net:
Quoted Text
According to Variety, M. Night Shyamalan and Paramount are planning their own "Avatar" project, based on the popular Nickelodoen kids TV series.
The filmmaker has signed a three-picture deal with Paramount's MTV Films and Nick Movies to adapt the animated children's series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" for the big screen. He will write, direct and produce the potential kids franchise. The film version will be live-action.
Nick TV's "Avatar" follows the adventures of the successor to a long line of Avatars who must put aside his irresponsible ways and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations. The show was created by Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
The trade adds that Paramount confirmed the deal with Shyamalan just hours after 20th Century Fox announced it has given the green light to James Cameron's Avatar.
Although they may have the same name, the two projects have nothing to do with each other in terms of storylines. Cameron's is a sci-fi action-adventure that he's been working on for 11 years.
Paramount said it has registered the name of its project with the Motion Picture Association of America. A Fox rep said, "We own the movie title 'Avatar.' There won't be another film called 'Avatar' coming from anyplace."
Recent, uncited rumour puts the budget of James Cameron's 3-D epic at somewhere around two hundred and forty million dollars. I think this would replace King Kong as the most expensive film ever made. At least I think it was King Kong. I could be making that last part up.
I heard Superman Returns was budgeted at $260 million, but I seriously don't know where all that cash went because it definately didn't look as though it made it into the finished film, I think someone has bagged a lot of it for themselves. That's partially why I was so surprised when I read the early draft of Avatar. I thought that if Superman Returns had a $260 million budget, and it wasn't even a particularly good film, what the hell is Avatar going to be budgeted at?!
Superman Returns director Bryan Singer has said in a couple of interview that the budget of $260 million was complete rumour and that the final budget for his film was $184.5 million.
And according to a clip on my local news, Avatar is budgeted at $190 million, which makes more sense to me. This could be after all the money it took to develop the camera systems and what not, but this is all just speculation.
I just briefly read over the early Avatar scriptment again (maybe I shouldn't say that in case I get shot LOL!), and I suddenly realised that the more and more I was reading, the more and more parallels I was beginning to draw with The Matrix. I'm not supposing that Cameron copied the Wachowski brothers or anything, quite the opposite, it seems like they copied a lot from him!
It's been common knowledge that Cameron has been working on Avatar for over ten years now. In fact the scriptment must have been read by many filmmakers in the industry before it was eventually pulled off the net, because it even made it into the list of top-twelve unproduced scripts in Hollywood! So Cameron has been working on this film for a long time, since before The Matrix even came out, which means that the Wachowski's would have had ample time to study it and perhaps pilfer from it for their film.
I know that a lot of The Matrix was copied from the "Ghost in the Shell" anime (If that's the right one), but I can definately compare some of the elements from that film with Cameron's Avatar. Without giving too much away, what about those giant, human-like robots in the third Matrix, with the guys strapped into them and with the built-in machine guns on the robot's forearms? Those are in Avatar, and are very similar in nature and usage.
And what about all the biblical/Greek terminology used in The Matrix films? Like Morpheus, Trinity, Zion and the Nebuccadnezzer (apologies for the spelling on that last one). There are a lot of mythological Greek names used in Avatar as well, and in just the same way. This is just speculation, but it makes sense when you think about it!
And also, the haggard crews on the ships and in the mess-halls are very similar in the two films, as are the types of ships themselves. And the fact that the crews have to eat "synthetic vitamins and minerals", as stated in the first Matrix, is basically identical to a line of narrative in Avatar.
And, obviously to anyone who has already read the scriptment, the biggest comparison of all is the switch of consciousness from the human body to another body via some sort of neurological link, which we all saw in The Matrix trilogy. This integral element is almost completely identical in the two films, except that Cameron makes much better use of it in terms of drama and action.
There are a lot more similarities between the two films but I'm not going to get into it because it would take too long! But all this, combined with all the stuff that the Wachowski's copied from the anime's, i.e. the Agents and also the switch of consciousness, makes me wonder whether they came up with any original material at all! This has been bugging me for some time and I just wanted to bring it up while the thread is still alive.
Here is the link to a really fantastic interview with writer/director James Cameron. You'll also get a little more info on his upcoming adaption of Battle Angel:
James Cameron recently talked with Ain't It Cool News on his way back from shooting three days of live action work in Kauai for Avatar. In the conversation, he confirmed more members of the cast:
Wes Studi, Sigourney Weaver (confirmed as Grace), Peter Mensah, Joel David Moore, C.C.H. Pounderand and Laz Alonso.
Cameron will now begin a stage of the production called Pre-Capture with stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. You can read more on Cameron's comments here.
-Zavier
Though earth and man are gone, I thought the cube would last forever. I WAS WRONG.
I read James Cameron's comments and have to say I think he's definately going to keep us well updated throughout this production. He seems to understand how powerful the internet is and that it's good to keep his fans in his circle. I'm excited about the addition of Sigourney Weaver to the cast! Casting such an extablished actress as Weaver makes me realise that Cameron still knows what he's doing.
Oh this is fantastic. I'd heard the rumours of Sigourney Weaver's involvement on the film, but confirmation is pretty exciting. And, again, this movie is going to rock.
I don't know about everybody else, but it seems so fresh for me to hear that James Cameron is out there shooting a movie again. And not just any movie, a truly groundbreaking movie, which will be thought provoking, as well as visually stunning and entertaining. Hopefully Avatar will breathe some life back into the sci-fi genre. It really is one of the best genre's of the movie-making art.
Avatar, James Cameron's long-awaited non-doc follow-up to his 1997 Oscar-winning blockbuster Titanic, has claimed its date of release, and it's going to be hitting theatres on Memorial Day weekend in 2009. That's in just 27 short months for those who want to start standing in line.
With a cast that includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver, Cameron's sci-fi epic is about a wounded ex-marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival.
If you're into the technical side of this movie, click the link below to watch a video from an Australian show called "Beyond Tomorrow", which goes into some great detail about the new HD 3D camera system that Cameron and his team have been developing for Avatar.
The first real image (that I can recall) is up over at the New York Times, along with a depressing article regarding the possible future of 3-D films. Check out the image below and if you want to read the article, that can be found here but the NYT requires you to register and log in. I'm guessing this bed is where people go to recover after watching Avatar and suffering a massive overdose of awesome.
Though earth and man are gone, I thought the cube would last forever. I WAS WRONG.
Pages: 
Author
Avatar
Logged
