It seems as if there is nothing that can be done to get James Cameron out of the news. The man behind Avatar recently reached the milestone of becoming the first director to have two films reach the $1 billion mark (the other, of course, being Titanic). Still, while doing promotional appearances for Avatar in Japan, Cameron met with Tsutomu Yamaguchi, one of the last living survivors of both the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This led to much speculation that Cameron's visit wasn't just for mere curiosity, but on a future film reference. Today, Variety confirms all of the speculations with the news that Cameron has optioned Charles Pellegrino's as-of-yet unreleased book The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back into a feature film. With Cameron's latest film, as silly and effects laden as it actually is, gathering a huge amount of Oscar contention buzz, a serious docudrama in the vein of Titanic of the tragedies in Hiroshima is already screaming for gold. I'm sure this will pop up a lot along the line. Whilst on the topic of Cameron, Avatar will finally have some competition at the box office in the form of Daybreakers and Youth in Revolt. Will either of the films that look unusually good for early January releases be able to dethrone the giant blockbuster? Also out today on a lesser scale is the Amy Adams starring Leap Year and the exploitation throwback that will be way overlooked, Bitch Slap. All in all, a decent week for new releases considering the time of year.
Finally, here is a weird video that popped up on I Watch Stuff from a French show doing a dance number in homage to Star Wars. Enjoy the bizarre spectacle.
