Ladies & Gentlemen...James Cameron's Avatar

I remember first hearing about Avatar back around 1995-1996. In fact, it was on the Sci-Fi Channel (pre-retard SyFy) and their weekly news-show Sci-Fi Buzz. You remember that's the one where Harlan Ellison was given 5 minutes to bitch about whatever he so desired at the end of each broadcast.

Anyway, Cameron was working on Titanic (back when it was under it's Planet Ice code-name) and he made mention of Avatar for the first time. What stood out was Cameron talking about it would be a film made up of 100% CG characters - not a single flesh and blood actor in front of the camera. The Internet was in its toddler phase and CG was something only used in mega-budget films back then. So one couldn't help but wonder just what the Hell the film would be about. It was an even bigger question about how it would look.

Well we can officially stop playing up images in our heads as 20th Century Fox has officially unveiled the theatrical trailer for James Cameron's Avatar which you can now check out on Apple in QuickTime.

The floor is yours, ladies and gentlemen. Did the footage live up to the years of hype from Cameron, Fox & Co? I myself will save my thoughts on said trailer for the next edition of our weekly podcast Movie Moan.

Has Salvation Sequel Been Terminated by Bankruptcy Filing?

Honest to Christ, do people still seriously think there's going to be a sequel to Terminator: Salvation?

The LA Times reports on yet another nail in its coffin. Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek (two of the producers behind Salvation and the current owners of the Terminator rights) have filed for bankruptcy. What makes matters worse is their creditors is a hit-list of key players involved in the production of the film. Among those listed include Warner Brothers, McG, Christian Bale, Dan Lin, Paul Haggis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are others listed, but you get the idea.

What this basically means is there's no way you're going to see McG or Bale willing to play ball for Terminator 5 (even though both currently have multi-million dollar options on the table) until they're paid what's already owed to them for Salvation.

As I've previously said, DVD sales aren't going to be a saving factor this time out nor will foreign box-office numbers. Salvation was expected to do $225-250 million stateside and around $500-600 million worldwide. So far, it's earned less than Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. You know, the one that everyone shit on claiming it "destroyed the franchise" while Salvation was in development. Oh, revisionist history.

Yellow Submarine Gets the Motion-Capture Remake Treatment

There's a great thread on the CHUD forum right now that asks the simple question, "If you could go back in time and change something from a movie's production..." (which you can check out right here). One scenario that's yet to be brought up is director Robert Zemeckis' decision to work 100% in the realm of motion-capture films. Maybe one of us should hop into a DeLorean and convince him to stick with live-action.

I mean it was an interesting experiment the first time he went that route with The Polar Express, a film that I liked but took some time for audiences to catch up with during its November 2004 theatrical run. Since then the Back to the Future helmer has directed further motion-capture films Beowulf (still haven't seen it) and the forthcoming A Christmas Carol (don't know anyone whose looking forward to seeing that one!)

Now Variety reveals Zemeckis and Disney are planning to remake the 1960s Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine into yet another 3-D motion-capture production. The Mouse has been working their legal muscle to get clearance on the songs from the original film - which itself is nothing short of a miracle.

I'm not going to bitch about this idea because the motion-capture technology would actually benefit from the trippy nature of Submarine. Plans are currently to have it ready for the Summer 2012 Olympics which will occur in London. How convenient.

Geoff Johns to write Shazam! Movie

I woke just half an hour ago, and one of the first things I do normally is check te main page of SuperheroHype to se eif there's any news I find particularly interesting. So what do i find this morning? One of my all time favorite comic writers, the insanely talented Geoff Johns will be penning the script for the Worlds Mightiest Mortal, Captain Marvel, along with Bill Birch Peter Segal who was previously attached to direct remains on board. Here's what Variety had to say:

Warner Bros. has tapped scribe Bill Birch to reboot "Shazam!," the DC Comics' adaptation of the Captain Marvel story that's being developed as a potential franchise.

"Get Smart" director Peter Segal remains onboard to direct; he'll also produce with his Callahan Filmworks partner Michael Ewing. Geoff Johns will co-write and consult on the project.

Segal and Ewing began working on the film three years ago at New Line before it moved over to Warners. Pic centers on teenaged Billy Batson, who transforms into the superhero when he says the word "Shazam!" The studio is now looking to go back to the original DC Comics source material for inspiration.

Previous drafts have been penned by John August, William Goldman, Bryan Goluboff and the team of Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow.

Birch is currently writing "One Finger Salute" for Warner Bros. with Andrew Lazar producing and Segal attached to direct. He's repped by ICM and Anonymous Content.

I'm insanely excited.  Done right, I really feel that Captain Marvel can be that franchise to appeal to the "Harry Potter" crowd once Potter is finished after Deathly Hallows II.  I mean a kid, who can say a word and transform into a superhero?  What young kid wouldn't love that?  God willing, the film actually gets made this time.

