...

Miaow!

Are James Cameron's planned Avatar sequels and Na'vi novel artistically justified – or simply an excuse to exploit his audience?For every person who felt themselves swept up by the vast tapestry of James Cameron's Avatar, with its USBed-up alien creatures and gorgeous CGI vistas, there's another who sees the whole project as the evil embodiment of everything that's wrong with Hollywood: soulless, cliched and reliant on spectacle over storyline. Those who find themselves in the latter camp will not have been heartened by an MTV interview with Cameron late last week, in which he further outlined his plans for taking the series forward. The rest of us? Well it sounds pretty promising, with a few notable exceptions.For the most part, Cameron was talking about the forthcoming big screen...

Because it didn’t make enough money the first time round, James Cameron has announced that Avatar will be re-released in the UK in 3D only on August 27th with an extra eight minutes of footage. We mentioned a few months ago that there were rumours of an Avatar: Extended Cut being released in cinemas that this could happen, well now it’s official! Even though Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time, it does seem to be a bit of a marmite film, in the sense that you either love it or hate it. I’m one of the ones who loved it and have it sat proudly on my shelf on Blu-Ray….but I’m not sure if it’ll be worth going to see it again for an extra 8 minutes which will include new creatures and more action scenes. As you can see from my Avatar 3D review,...

Reboot of the Schwarzenegger action franchise marks start of a remarkable return for the Desperado director, who may yet team up again with Quentin Tarantino"Sometimes I feel like I'm in a dream world," says director-producer Robert Rodriguez, "because it doesn't always seem too logical how things work out." Indeed, this year the film-maker is feeling a distinct case of deja vu. His first release this month will be a sequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 film Predator, helmed by Hungarian director Nimród Antal, produced at his Troublemaker Studios outfit in Texas, and based on a script Rodriguez wrote as a writer for hire during a brief production hiatus in the mid-90s. The second is Machete, a self-directed (with Ethan Maniquis) "Mexploitation" flick about a Latin hitman who takes...

James Cameron's 3D behemoth seeks to expand its empire once again - this time into the chilling realm of 'legacy product'Cast your mind back five or six months and you may remember a modest little film called Avatar, officially the world's first attempt to fuse the aesthetic of Starship Troopers with the ambience of mid-period Enya. The release last December of James Cameron's 3D behemoth was accompanied by more than 125 licensed products (incorporating toys, clothing, books and video games), which raked in $153m (£104m). But compared with what's coming, that was a mere dew-drop on a leaf in the remotest corner of the forests of Pandora.Twentieth Century Fox unveiled its plans for the future of Avatar merchandising last week in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas. (Well, what were you expecting? The...

Plans to slash the time between cinema and DVD release, alongside improvements in home viewing technology, could kill multiplexes. Would you care?It does not seem quite the right moment to be worrying about the future of our multiplexes. This weekend, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland will become the second movie of 2010 to break the $1bn barrier at the box office, following James Cameron's Avatar earlier in the year. Prior to its arrival on cinema screens, some speculated that audiences might find a reimagining of Lewis Carroll's famous tale from the peculiar mind of Tim Burton a little too weird for comfort. Yet it is about to join an exclusive club of six movies, including Titanic, The Dark Knight, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's...

Didn't fancy James Cameron's blockbusting space-opera when it was in 3D at the cinema? Don't even fancy it in 2D now it's been released on DVD? Then try it in just one dimension, with our condensed screenplayAvatarBy Paul MacInnes with apologies to James CameronSCENE 1 Int - the BELLY of a transport SHIP, the likes of which you'll be familiar with from the Abyss or Aliens. Day. Marine Jake Sully is talking with Colonel Quaritch. The Colonel is wearing a huge exoskeleton, the likes of which you'll be familiar with from the Abyss or Aliens, and pulling fancy Tai-Chi moves in front of a MIRROR.Colonel Unobtainium, unobtainium, unobtainium. Jake It sure is a great word, sir.Colonel And it's the reason we're here on Pandora! All that delicious unobtanium, just waiting to be mined and...

