First pictures from live-action AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER
Many of us here in the inner-circle of CDX are big fans of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was story telling at it's best on the grandest scale AND it was something the whole family could watch with lot's of drama, high action and moral lessons. So needless to say we are excited by the prospect of a live action trilogy of films based on the series and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
USA today published the first photos from the set of the film and give us our first look at the lead characters. Both got their break in acting in the Oscar Winning film, Slumdog Millionaire (an excellent film by the way...) and both incidentally are also black belts in tae kwon do.
Noah Ringer (age 12) plays the last Airbender, Aang.
Dev Patel plays the Firebender Zucko.
Looking forward to this one, the first film is due in July 2, 2010. You can read the USA today article by following the link below.
More: News /
Comments
19 comments postedHollywood hollywood, when they will learn that only a few good animations are worth it to make in to animation, I just don't wanna see a Dragon Ball Evolution type done on this venerable series
I have lost all confidence in Shyamalan after "The Happening". He needs to rebound in a big way. Hopefully he can do it with this.
"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High
Hello Atom,
this might be a silly question for you about this upcoming movie.
Do you know that this will be a Bollywood-like version of Avatar from an ancient Indian cultural perspective just like Slumdog Millionaire was?
-R78
How was Slumdog Millionaire related to any ancient Indian cultural prespective? I thought it was just a sweet fairy tale set in the slums of Mumbai?
.. that being said I'm still awaiting an epic 6 part telling of either the Ramayana or the Mahabharata, now those are epics!!
Hmm.. the casting is whack.. Im not racist but I was disappointed with their casting of Goku, and now in this case The Avatar, a series which I very much loved. Zoku and Ang are Asian in the series, while two other key characters Katara and Sokka are Inuit.
Hollywood just goes and ruins everything .. they did it to Transformers, then to DBZ and now Avatar. What next? Shai LeBouf as Hikaru Ichijyo in Hollywood's next crapping of a wonderful anime?
A. Avatar ain't anime.
B. Dragonball Z is crap, has always been crap and may stop being so crap with Kai. (though, admitted, the film took more of a cue from the original manga)
C. Actually, James Cameron is doing a GUNMM/Battle Angel Alita film. It might not be bad, considering him.
A. Debatable.
B. Again Debatable, but the actual essence of the story is not crap. Whatever essence the film took, it ate it and s**t it out as crap.
C. James Cameron isn't that great might be debatable though, but I'd rather see a Ridley Scott film.
So... the [first two] Terminator films were crap? "The Abyss"? Hell- were I not a guy, I'd dare to throw "Titanic" a nod as a genuine good film.
I know I'm about to receive an unrelenting raucous of protests and insults from the more "experienced" film critics of CDX after I say this (when do I not get criticized for my opinions in here, dammit!?), but I think Cameron is good enough. Supposedly he was planning to direct the live-action Evangelion had it not ended up in Development Hell, and I would not have had a problem with that. Though I have never seen any of "Avatar" (nor do I really want to at this point), I don't think it would do so badly with this guy on the project.
(*ducks instinctively*)
------------------------------
CollectionDX Staff
Sorry but yes the first 2 Terminator films were crap.
"The Abyss" is an exception.
LOL if you think "Titanic" deserves a nod as a genuinely good film, sorry I guess we live in different worlds.
Cameron might be good enough for you, but for myself, no I don't think he's hot stuff.
Any Anime that Hollywood attempts to take into live action seems to be doomed by the institutionalized nature and set as standard vision of many of the big gun directors. Anime, the very nature of many of the stories and the feel is very non-HollyWoodish.
As for Evangelion, why not have the original director Hideaki Anno or Guillermo del Toro direct it? There's a reason why many of these Anime have become so popular, and the director is one of the reasons.
On a side note, CowBoy Bebop would be cool with Josh Hartnett as Spike.
Says the guy who thinks a Creature From The Black Lagoon musical is a good idea...
I'll give the poster the benefit of the doubt and assume he just meant that the Cameron directed Terminators weren't good either (although, at least in regards to part 1, I disagree).
Btw, Cameron also did the script for Rambo: First Blood part 2 and he also worked on Battle Beyond the Stars, iirc. So... y'know, he's got some clout with me! :)
"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High
LOL no your just over zealously jumping to conclusions my Padawan learner.
My fault actually because I should have mentioned that all the Terminator movies were crap (not even Batman and his f-bomb rant could save the latest doo doo), the only watchable one being T2, but that's probably because I was just a young kid when I saw it back in the day.
Who really believes Cameron will put out a new movie? It's over a decade since his last film, Titanic.
"Who really believes Cameron will put out a new movie? It's over a decade since his last film, Titanic."
Believe? Not me sir, b/c I don't believe in Western live-action anime.
It's intellectual murder.
-R78
Okay, let's clear up a few things.
Avatar is anime. "Anime" is the Japanese term for animation. It is not the Japanese term for Japanese animation. Therefore, all animation is "anime". Just like "sword" is the English word for a sharp pointy thing that kills people. In Japanese, it's "katana". There's no implication of ethnic origin in either term.
Next, if you don't like Dragon Ball Z, that's totally fine. I'm with ya. Hate the damn show. One of my buddies in college was hopelessly addicted to it and would often torment me by synopsizing the day's episode for me on a daily basis. That said, I just googled it and got over 22 million hits. Someone out there likes it, so to call it "crap"--on a website closely linked with Japanese pop culture--might be a bit off.
Oh, that and like Bhutanese, I believe, was alluding to, Dragon Ball is loosely based on Journey to the West, one of the most important literary works in human history.
Next, it's obviously a matter of opinion, but I'm not sure how anyone can not consider Terminator (the first one) and Aliens classics. Anyway, who cares? Does anyone actually believe Cameron's gonna direct a Battle Angel Alita movie. C'mon guys.
Anyway, Bhutanese, I got kinda thrown also when I saw the races of the actors playing the Avatar characters above. A South Asian playing a Chinese guy...and a white guy playing a Tibetan? Hmmm. Well, as I was telling Atom, who cares? As long as they can act and Shyamalan writes a story that makes up for his more recent tragedies.
And lastly, Bhutanese, it sounded like you were joking when you suggested Shia LaBeouf playing Hikaru Ichijo in a live-action Macross... Well...it's actually gonna be Tobey Maguire! ;)
--
Sanjeev
LOL .. I guess if Shyamalan can redeem himself with Avatar, then the casting might be digestible. Dave Patel as Prince Zuko .. hmm, then who'se gonna play uncle Iro? Jon Voight?
It'll be interesting to see how he handles the Spirit World scenes, I think the show did an excellent job.
Toby Maguire is too old to be playing Hikaru Ichijo, and yea I was joking when I said Shia LaBeouf, the role would be best played by an Asian. Roy Foker .. Im thinking Brad Pitt :D
No, seriously, dude, Toby Maguire is playing Rick Hunter in the live-action Robotech movie. Hold onto your butt.
--
Sanjeev