Jon Landau

AVATAR 2 Unlikely to Make Its 2014 Release Date

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 4th, 2012 at 7:54 am

In October 2010, we reported that Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 would be shot back-to-back, and Fox had scheduled the movies for December 2014 and December 2015, respectively.  In June 2011, writer-director James Cameron commented that the movies will be from one script, which would make the franchise “not really a trilogy, but just an overall character arc.”  But during the recent press rounds for Titanic 3D, producer Jon Landau said it was unlikely that they’ll be able to make the 2014 release date for Avatar 2.  He notes that they’re “taking the time to get it right”, and while that sounds like standard producer-speak, he does reminds us that Titanic was originally scheduled for a summer 1997 release, but was pushed back to December so Cameron would have more time to work on the effects.

Hit the jump for more.  Titanic 3D opens on Friday.

Paramount Shows 18 Minutes of TITANIC 3D; Reaction and Video Blog Recap

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: October 28th, 2011 at 2:00 pm

When James Cameron first announced he’d be post converting Titanic for a 3D re-release in April 2012, I was a bit skeptical.  After all, I think most of us can agree that post converted movies are usually substandard to ones being shot in 3D, and since the movie is 15 years old, I figured it would be an insane challenge to get it right.  However, earlier today I visited Paramount in Hollywood and got to see about 18 minutes of the converted film on the big screen.  So what did I learn?

Never. Ever. Bet against James Cameron.

The footage I saw this morning left me speechless.  I’m not joking around when I say it’s the best post conversion I’ve ever seen and it looks like they originally shot it in 3D back in 1997.  In addition, Cameron told us before they post converted they created a new 4K master and did a full color correction and cleaned the film.  So even if you see the film in 2D or 3D in April, you will not believe how crystal clear the images are and how good the film looks.   However, before you start to think Cameron made any changes to the actual film, he told us they are not editing a single scene.  He’s not pulling a George Lucas.  Hit the jump for more.

Disney to Add AVATAR Attractions to Theme Parks

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: September 20th, 2011 at 12:16 pm

Did you ever wonder what it would be like form a lifelong telepathic bond with a flying creature only to ditch it for a bigger and more powerful flying creature?  Now you can!  Variety reports that Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide will create themed lands based on James Cameron’s Avatar.  The first theme land will be built at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom park in Orlando, Florida.  Cameron, Jon Landau and their Lightstorm Entertainment group will serve as creative consultants on the projects and will work with Disney’s “Imagineers” to oversee the design and development of the different theme lands.  I look forward to “Cramped Trailer with Giant Tanning Beds”-Land.

Construction on the theme lands is scheduled to begin in 2013.  As Cameron preps for two Avatar sequels (set for Christmas 2014 and 2015), Imagineers will use the entire trilogy to create the various theme lands.  No word yet if one of the parks will offer full-body painting or if the gift shops will sell sex ponytails.

James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, Kathryn Bigelow, and Other Directors and Producers Write Open Letter Protesting Premium VOD

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 20th, 2011 at 9:58 am

Home Premiere, a Premium VOD service backed by four major studios, is set to launch tomorrow on DirecTV.  The service would charge consumers $30 to watch movies only sixty days after they first hit theaters.  Theaters, fearing that their revenues will be drastically cut, have responded with threats that range from believable to ridiculous.  Now 23 directors and producers, including James Cameron, Michael Bay, Kathryn Bigelow, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson, Michael Mann, and Gore Verbinski have released an open letter siding with the theaters.

In the letter, the signers make the point that just because Premium VOD launches at $30, it doesn’t mean it will stay there and it could conceivably drop to $10 within a few year.  Hit the jump for the full letter.

Stand-alone 3D Blu-ray Of AVATAR Unavailable For The Foreseeable Future

by Ben Garman    Posted: November 12th, 2010 at 9:30 am

Unless you have plans to buy a Panasonic 3D TV, don’t expect to get your hands on a 3D Blu-ray of James Cameron’s record breaking Avatar any time soon. According to Yahoo, Avatar producer Jon Landau has said that whilst there are plans to put an Avatar 3D Blu-ray on the market, they are waiting until 3D technology is commonplace in living rooms nationwide. He expressed caution about rushing the release before the public is ready, an error they made in the past with the release of Titanic on DVD in 1999. Landau said, “We were ahead of the curve on DVD with Titanic and we don’t want to make that mistake again.”

