Reverend Jax Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Edit: I've split this topic off from the Live Action/CGI Anime and Manga movies thread Sam commented on the live action The Last Airbender movie in the American Animation thread, so I decided I would reply here. Avatar: The Last Airbender is awesome. Ending was kinda rushed, but still awesome. I'm almost afraid of what M. Night Shamalan is going to do to it in the movies. I'm cautiously optimistic, but interviews indicate alot of love for the series on Shyamalan's part. Last Airbender M. Night Shyamalan http://teaser-trailer.com />Uploaded by last-airbender-movie - Watch feature films and entire TV shows. He's committing 6 years of his life to this trilogy. The budget is estimated at $250 for the trilogy, and more of that is said to be spend on the first movie to "create the world." Some people think Shyamalan has an anti-action mentality (Unbreakable was a superhero movie with no action), but he says it was the action, the elementals, and the mythology that made him want to make the movies. There have been some good casting calls...Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel as Zuko (which is great because Zuko I think is a critical character in the story arc), Cliff Curtis as Fire Lord Ozai. Aang unfortunately is being played by a young karate champion from Texas with no acting experience. While this is good news for the intense action sequences that will be necessary, I'm fearful that he will be a Jake Lloyd type, and Aang's role is ten times as critical here as Anakin Skywalker was in Episode I. These two photos look good though. Southern Water Tribe Fire Nation extras I know those two things are nowhere near the hardest things this would will have to capture, but they look great. The first trailer is attached to Transformers 2 coming out this 4th of July weekend, and the movie is set to be released next 4th of July weekend, so we'll soon see how the movie's look (the trailer is supposed to be 2 minutes long). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted May 22, 2009 Author Share Posted May 22, 2009 Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel as Zuko in next year's The Last Airbender movie. Zuko's scar is over his left eye, so it's hard to tell if he has the scar in this image, or if it's from a flashback to before he got the scar. If they plan on having he hair be accurate (and the actor who Sokka has been photographed with the sides of his head shaved and the top of his hair long), then his is definitely a flashback image, or maybe just an early test shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted May 27, 2009 Author Share Posted May 27, 2009 Eh. im trying to think of times these things went well, and im drawing, uh, Storm Riders and what i watched of Casshern. Well, the trilogy has a $250 million budget. Compare that to $285 million for the LOTR trilogy. And it still over a year away from release, so they seem to be putting alot of time and money into it. Here's a picture from the set of the South Pole set. That ship wreck looks pretty fateful to the original. And here's the 2nd photo released of Dev Patel as Zuko. So the scar is not overdone, but will probably be apparent in close-ups. Also, his haircut isn't as silly, which is good. Not everything that works in animation works in live action. Here are some shots from the Southern Air Temple, where Aang sees the proof of the genocide of his people: I'm probably to make a thread just for this, because I plan on posting with every update I see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Well, the trilogy has a $250 million budget. Compare that to $285 million for the LOTR trilogy. And it still over a year away from release, so they seem to be putting alot of time and money into it. Here's a picture from the set of the South Pole set. That ship wreck looks pretty fateful to the original. And here's the 2nd photo released of Dev Patel as Zuko. So the scar is not overdone, but will probably be apparent in close-ups. Also, his haircut isn't as silly, which is good. Not everything that works in animation works in live action. Here are some shots from the Southern Air Temple, where Aang sees the proof of the genocide of his people: I'm probably to make a thread just for this, because I plan on posting with every update I see. See, this would make me optimistic, but I swear that M. Night Shyamalan could take the best cast in the known universe with the best onscreen chemistry known to man and still make it look like a badly filmed monotone high school theater troupe that keep stumbling over their lines with poor pacing and some of the most horrible boring dialogue I've heard in a long time. Case in point: Lady in the Water, Signs, The Happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Signs was not that bad! Anyway, he's fully aware he's making a different kind of film here. He knows he's not making a suspense film with a twist ending. Anyway, the first trailer is attached to Transformers 2 (a full year before its release date), so we'll see how it looks soon enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Signs was not that bad! Anyway, he's fully aware he's making a different kind of film here. He knows he's not making a suspense film with a twist ending. Anyway, the first trailer is attached to Transformers 2 (a full year before its release date), so we'll see how it looks soon enough. The movie itself was not, but I have never seen Juaqin Phoenix or Mel Gibson give a worse performance, nor have I seen such bland lifeless dialogue (until I saw Lady in the Water and subsequently The Happening) I also wouldn't be surprised if the movie ends with the main character ends up killing everyone with tap water and finds out he was a ghost the whole time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunsmithx Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 I'm a bit confused, are they filiming all 3 at the same time or one at a a time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted June 19, 2009 Author Share Posted June 19, 2009 One at a time, but a $250 budget has already been green lit for the whole trilogy, and the second movie's script is being developed now as the first film is in production. The release dates are July 2, 2010, summer 2012 and summer 2014. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hakujin Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 I've never seen the show, but I've a friend who swears by it. The clips in the video interview looked pretty cool. I can definitely see where they were influenced by Miyazaki. It was an interesting interview and as where before I had zero interest in the film I'm now curious to see what it's all about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted June 19, 2009 Author Share Posted June 19, 2009 Yeah, the show is really excellent. Three seasons and it starts out pretty compelling from the first few minutes of the first episode and gets progressively better until the end. I got Kerstin into the show recently as she watched all 61 episodes in less than a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the division of joy Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 I do find it that amusing Shyamalan is directing what is essentially, a kids movie. Reasoning is that after Lady in the water, a critic openly panned the movie and him personally and said "If Shyamalan is going to use his kids as a focus group for future projects, maybe he should start making movies for Nickelodeon already and stop wasting our time" Quality... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hakujin Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 M. Night Shamalamadingdong's biggest problem w/ his films has always been his writer, i.e. him. Peter Jackson hit it outta the park w/ LOTR having little experience in the filed of making epic fantasy films. Night might be able to do the same w/ someoneelse's source material. Jax: I'll likely wait until the movie to decide on watching the series. Not that I don't believe you in it's awesomeness, it's just I've already got a stack of DVDs and a HD full of stuff to watch w/out adding 61 more episodes to it. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted June 19, 2009 Author Share Posted June 19, 2009 Well, when you et to it, I think you'll really like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 M. Night Shamalamadingdong's biggest problem w/ his films has always been his writer, i.e. him. Peter Jackson hit it outta the park w/ LOTR having little experience in the filed of making epic fantasy films. Night might be able to do the same w/ someoneelse's source material. Well yes, but despite Peter Jackson's schlocky filmography up till then he still had great directing ability, I mean what his weakest film at that point was Heavenly Creatures. It was genre change but a good director is a good director despite his project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted June 20, 2009 Author Share Posted June 20, 2009 Well, the trailer will be out with Transformers 2 in 5 days, that might be more telling that anything else, unless it's a complete teaser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hakujin Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 Well yes, but despite Peter Jackson's schlocky filmography up till then he still had great directing ability, I mean what his weakest film at that point was Heavenly Creatures. It was genre change but a good director is a good director despite his project. So you think his directing chops are sub par? True he's not directed anything of the caliber of Mad Max, but 6th Sense and Unbreakable were very well directed films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 No, they were good films but they also had a lot of the same soulless acting that his later films became popular for, especialy Osmet in 6th Sense and Willis in Unbreakable, hell even Samuel L. Jackson seemed too downplayed in that movie. They were decent movies but they were the signs of an up-and-coming director who was getting there but hadn't quite reached it. Unfortunately everyone told him that this way was perfect and he got Twilight syndrome so he just spent the last several years trying to catch lightning in a bottle again and has kept getting worse and worse and worse as a result. Signs was the turning point in his career, it had creepy atmosphere but very little else and everything beyond it was utter shit. If you can fail with Paul Giamatti then yes, his directing chops are sub-par. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted June 20, 2009 Author Share Posted June 20, 2009 So the first teaser will be shown on Entertainment Tonight this Monday before it plays in front of Transformers on Wednesday. Here's a commercial promoting the sneek peak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hakujin Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 No, they were good films but they also had a lot of the same soulless acting that his later films became popular for, especialy Osmet in 6th Sense and Willis in Unbreakable, hell even Samuel L. Jackson seemed too downplayed in that movie. They were decent movies but they were the signs of an up-and-coming director who was getting there but hadn't quite reached it. Unfortunately everyone told him that this way was perfect and he got Twilight syndrome so he just spent the last several years trying to catch lightning in a bottle again and has kept getting worse and worse and worse as a result. Signs was the turning point in his career, it had creepy atmosphere but very little else and everything beyond it was utter shit. If you can fail with Paul Giamatti then yes, his directing chops are sub-par. Meh. Calling him as a director sub-par b/c LITW had Giamatti in it is a bit harsh. The combination of a good director and a good actor does not always equal a good movie. Exhibit A: Indy 4. The only film of his that was a total loss for me was his last one w/ the killer trees. Interesting premise though. I liked Unbreakable for the reasons you seemed to dislike it. It's pretty much the only superhero film where the entire film is the origin story. I also think the first season of Heroes cribbed quite a bit from it. Signs was partially a victim of its own hype. And like LITW , I'd say Signs failures are more attributed to story than direction. I'm confident w/ strong enough source material to guide the story M. Night can make a compelling film. We'll just have to wait until the film is released to see if I'm right. Besides, you also think Kubrick is overrated. Your opinion is fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 That's because Kubrick is over-rated, his two best movies are one that is carried almost solely by Peter Sellers (Imagine another actor in those 3 roles and tell me Dr. Strangelove would have been half the movie it was) and the other is carried by R. Lee Ermey while Kubrick tries desperately to ape Francis Ford Coppola. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reverend Jax Posted June 21, 2009 Author Share Posted June 21, 2009 Man, Mr Hakujin/Iambaytor is the rivalry to watch in the coming months, kids! If we have a best rivalry award for the Hondies, I nominate these two guys, and I'll vote for them over the tired and cliched Jax/Joel rivalry. That one is sooooo 2005. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Man, Mr Hakujin/Iambaytor is the rivalry to watch in the coming months, kids! If we have a best rivalry award for the Hondies, I nominate these two guys, and I'll vote for them over the tired and cliched Jax/Joel rivalry. That one is sooooo 2005. Yeah, you two jumped the shark ages ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hakujin Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Jax has successfully distracted me from the idiocy of that jabroni baytor's comments about Kubrick. But I keed. I keed. Truly baytor and I are two sides of the same coin--he the side that smells of dogfarts and knows little about good directors and I (of course) am the side that is totally awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Jax has successfully distracted me from the idiocy of that jabroni baytor's comments about Kubrick. But I keed. I keed. Truly baytor and I are two sides of the same coin--he the side that smells of dogfarts and knows little about good directors and I (of course) am the side that is totally awesome. If you're bothered by the Kubrick bashing you really don't want to hear my thoughts on David Lynch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hakujin Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 If you're bothered by the Kubrick bashing you really don't want to hear my thoughts on David Lynch Not a Lynch fan either. Mulholland Drive was good, but a bit overhyped. A History of Violence was excellent though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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