Tom Lamont dons expensive hi-tech shades and tunes into what manufacturers hope is the future of televisionThe last time I voluntarily wore sunglasses to watch television, I was an eight-year-old fan of Michael J Fox, committed for reasons long forgotten to watching films from the actor's cool-dude period – Back to the Future, Teen Wolf – through plasticky, wraparound shades.Those sunglasses probably had a street value of around 50p; the pair I am wearing today, to test Samsung's latest hi-tech television at the company's headquarters in Surrey, cost £79.99, have a power socket in one arm, an infrared sensor on the bridge – and allow me to watch images on Samsung's new TV in 3D. My eight-year-old self would have traded in an instant.First released to queuing customers at John Lewis...

James Cameron's sci-fi epic sells 6.7m copies on DVD and Blu-ray in four days, becoming the fastest-selling home entertainment release of all time in the USAvatar has beaten The Dark Knight to become the fastest-selling home entertainment release of all time in the US. It sold 6.7m copies in four days – 4m on DVD and 2.7m on Blu-ray – racking up $130m (£84.1m) for studio 20th Century Fox.It was released in the US and Canada on Earth Day, 22 April, to chime with Avatar's environmental theme. In the UK, Avatar made its debut on DVD today, with some stores – including flagship HMVs and Tescos – opening at midnight to serve queueing fans.Meanwhile, a UK fan has been named as the man behind a pioneering online Na'vi-English dictionary. Richard Littauer, a 21-year-old linguistics...

The sequel to the highest grossing film of all time will shift the action from Pandora's rainforests to its oceansCould it be Avatar, crossed with The Abyss? James Cameron announced yesterday that a large part of the sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time will take place in the teeming oceans of Pandora. The film-maker also hinted that the third film in his planned series might expand to other planets."We created a broad canvas for the environment of film," Cameron told the LA Times' Hero Complex blog. "That's not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system. And we expand out across that system and incorporate more into the story – not necessarily in the second film, but more toward a third film."Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different...

Is there anything as undignified as watching a 1975 film superimposed with 2010 effects in the shameless pursuit of cash?Avatar's got a lot to answer for, hasn't it? Its barnstorming success hasn't just ensured that we won't be able to go to the cinema for the next couple of years without putting on a pair of bulky, uncomfortable 3D glasses first; it also means that a number of film-makers are thinking about dragging their most fondly-remembered works out for a 3D makeover.James Cameron's plans to re-release Titanic in 3D are understandable – he is, after all, the champion of this new technology. And George Lucas's plans to re-release all the Star Wars films in 3D are understandable because, well, he's George Lucas and who knows what the hell goes on in his brain any more. But when a...

and he’s pissed off not happy...

There’s talk of re-releasing Avatar but with an extended cut version of the highest grossing film to ever hit the screen this summer. The extra footage is said to be around 10-12 minutes, which isn’t a lot, but any excuse to see Avatar in 3D again is good enough for me. Some of the extra scenes that could be added are Jake Sully’s avatar proving himself to the Na’vi and Tsu’tey getting drunk at a native festival. To be honest, I don’t think it would be detrimental to the film for leaving these scenes out as I was amazed with Avatar both times that I saw it in all it’s 3D glory. The reason for the possible re-release is because James Cameron reckons the studios have missed out on around $200 million because of the release of Alice in Wonderland in 3D which has replaced...

Bigelow's prize makes little difference to Hollywood's basic sexist approach towards womenA woman winning the Oscar for best directing is one of those cultural milestones that would pass better unremarked. Sadly, it didn't."The moment has come!" chirruped Barbra Streisand, emoting harder than any of the actresses who were nominated that night. "It's Kathryn Bigelow!"Newspapers and magazines hurried to trumpet this historic landmark; I would have kept it quiet.The best-director Oscar going female might have been a moment worth celebrating if it had happened in 1974. But this is 2010. These were the 82nd annual academy awards. How embarrassing.It's hardly an indicator of social change. The rest of society has altered so radically since 1929 that it's no more than a random piece of pub-quiz...

The idea of making history with Kathryn Bigelow won the Academy over in the end – that along with the authenticity of The Hurt Locker and a clever awards campaignAvatar and The Hurt Locker entered Sunday's Oscar ceremony like a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and a dinghy bound for the same chunk of promised land. The seemingly mismatched opponents were the lead contenders for the major prizes outside the acting categories (Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner was a deserving nominee but it was always going to be Jeff Bridges's night) and, of course, there was the added spice factor of marital history.James Cameron glided into the 82nd annual Academy Awards at the helm of Avatar, Golden Globulised six weeks earlier in the best director and picture categories and, lest we forget, the biggest movie...