Hit the jump for more on Avatar and why it’s such a pain to sell in 3D.

AVATAR 2 & 3 Next Up for James Cameron; Set for December 2014 & 2015 Release

by Kevin Panasiewicz    Posted: October 27th, 2010 at 9:08 am

Despite recent reports that James Cameron was gearing up for a Cleopatra biopic based on Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life with Angelina Jolie in the role of the Queen of the Nile, it has just broke that he has agreed to shoot Avatar 2 and 3 beginning in late 2011 for Twentieth Century Fox, immediately after he wraps up the screenplays, which he intends to write in early 2011 with an eye towards beginning production later that year.

In our first trip to Pandora, we saw ex-marine and paraplegic Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) integrate himself into the primitive culture of the planet’s blue, tree-dwelling Na’vi and defend their tribal grounds from a mercenary-assisted corporation.  The sequels, undoubtedly to be shot natively with the 3D tech developed by Cameron and WETA Digital, are targeted for December 2014 and December 2015 release dates, respectively. Whether the productions will be back-to-back is pending.

Hit the jump for what Cameron and producer Jon Landau had to say on the sequels and a possible explanation as to why Cameron dumped Cleopatra.

AVATAR Extended Collector’s Edition Officially Announced; 45 Minutes of Deleted Scenes, More

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: October 5th, 2010 at 7:56 am

20th Century Fox has officially announced the exact specs of the previously announced Avatar Collector’s Edition.  Getting released November 15 in the UK and the 16th in the United States (right before Black Friday), the three-disc collectors set is absolutely loaded with over eight hours of never before seen material.  If you’re a fan of Avatar, this is a must buy box set.  According to the UK press release:

The three-disc Avatar Extended Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and Avatar Collector’s Edition DVD will both feature the original theatrical release, a special edition re-release, and new collector’s extended cut with over 15 more minutes including an exclusive alternate opening earth scene. Viewers will have the ability to journey to the far-reaches of Pandora with “Capturing Avatar“ an in-depth feature length documentary covering the 16-year filmmaker journey that includes all new interviews with James Cameron, Jon Landau and cast and crew exploring Cameron’s unique vision for the film.

The box set also comes with 45 minutes of new never-before-seen deleted scenes.  This is the part that most interests me.  Hit the jump for high res cover art and more details:

AVATAR Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray to Feature 16 Minutes of New Footage

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: August 24th, 2010 at 1:09 pm

If you’re headed to the theater this weekend to see James Cameron’s Avatar: Special Edition with its whopping 8 ½ extra minutes of footage, then hold on to your banshee (until you ditch it for a Great Leonopteryx) because the special edition DVD and Blu-ray is going to have 16 minutes of additional footage.  THR reports that the new scenes will “involve action sequences and narrative-deepening extensions of key scenes involving the blue-skinned Na’vi of Pandora and their human visitors.”  Said producer Jon Landau, “There’s a whole new scene that takes place in the (Na’vi) school, there’s more night bioluminescence, there’s new creatures, and there is a new action scene. The scenes don’t just feel like added scenes — they are very organic to the story and embellish it.”  Unfortunately, producer Landau doesn’t add, “Oh, and ponytail fucking.  Lots and lots of ponytail fucking.”

Avatar set DVD and Blu-ray sales records when the bare-bones release hits shelves in April.  The special edition DVD and Blu-ray are set to be released this November. The 3D Blu-ray is being held until 2011 because Fox and Cameron want to wait until more households have 3DTVs.

James Cameron Goes to Brazil – Highlights from the Sao Paulo Press Conference

by Erico Borgo    Posted: April 12th, 2010 at 7:32 am

Recently James Cameron went to Brazil as a guest speaker at the 1º  Internacional Forum of Environmental Sustainability at Manaus, capital of the Brazilian state of Amazon – where most of the Brazilian rainforest is located.  The positive experience motivated Cameron to do a second visit to the country. He asked Fox to do a press conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil´s largest city, to release Avatar in DVD and Blu-ray.

Travelling with the producer Jon Landau, the actress Sigourney Weaver (Dr. Grace Augustine) and the actor Joel David Moore (Norm Spellman), Cameron arrived last Saturday. After planting a tree in a local park, a symbolic gesture that started a Fox campaign – the company will plant 1 million trees around the world until the end of the year – he sat down with the local press. After the jump are some highlights from the press conference.  He talked about Avatar 2, the Avatar Blu-ray, and more.

