The Hollywood Reporter currently has an article that focuses on James Cameron’s return to moviemaking in 10 years. I am talking, of course, about Cameron’s “Avatar”, which is already two and a half years in the making, and is planned for a 2009 release. (I don’t think he’ll meet that deadline myself; Cameron is such a perfectionist, and post-”Titanic”, I don’t think any studio can tell him when he has to turn in his final cut of a movie.) The THR article goes into great detail about how Cameron is shooting the movie, including all the tech breakthroughs he’s developing just for “Avatar”. It’s all very techy, and although I run a sci-fi movie blog, my eyes tend to gloss over when people get too techy with me.

Here are some highlights from the article:

Slated to open Dec. 18, 2009, the production already has been in the works for 2 1/2 years. When completed, Cameron expects “Avatar” to be about 60% CG animation, based on characters created using a newly developed performance capture-based process, and 40% live action, with a lot of VFX in the imagery.

“It is the most challenging film I’ve ever made,” Cameron said.

Still, the innovative filmmaker and digital 3-D pioneer and champion has never shifted his emphasis from storytelling.

“You have to make a good film that would be a good film under any circumstances,” he said. “You have to put the narrative first. The reality is no matter how many (3-D) screens we get, you are still going to have a large number of people — possibly the majority of people — who see the film in a 2-D environment.”

Well, it gets pretty technical. And like I said, although I love science fiction, I’m pretty much a dunce when it comes to actual science. Hey, give me a break — I just love the genre, I don’t actually know anything about it! Is that a crime? But if you’re interested in knowing more about the movie, and how it’s being shot, read the article.

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