I hesitate to say that this is, honest to Goodness, the first real piece of artwork from James Cameron’s highly-anticipated “Avatar” movie, because Cameron hasn’t shown squat to anyone, and everything I’ve thought were authentic have turned out not to be so. But hell, whatever, here’s something that may be from “Avatar” (thumbnail to your left, bigger version below).

More:

According to the Italian website BadTaste, they have the first official promo artwork for both James Cameron’s Avatar and Ice Age 3. They say these are “totally authentic” and “from a 2009 Fox line-up.” Both definitely seem in line with what we’ve already seen (artwork, etc), so I tend to believe these are official, though obviously scanned and not in a great resolution. The Italian text for Avatar says (according to the tipster who sent it to us) that the film is “the story of an injured ex-marine who finds himself involved (against his will) into men colonizing an alien planet. Finally, he chooses to change his battle array, leading the alien race in a battle for life.”

Eh. It may be, it may be not. Take it for what you will.

update

James Cameron responds to the image with this:

“This art is not from us. I don’t know where it comes from. More overactive fan imaginations?” said Cameron to the website, but then he adds this addendum to it: ‘It’s not bad though.”

So, no, then?