Avatar

August 21, 2009 - Inspired by the science fiction of Ray Bradbury, Gene Roddenberry and Rod Serling, director James Cameron wanted to make a film on par with the aforementioned writers and their great sci-fi worls. He wanted to tell a story that had no limits, that would redefine scale and challenge the guy who gave us Aliens and Titanic to out-do himself. That story is Avatar, a film 14 very long years in the making. A film whose recently released teaser trailer (see below) is already sparking much heated debate amongst the fanboy community eager to pass judgment on December 18, when the film is released. IGN Movies looks back at Avatar's production timeline, from leaked treatments to new advances in technology, in concert with Avatar Day. Early reaction to the trailer may be mixed, but everyone can agree that the final product will be nothing Cameron has ever done, or we have seen, before. Click to watch the Avatar trailer. Avatar Origins Avatar began as an idea 14 years ago. But it wasn't until June 14, 2005 when word hit the trades that Avatar, codenamed "Project 880", was officially on the way. The original goal, or more likely what the people of the interwebs spun as the original goal, was to develop Avatar parallel to Battle Angel, another much anticipated film on Cameron's to-do list. Due to Avatar's demanding production scope, and the fact that Cameron doesn't make movies unless he invents better ways of doing it first, is why we had to wait until 2009 for the film's release. At Comic-Con, Cameron said that he first wrote the treatment in the late 1990s, in an effort to take advantage of his role as head of Digital Domain and to push the envelope on special effects. Once he realized that technology was not ready for the alien world of Pandora, he put the treatment in a drawer, made the little inde that could, Titanic, and went deep-sea diving. Then, after seeing Gollum in The Two Towers, Cameron took out his treatment again, and studio execs took out their wallets. The tech in play allows for photo-real CG renders in 3-D, a first. The tech also provides Cameron and his actors to view semi-rendered effects in camera while on set, another first. Watch James Cameron and the cast talk about Avatar. Cameron shot Avatar in a warehouse-turned-soundstage, and put his actors portraying Na'vi through a vigorous training regiment, to get them into the mindset of an alien race. Movement coaches were hired to "de-humanize" actors, and make their walk and posture more native, more Na'vi. Whole species of plants and animals were created as if Pandora were a real place. And for the reported $300 million price tag (and rising), it almost will be. Cameron has always been fascinated with the high-end sci-fi, asking film goers if they are ready to go to a new world. Now, with Avatar launching December 18, he asks: "Are you ready to go right now?"