From the man who suggested making the film Titanic just so he could dive two and a half miles under the sea, and who invented the technology needed to make his sci-fi dreams come true in Avatar: James Cameron learnt through his expeditions to the bottom of the world thatFailure is an option, but fear is not What I see with increasing regularity is that education leaders are gripped by the notion that failure is not an option (à la Nasa) and that fear will prevent that happening. Meanwhile, on the ground we see teachers prepared to take measured risk, putting their previous fears to one side, and accept, as they ask their students to do in learning, that there will be some degree of failure before we get to where we want to be. I'm quite clear on who I think needs to change their...

Strangely enough I actually watched the other big Oscar nominee (The Hurt Locker) before I watched Avatar. I have been wanting to watch Avatar since it hit Malaysian cinemas in December last year, thankfully it's still showing as it has become a phenomenal box office hit beating the records set by James Camerons last directorial movie [...] Read the full post at shaolintiger.com....

All you need to know about the 10 contenders for the top prize at this Sunday's Academy AwardsChristine OliverXan Brooks...

Nicolas Chartier, who admitted urging Academy members not to vote for James Cameron's Avatar, has had his invitation to the prize-giving withdrawnA producer on Oscar frontrunner The Hurt Locker has been banned from Sunday night's awards ceremony for campaigning openly against a rival film. Nicolas Chartier, who financed the $15m Iraq war drama himself, sent emails urging Academy voters to vote for his movie and "not a $500m film", a clear reference to James Cameron's Avatar, which is also in the running for the best picture prize.The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences said yesterday that Chartier was censured by the executive committee of its producers' branch during a special session on Monday for "an ethical lapse". Academy rules prohibit "casting a negative or derogatory...

Which of the contenders for best picture will be helped by a single-transferable vote?The popular narrative among Oscar speculators this year is that the best picture will be a straight fight between box-office behemoth Avatar and critics' favourite The Hurt Locker. But additional spice will come from the fact that, for the first time since 1943, this category will be decided via instant run-off voting rather than first-past-the-post. Academy members must rank their 10 choices for best picture in order of preference (1, 2, 3, etc).If no film is shown to be the first choice of a majority of voters, the film with the least first-choice votes is eliminated and the second choices of those voters are then distributed. This process continues until a winner has more than 50% of the votes....

In case you missed anything, here are all the winners from this year's BaftasCatherine Shoard...

Kathryn Bigelow's depiction of post-invasion Iraq takes six awards, while Colin Firth wins best actorIt came, it saw but, boy, did it fail to conquer. James Cameron's Avatar, which has taken more money at the box office than any other film in the history of cinema came away tonight with just two Bafta awards in an evening dominated by arthouse films on a fraction of its budget.The outright winner at the London ceremony was The Hurt Locker, directed by Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. It won six awards including best film, director, original screenplay, editing, cinematography and sound.British success came in the acting awards with Carey Mulligan named best actress for An Education and Colin Firth best actor for A Single Man.The Hurt Locker, a grittily realistic depiction of US army...

Avatar director James Cameron's planned book will not be a novelisation, but a 'big, epic story that fills in a lot of things'Avatar fans desperate for a deeper insight into the world of the Na'vi are set for a treat after director James Cameron revealed he is planning to write a novel based on the box office hit.The prequel, which would mark the director's debut as a novelist, will go into depth about the previous lives of characters. "It would be something that would lead up to telling the story of the movie, but it would go into much more depth about all the stories that we didn't have time to deal with – like the schoolhouse and Sigourney [Weaver's character] teaching at the schoolhouse; Jake on Earth and his backstory and how he came here; [the death of] Tommy, Jake's brother; and...

It's the most exclusive ticket in town: a free pass to the annual Oscar nominees' lunch in Beverly Hills. And we've bagged one for you, right here and now (probably stolen from George Clooney or someone). So take your seat and chow down...