AVATAR Producer Jon Landau ShoWest Video Interview – Talks AVATAR DVD/Blu-ray, AVATAR 2, Deleted Scenes, 3D

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: March 21st, 2010 at 7:15 am

On the final day of ShoWest, Avatar producer Jon Landau talked to the press about the upcoming Avatar DVD/Blu-ray, what’s the status of Avatar 2, the re-release of Avatar in theaters, deleted scenes being put back into the movie, and 3D.

The main points were:

• They are focusing on the special edition Blu-ray as the place for deleted scenes to go back into the movie.  They don’t want 5 or 10 second clips. They want to find entire scenes to put back in.
• Said they are only going to make Avatar 2 if Cameron writes a script they are happy with.
• Nothing is certain about an Avatar re-release in theaters.
• Not sure what they are doing next.

Hit the jump for the video:

James Cameron Writing AVATAR Prequel

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: February 17th, 2010 at 7:41 am

Jon Landau, the producer of Avatar, has told MTV that James Cameron is going to write an Avatar prequel.  But don’t get your hopes up that you’ll see it in a movie theater, as he’s writing the prequel for you to read.  Yup, James Cameron will have a new title attached to his name: novelist.  Here’s what Landau said:

“Jim is going to write a novel himself, not a novelization – and there is a distinction. A novelization basically retells the story of the movie. Jim wants to write a novel that is a big, epic story that fills in a lot of things. [We] won’t have time to do [these stories] in the movie, or maybe in sequels, so the novel will give a foundation for the world. 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 Colonel Quaritch, how he ended up there and all that.  I don’t think Jim has ever written a novel before, but his first step of writing a script is often in a novella format, so this is just expanding that, and I think that he’ll be very adept at it.

The plan is for the novel to be released by the end of the year, but who knows if that will happen as Cameron could get distracted or decide to use his time to write a sequel.  The fact is, many people would love to read a novel written by Cameron, so if this thing does get released, I’m sure it will be a big deal.  More as we hear it.

James Cameron Lending Director Marc Webb a Hand in Bringing SPIDER-MAN to 3D

by Michael Sullivan    Posted: February 16th, 2010 at 3:29 pm

It seems as though behemoth auteur James Cameron will get to live his Spider-Man directorial dreams after all, albeit vicariously through (500) Days of Summer‘s Marc Webb.  Jon Landau, Cameron’s friend and associate, told MTV that he and Cameron met with Webb last week to help bring the project into the third dimension.  Now this development is interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that, until recently, Cameron himself wanted his grubby little paws on the Marvel franchise.  For more of Landau’s words, and the significance of this meeting of the minds, follow the jump.

MTV to Present Live Webcast of AVATAR Roundtable with James Cameron, Zoe Saldana, and Sam Worthington

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: November 29th, 2009 at 9:30 pm

The attempt to make sure every man, woman, and child knows about James Cameron’s Avatar continues as MTV will host a live webcast of a roundtable discussion with Cameron, stars Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington, and producer Jon Landau.  Variety reports that MTV News managing editor Josh Horowitz will moderate the 30-minute event, which will feature unseen footage from the movie.  The webcast will also be shown on the official Avatar Facebook page and fans will be able to submit questions to either site.

MTV will broadcast the event on December 3^rd in preparation for their half-hour special on Avatar on December 16^th.  Avatar will hit theaters in 2D, 3D, and 3D IMAX on December 18^th.  Hit the jump to read a full synopsis on the film.  No word yet if 20^th Century Fox plans to market the film in our food and drinking water.

James Cameron’s AVATAR Trailer is Finally Online!

by Ramses Flores    Posted: August 20th, 2009 at 7:51 am

James Cameron’s “Avatar” now has a trailer. That’s right. You read that correctly. I never thought I would see the day but after months and months (and years) of waiting it is finally here. Did it live up to your expectations? Is your mind blown? Are you disappointed? Does this look even better than anything you expected? I’m very interested in reading what your thoughts are and I’m sure you will have some after you see the trailer when you hit the jump.

Copyright ©2005 - 2012. All Rights Reserved. California web design