Starting next Tuesday, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Lightstorm Entertainment will be selling a special edition of blockbuster movie AVATAR with nifty behind-the-scenes content exclusively on iTunes for $14.99 (or $19.99 for the HD version). Available for pre-order now, the special digital edition of the movie lets people ‘deconstruct scenes’ in simultaneous views to, basically, see how director James Cameron applied special effects throughout the flick. → Read More
Professor Tachi from Japan’s Keio University has been working on telepresence robots since the 1980s, and TELESAR V, a so-called telexistence robot avatar, is the finest work of his lab yet. The robot makes it possible to transmit sight, hearing and even touch in order “to free people from time and space constraints”.
The way it works is that the robot becomes your alter ego (or “avatar”) at a distant location: the human operator sees what the robot sees and hears what the robot hears. With model V, operators can Telesar can even “feel” the shape and temperature of objects, thanks to a set of sensors built into the hands. → Read More
Big Avatar fan? Bought a 3D-capable TV just so you could watch it again in all its glory? Well, you might want to sit down. Panasonic and 20th Century Fox have arrived at a deal whereby the upcoming 3D Blu-ray version of the film will only be sold to people buying new Panasonic displays. → Read More
Avatar is coming back to theaters August 27, 2010 and will bring an extra eight minutes of “never before seen footage” I know, right? Unbelievable. It’s unbelievable that the 20th Century Fox or James Cameron or whoever are milking the film like this. This probably isn’t an unprecedented Hollywood move, but it’s certainly shady. Apparently a $749,614,235 profit isn’t enough for these d-bags. → Read More
Call me crazy, but wasn’t the point of Avatar to go see it in 3D on the big screen? Otherwise, why bother? Be that as it may, Avatar is on track to hold the distinction of being the most pirated Blu-ray release of all time. Nice job, guys! → Read More
Wow, this woman knows how to hate. She could write a book on hate that would outsell the classic Guide To Proper Hating by Brandon Barbee. 10 bucks says she loved Dancing with Wolves, though. → Read More
This is not for you Hey, cutting edgers! How does it feel to be the first kid on your block not to be able to play a brand new movie because of some wonky firmware issue. I have a Samsung BD-UP5000, the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo device that came out just as the last shots in the format war were being fired, and Avatar will not play on it. Others have had the same issue and it’s a firmware problem. Considering the firmware hasn’t been update since 2008 and they’re slow as molasses over there to react, I suspect I’ll be watching Avatar on a BR laptop before I watch it on this thing. → Read More
Everyone’s favorite Dances With Wolves remake, Avatar, is coming soon to Blu-ray and DVD. Just don’t expect many extras. Or 3-D. As reported by the great TheDigitalBits.com, 20th Century Fox will shortly announce a 4/22 release date for Avatar on Blu-ray and DVD. But be aware that if you want some bonus features, or 3D, you might have to double or even triple dip. According to the article: → Read More
I could have sworn “piracy” was killing the movie industry. Apparently not, when you actually look at the data! The year 2009 was the single best year in Hollywood history as far as “money” is concerned—if you can find a single decent movie produced by Hollywood last year I’d love to see it—where it made $29.9 billion in ticket sales alone. (Never mind how much Blu-ray and DVD sales will bring in.) So again: if piracy is killing the industry, how do you explain these numbers? → Read More
Tonight’s Oscars are as much about technology as they are good movies. Granted, movie-making has always been about embracing new technology—critics complained when movies first appeared, when they added sound, when they added color, etc.—but Avatar can be looked at as nothing more than a glorified tech demo. A win for Avatar tonight is a win for 3D technology, end of. → Read More
One important factor that can explain Avatar’s success at the box office is certainly the 3D experience viewers can have when they walk into the right movie theater. But what about watching Avatar in “4D”? In Korea, you can.
The nation’s leading multiplex chain, CJ-CGV, runs a handful of so-called “4D plexes” where the experience includes moving seats, laser lights or wind. In the case of Avatar, CJ-CGV uses a total of 30 different “real-life” effects to add some excitement to the movie. → Read More
Prepare yourself for motion picture history. Seems that Avatar is the first movie in the history of ever to pull in 2 billion USD worldwide. Uncork the champagne people. → Read More
The same guy who reviewed the Phantom Menace, apparently while sloppy drunk on a mixture of Percocet and vodka, just reviewed Avatar. His bottom line? Cameron made an affective film – affective in its purest form. Everything is “perfect,” culturally. Part two is after the jump. Good stuff. → Read More
Monday could have marked one of the greatest acts of trolling of the decade. An official ceremony was held to change the name of a mountain in the Hunan province to commemorate James Cameron’s Avatar. Seems that now they’re realizing naming national monuments after movies isn’t the best idea. → Read More
Inspired by Avatar, this crafty fellow created his own version of the Pandora jungle. Made using conductive thread, fiber optic strands, and LEDs, he built a rather impressive looking patch of grass that lights up when you touch it. I’m not sure what the practical usage of this would be, but it’s one of those projects that is just cool to look at. → Read More
In a sense, the following story can be summed up thus: the US military wants new, hi-tech equipment. That’s not exactly breaking news, no, but there’s an Avatar connection, so if the world could stop rotating on its axis for a moment… It’s called Fine Detail Optical Surveillance, and the military wants Darpa to develop it. Think 3D spy cameras. Attach one to a Predator-type device and the boots on the ground—fresh-faced kids from the corn fields of Iowa—will be able to see the bad guys long before they know what’s going on. Woo! → Read More
Pretty sure none of us here ever said that Avatar would tank at the box office, but did we think it’d make a billion dollars in just a few days? I sure didn’t! (To be fair, I never really gave the topic much thought.) But yes, wipe the look of shock off your face as it’s now revealed that the James Cameron film made $1.02 billion in three weeks. That includes international receipts, too. That’s a nice chunk of change. → Read More
James Cameron will shortly be responsible for the two highest grossing films of all time. After just 17 days Avatar has gathered over $1 billion in gross ticket sales, placing it fourth all time after Titanic ($1.8 billion), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.12 billion) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($1.07 billion). At $1.02 billion through Sunday, Avatar will shortly jump from no. 4 to no. 2.
The box office amount is fueled by 3D and IMAX ticket sales, which are more expensive than regular movies. It has brought in $352.1 million domestically and $670.2 million internationally. $66.4 million has come in from IMAX theaters.
We are unabashed fans of the movie – see my review of Avatar here. I’ve now seen it three times in 3D, but haven’t seen in in IMAX yet. → Read More
James Cameron’s visually-thrilling Avatar started out modestly for a mega-Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, pulling in only $27 million its first day at the box office (compared to $72 million for Twilight Saga: New Moon and $68 million for Transformers). But Avatar is the “iPhone of Movies,” as Michael likes to call it (I think he’s seen it four times already, and that is just what he’ll admit to on Yammer). He is not the only one enamored with the movie, which is now nearing $400 million in worldwide box office ticket sales.
If people who are Tweeting about the movie are any judge, about 75 percent of people are saying good things about it, according to Twitter Sentiment (a site which analyzes the sentiment of Tweets). You see roughly the same numbers on TweetFeel and other sentiment analysis sites. → Read More
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