With Avatar officially the most successful film ever, Hollywood's top 20 is dominated by all-action blockbusters. What happened to grown-up movies?My wife, who remembers Anthony Eden, Suez and Wayne ­Fontana & the ­Mindbenders, is ­always complaining that Hollywood doesn't make very many movies aimed at people who grew up in the 1950s or 60s. This, I ceaselessly reconfirm, is true. But a quick glance at the recently revised list of the biggest-grossing films of all time – ­Avatar has shot to No 1 – shows ­something even more interesting. ­Hollywood doesn't make that many movies aimed at ­people who grew up in the 1970s or 80s, either. With few ­exceptions, the films that have raked in the most cash at the box office in the entire history of motion pictures are movies made in...

The internet buzz on Avatar ultimately had it right – bad story, impressive visuals - and although the naysayers figured that its faults would turn it into a box office turkey, obviously this wasn’t the case. It’s even nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, going head to head with a film that it could barely be more different from – The Hurt Locker. Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq drama seeks to presents things as they are for a bomb disposal team, and, despite starting out with a feeling not a million miles from an episode of Star Trek (is Guy Pearce playing the man in the red top or not?), goes on to be just that. It’s utterly gripping. There’s no good and bad, there’s just is, lashed together into a taut narrative based on...

It’ll be a big shock if either Avatar or The Hurt Locker don't take this year’s Best Picture Oscar, but what’s almost an interesting story is that their directors used to be married. James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow were legally bound from 1989 to 1991. So it’s almost interesting to speculate on what they might think about going head-to-head – except that they’re not married anymore, and haven’t been for nearly 20 years. So it’s more a bit of trivia that you probably wish you didn’t know. Annoying, isn’t it? The trivia equivalent of an earworm. Ah...

There's just one fight at the Oscars and it's personal. In one corner, Kathryn Bigelow, in the other her ex, James Cameron. So who will win?Connoisseurs of power, ­gossip, reputation and ­behaviour must surely be relishing the extraordinary face-off at this year's Oscar ceremony: with nine nominations each, it is Avatar v The Hurt Locker. The 3D sci-fi fantasy spectacular v the gritty Iraq war movie. James Cameron v Kathryn Bigelow, the action directors who used to be married to each other (from 1989 to 1991). In a town where everyone is your frenemy, this is almost too good to be true.In one corner: awesome box-office might. In the other corner: awesome critical prestige. Which one will ­Academy voters respect more? In a way, both films are pretty macho, despite their enormous...

Our writers give their verdicts on the Oscar nominationsCatherine ShoardAndrew PulverXan BrooksChristian BennettAndy Gallagher...

James Cameron's Avatar and Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker have nine nominations apiece, while Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds has eightIt's an annual party that is notable this year for being dominated by two directors who used to be husband and wife. The question though is: will that pesky troublemaker Quentin Tarantino spoil the whole evening?The nominations for the 82nd annual Academy Awards were revealed in Los Angeles at 5.38am local time precisely and were monopolised by two very different films – the insanely over the top sci-fi epic Avatar from James Cameron, and the grittily realistic Iraq drama The Hurt Locker, from his ex-spouse Kathryn Bigelow.Both gathered nine nominations, but sneaking along behind them was Tarantino's unique take on the second world war,...

The best picture shortlist may be expanded to 10-strong this year, but it's really a race between Avatar and The Hurt Locker – and of those, my money's on Kathryn BigelowTo the Samuel Goldwyn theatre at the crack of dawn, where Anne Hathaway and Academy president Tom Sherak reel off this year's Oscar nominations. Our hosts roll up with minimum fanfare and then retreat in haste, like sheepish managers who've just announced a round of redundancies. What they don't say is almost as important as what they do. Thousands of films have just been culled at a stroke.The good news for this year's hopefuls is that the best picture shortlist has been expanded from five to 10. This prolongs the hopes of such films as An Education, District 9, Precious and Up in the Air. The bad news is that most...

The nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards are being announced. Who will walk home with this year's Oscars? Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the pack with nine nominations eachActress in a supporting roleMo'Nique in PreciousVera Farmiga in Up in the Air Penélope Cruz in Nine Diane Kruger in Inglourious BasterdsMaggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy HeartActor in a supporting roleChristoph Waltz in Inglourious BasterdsChristopher Plummer in The Last StationMatt Damon in InvictusStanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones Woody Harrelson in The Messengers Actor in a leading roleMorgan Freeman in InvictusJeff Bridges in Crazy HeartGeorge Clooney in Up in the AirColin Firth in A Single ManJeremy Renner in The Hurt LockerActress in a leading roleMeryl Streep in Julie & Julia in It's Complicated Sandra Bullock in...