Say the name, feel the power...Shazam!

New Avatar Stills!

Comingsoon.Net has some new stills from James Cameron's long awaited sci fi epic "Avatar." You can check one of them out below and go to the link to see a few more, plus keep it glued to TMT for the trailer that is due on the 21st of August.

Christopher Nolan No Longer A "Prisoner"

"Sign right there and your soul officially belongs to me, Christian."The good folks over at CineFOOLS got the word straight from producer Barry Mendel: "Chris Nolan has dropped out of it."

He's referring to The Prisoner, a film adaptation of the 1960s UK series. If you've seen an episode, you can clearly see the influence it's had on Nolan's work. The project was supposed to be Nolan's follow-up to The Dark Knight. It was announced while he was still up to his eyeballs filming his Batman Begins sequel.

Of course, the fact that Nolan opted to make Inception his next film instead (which is filming as we speak) and AMC recently completed their own Prisoner mini-series makes this announcment not surprisingly in the slightest.

Cut to Internet nerds giving the following reaction to this news-items. That is if they haven't already:

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Does that mean Nolan left so he can do Batman III?!?! *Nerdgasm!*

Just When Two Hobbit Films Weren't Enough...

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was successful in every way imaginable - huge box-office, critically acclaimed, loved by nerds and the general public alike and all those Academy Awards. So even though it feels like it's taking a tad longer than anticipated to get going, there's no doubt that The Hobbit will definitely get made. There's just too much money to make for them to fuck this up.

Peter Jackson recently admitted that the first draft had just been turned into the studio (in this case: Warner Brothers/New Line Cinema) and they'd yet to receive a greenlight to officially get things moving along. Of course, plans have changed a couple of times since the project was first announced. We were supposed to get The Hobbit as well as a "bridge" film that linked it to the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring originally. Said plans changed to instead just adapt Hobbit into two films for Christmas 2011 and 2012 release.

Now MarketSaw has received word that things have changed yet again. As per their source(s):

1. THE HOBBIT(s) will be in stereoscopic 3D.
2. THE HOBBIT will be shot in THREE movies - two Del Toro movies covering the book itself and a third bridge movie.
3. Peter Jackson will direct the bridge movie.
4. Smaug and the characters in THE HOBBIT will be darker than in the book.

Here's the thing. I don't want to immediately shit on this because some of this sounds plausiable as Hell.

I can imagine Warner Brothers wanting to drag this out as much as possible - especially with their Harry Potter franchise coming to a close, Batman III being a ways off, Terminator: Salvation turning out to be a box-office fluke and Superman in hibernation at the moment. And I could also imagine that said "bridge" film could be the only way to get Jackson interested towards returning to the director's chair.

So mark this one under "Rumor" for the moment.

Meet Jacob from "New Moon"

Ok this is not TMT starting up a celebrity dating service, sorry ladies, but one of us on the team had to cover a movie that is gonna be big (whether anyone likes it or not) so I decided to take the hit.

This second trailer is actually not really a trailer as such, it's a quasi featurette on the character Jacob with the actor who plays him telling us all how awesome "New Moon" will be and dropping in some details of the emofest romance that will permeate most of the movie. On a side note I have heard that there is a cool part of the book set in Rome and there are some shots from that portion of the film near the end of this trailerette, that you good folks can check out below.

SAW VI Poster!

I have to confess that I've never seen any of the Saw films despite them being churned out at the same rate as those spoof "comedies."

The genre as whole is not my thing and even less so this new brand of horror dubbed "torture porn," at any rate Shocktillyoudrop has gotten hold of the new, intriguingly grizzly "Saw VI" poster that you can check out below.

DC Animated Shorts Headed To DVD

 World's Finest Online has discovered that Warner Bros. Animation studio is producing a series of animated shorts to be included on their DC Universe Original Movie DVDs. The shorts are expected to appear within the first half of 2010, with more appearing during the year. The plan is to put the spotlight on lesser known stars in the DC Universe.

'Jonah Hex', written by Joe R. Lansdale, will be the first short to be featured on an upcoming DCU DVD/Blu-ray release (possibly on the recently reported Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths).

Warner Bros. Animation currently has seven different direct-to-video animated feature projects in different stages of production, and the majority of these projects headline characters from DC Comics. Multiple animated shorts are currently in production, speculated to have a running time of 10-15 minutes.

I think this is smart marketing on Warner Bros.' part, the shorts will introduce these second & third tier characters to the general audience, possibly helping them get a push to the silver screen. This also gives something back to the many double-dipping hating hardcore fanboys who already own the JL/JLU box sets.

I mean, who wasn't happy to see 'The Green Loontern' episode of Duck Dodgers included on Green Lantern: First Flight?