Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Yesterday, whilst blogging about the first shot of Sigourney Weaver in James Cameron's upcoming science fiction opus, Avatar, I spoke briefly on how we were yet to get to a complete media onslaught. Perhaps, I was wrong, as two major stories come from the film today. First is the unprecedented news that fifty IMAX theaters have already began pre-sales to the midnight showing of the flick that is rumored to revolutionize the medium of 3-D, on December 18th, a full four months and some odd days away. Even more shocking that 20th Century Fox has already started pre-sales is the fact that, via an article at Variety, MovieTickets and Fandango have already reported "healthy" sales for Avatar. This means another day I have to request off of work tomorrow.

Secondly, and quite possibly the stupidest story I've reported in some time, Fathom Studios, according to Movieline, is threatening to sue Cameron and Fox over the similarities between one of the biggest flops in cinematic history, the animated Delgo, and Cameron's upcoming Avatar. This whole story began last week after the debut of Avatar's trailer, when some of the more underwhelmed fans didn't buy into all the hype that had been generating over Cameron's supposed masterpiece, found a few stills that looked similar to the horrendous Delgo, posted a side-by-side comparison, and let the ridicule flow. I find it hard to believe that anybody at Fathom Studios, who more than likely lost personal money on this, could believe that one of the modern masters of the science fiction genre would steal an idea from an animated flick aimed mainly at children, that holds the record for worst box office intake for a film opening in 2,000 or more theaters. In fact, with the little independent CGI picture having a budget of roughly $40 million, and a gross of just under $695,000, the film took home an approximate loss of $39,305,000. As for what the critics thought, Delgo currently holds a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. To make the entire fiasco even more confusing, Fox currently holds the home video distribution rights to the 2008 disaster. Although, on a side note, the last Cameron film to face a frivolous lawsuit was The Terminator, after Harlan Ellison sued Cameron for a writing credit after the director claimed to have been influenced by two episodes of The Outer Limits that Ellison had wrote. Ellison now holds an "acknowledgment to the works of" credit on the home video/DVD versions of Terminator, let's just hope that while sitting in the IMAX in four months, we don't have to read a credit to Marc F. Adler. Who? Exactly.

In other news, USA Today reported that Steven Spielberg is going to team up again with the late Michael Crichton, in an adaptation of his upcoming posthumous release of Pirate Latitudes. Of course, the team is best known for collaborating on the visually stunning 1993 movie Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World. The article also states that DreamWorks has tapped the talent of David Koepp, the screenwriter that adapted the aforementioned Crichton novels into Spielberg films will be returning. With a lot of Spielberg news going here and there lately, including a remake of Harvey and the big screen version of XBox's Halo, we are yet to learn if he will direct or just produce the film. Either way, possibly something to look forward to.

I've mentioned Werner Herzog in the last few blogs after seeing that he has an upcoming film with My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. One thing I have yet to mention though, is one of the more entertaining aspects of the director's personal life, was his estranged friendship with the ever-so bizarre actor Klaus Kinski, most notably highlighted in the unique documentary My Best Friend. Therefore, it is perfect timing that Cinematical has a good compilation of behind-the-scenes blow-ups from Kinski, including his work in two Herzog greats, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo.

Finally, Geekologie led me to an interesting site called ThreeFrames. Simple, entertaining concept. A preview...