Heavy.com has illustrated the uncanny similarities between 2000AD strip Firekind (1993) and Jim Cameron’s Avatar (apparently in development since 1995). I have to admit that when I first saw the trailer for Avatar I did notice the similarities, but dismissed them on the basis that a few superficial resemblances could easily be down to coincidence and as the hype for the film began to build I forgot all about it. But the list on Heavy.com was intriguing enough to make me sit down and reread the thing this morning (while it was originally printed in 2000AD progs 828-840 it was reprinted in a collected edition in 2005). Despite Heavy.com’s table of similarities being quite extensive, they actually missed a couple of things out. In both stories the indiginous population have a...

I prophesy that in 10 years’ time the UK census will show more adherents of Eywa than there are of Jedi Dear oh dear – as if there weren’t enough reasons for feeling low. Here we are in... [Visit www.boris-johnson.com for the full post and more information about Boris!]...

• James Cameron's epic takes best director and best drama• The Hangover named best comedy• Meryl Streep's acting win makes history• Blog: Avatar's self-congratulatory win tarnishes the Golden GlobesIt's already swept all before it at the box office, but last night James Cameron's 3D tale of life on another planet established its popularity with the critics, too, winning the Golden Globe awards for best picture drama and best director at the 67th annual ceremony, voted for by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.Cameron expressed surprise when picking up his best director award. "Frankly, I thought Kathryn was gonna get this," he said, referring to his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, hotly tipped for her work behind the camera on Iraq bomb disposal drama The Hurt Locker. "But make...

That James Cameron's Avatar swept the board at this year's Golden Globes is not a victory for popularism but evidence of Hollywood's increasingly insularityLest there were any doubt, the Golden Globes came to assure Hollywood's millionaire celebrities that yes, they were altogether wonderful people, fully deserving of every private jet, second home and gleaming statuette the Almighty cared to bestow on them. Last night's ceremony opened with a best supporting actress award for Mo'Nique (for Precious), who said: "First let me say – thank you Gaawwd". It ended with James Cameron, collecting the crowning best picture (drama) gong for Avatar and informing the gathered guests that "we all have the best job in the world. Give it up," he added. "Give it up for yourselves!" This was Hollywood...

They are 10ft tall, blue-skinned and inhabit the distant moon Pandora some 145 years into the future. But the Na'vi, a species of extraterrestrial eco-friendly hunters in the smash hit movie Avatar, have already made cinema history by raking in $1bn (£620m) at cinema box offices in just three weekends.The fantasy extravaganza, starring Sigourney Weaver and Sam Worthington, is the fastest movie ever to break the billion mark and ranks, already, as the fourth highest grossing film in history.Produced by Rupert Murdoch's Twentieth Century Fox film studio, Avatar, is a tale of imperialism, environmental recklessness and military might that chronicles an effort by a mining company, RDA, to exploit mineral resources on a distant moon, using digitally generated fighters to overwhelm the...

James Cameron's blue-peopled behemoth has amassed more than $1bn after only three weekends and may well overtake Titanic as the undisputed champion of the modern box officeThe winnerJames Cameron's sci-fi extravaganza stayed atop the US charts after holding on to the box-office crown thanks to an estimated $68.3m (£42m) haul. Avatar has now amassed $352.1m (£217m) in North America after only three weekends and, combined with the $670.2m international run, stands at a jaw-dropping $1.018bn worldwide. In so doing it became only the fifth movie in history to cross $1bn and ranks as the fourth highest global release of all time. Of course, we're not dealing with an exact science here because this box-office data is based on numbers that haven't been adjusted for inflation, so try not to get...

Avatar 3D (12A) Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez Director: James Cameron Running Time: 161 minutes Avatar was said to be revolutionary, state of the art, will change the way we watch cinema and I couldn’t agree more. This film is immense. Usually when films develop as much hype as this has picked up, we’re all usually let down big time and the best bits are shown in the trailers. But this wasn’t to be the case with Avatar and its trailer. The backbone of the story sees humans on a planet (which is actually a moon) called Pandora, and they’re there to mine for a certain mineral which is ridiculously expensive and it just so happens that the biggest deposit of the mineral is right underneath the...