Saturday, December 29, 2018

Dark Horse's Avatar Comic almost here


We are just little more than two weeks away from the long anticipated release of the Avatar comic book from the excellent Dark Horse publisher. Dark Horse already handled other mythologies that Jim Cameron invented or expanded upon, such as Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss.
You can preorder the first issue here - https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/29-476/James-Camerons-Avatar-Tsuteys-Path-1

Saturday, December 1, 2018

‘Avatar 2’ Star Oona Chaplin: James Cameron Franchise Is ‘Trojan Horse Cinema’

The jury is still out on whether anyone wants four more “Avatar” movies, but four more Oona Chaplin movies is a much easier sell. Best known for a too-brief stint on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” the actress who played Robb Stark’s betrothed Talisa comes from a long line of show-business royalty. Born in Madrid, Chaplin’s mother is actress Geraldine Chaplin, making Oona Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter and Eugene O’Neill’s great-granddaughter; as if that weren’t enough of a pedigree, she’ll soon join another Hollywood legacy: James Cameron’s.

Chaplin is currently listed on IMDb as starring in all four “Avatar” sequels, two of which are in post-production and two of which are currently filming. Chaplin’s character is named Varanga, whom it’s safe to assume is a member of the NaŹ¼vi. In a recent interview with IndieWire tied to her new film “Anchor and Hope,” Chaplin was tight-lipped on “Avatar 2” details, saying she was “very much sworn to secrecy.” She added: “And you know what? It’s so good, because it’s going to blow people away.”
Asked if Hollywood really needs another franchise, Chaplin was sympathetic. “Right? I mean, in a certain way I totally agree. But in a different way, and I don’t know how politically correct it is for me to say these things, but I feel like it’s Trojan-horse cinema,” she said.

“I feel like we have a culture now where we are, just the numbers show that these franchises are probably the most successful thing that people want to go and see in the movies,” she added. “So I feel like what James Cameron…is wanting to do is use the momentum of this fad, of this franchise kind of culture to explore things that he finds important…like our relationship with nature, our relationship with people, our relationship with ourselves and the spirit. He’s using that vehicle to tell the story that he’s passionate about.”

As IndieWire’s David Ehrlich argued earlier this month, you’d have to be insane to doubt James Cameron. According to Chaplin, the filmmaker connects with so many people because of how intimately he understands his audience.

“Jim knows his audience better than anyone,” said Chaplin. “And he knows story as well. The epic nature of these films is totally grandiose and really has the old Greek epic-ness about it. I feel like he uses the structure to explore the scene. And he’s so good at both, it’s kind of amazing.”

While the Oscar-winning “Titanic” and “Avatar” director is known for grandiose special effects, Chaplin said she was surprised how committed he was to finding the truth of the scene.

“I had no idea that it would be so truth-centric,” she said. “But the whole thing is about truth, because everything else is stripped away. Everything else he can put it in. Everything else. You want a dragon? He can put in a dragon. But the only thing that he can’t add is the emotional depth of what lies beyond the structure of your performance. The physical structure, the soul. And I feel like that’s what he wants to get.”

from indiewire

Monday, November 12, 2018

James Cameron and Suzy Amis Cameron — How to Think Big, Start Small, and Change the World

“Hope is not a strategy. Luck is not a factor. Fear is not an option.” — James Cameron

James Cameron (@jimcameron) is a filmmaker and deep sea explorer. He is writer, director and producer of The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, Titanic, and Avatar. Both Titanic And Avatar (the highest grossing film of all time) won the Golden Globe for Best Director and Best Picture and were nominated for a record number of awards. Cameron was also at the vanguard of the 3D renaissance, developing cutting edge 3D camera systems. As an explorer, in 2012, Cameron set the world’s solo deep diving record of 35,787′ in the Challenger Deep in a vehicle of his own design.

A dedicated environmentalist, Cameron founded The Avatar Alliance Foundation to take action on climate change, energy policy, deforestation, indigenous rights, ocean conservation, and sustainable agriculture.

He is currently in production on Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Suzy Amis Cameron (@suzymusing) is a noted environmental advocate, mother of five, and the author of OMD: The Simple, Plant-Based Program to Save Your Health, Save Your Waistline, and Save the Planet and the founder of the OMD Movement, a multi-pronged effort to transform eating habits and the food system. She is also a founder of Plant Power Task Force, focused on showing the impact of animal agriculture on climate change and the environment, founded in 2012 with her husband James Cameron and Craig McCaw. In 2005, she founded MUSE School, the first school in the country to be 100% solar powered with zero waste and a 100% organic, plant-based lunch program. Additionally, she is a founder of Verdient Foods, Cameron Family Farms, Food Forest Organics, and Red Carpet Green Dress. As an actor she has been featured in more than 25 films, including The Usual Suspects and Titanic.

I thought this episode would be a good opportunity to give some air time to discussion of plant-based diets, but even if you disagree with the idea of plant-based diets, I suggest listening for at least three reasons: One, there’s plenty of non-plant talk. Two, as an exercise in patience. I do my best to expose people to different perspectives, and this is no exception. Three, OMD (One Meal Per Day) is worth learning about to understand the discipline that goes into conscious eating and habit formation.

Also not to be missed, James mentions in the full audio that unlike on previous films he didn’t get sick during the simultaneous filming of Avatar 2 and 3, which is astonishing considering, as he put it, that “they [meaning all staff] know coming in when they sign up that it’s going to be the most difficult production in human history.” So how did he do it? He credits it to his new routine, including a plant-based diet, supplements, exercise, etc. I asked him for a sample day, which he provided. You can find James’s super dialed-in daily routine for Avatar 2 and 3 at tim.blog/jamescameron.

Please enjoy!

from tim.blog

JAMES CAMERON GIVES NEW DETAILS ON THE ROLE OF KATE WINSLET

Kate Winslet has marked the spirits by interpreting Rose in Titanic, a film directed by James Cameron. Twenty years later, the director and the actress get together for the second part of Avatar. Kate Winslet will lend her features to Ronal in Avatar 2, a character of the people of the sea. James Cameron has delivered that the actress is eager to take part in the project, in an interview given to Vanity Fair : “She has participated for a few days of the rehearsals and was able to see the world we have created, how we work, and she is very impatient.” And this promises to be quite challenging for the actress because a big part of the film takes place under water.

The filming of Avatar 2 is so rich in challenges, but Kate Winslet seems to be ready to meet the challenge, as explained by the director : “The only thing she has asked is to do the work under water. I told him that it was ok and that we are going to learn how to dive.” The actress of Titanic , therefore, should play the underwater scenes without the use of a doubler. His character would belong to a clan, called Metkayina. He lives on a narrative of coral reef giant, and is directed by Tonowari, who will be played by an actor of Fear, The Walking Dead, Cliff Curtis. We are already looking forward to seeing the first images of this new universe !

from koztimes.com

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

New font for Avatar sequels

Here is the new font for the upcoming Avatar sequels. You can also see a comparison below




Sunday, October 28, 2018

James Cameron talks about how he cracked the code on underwater motion capture

Believe it or not, James Cameron is actually filming Avatar 2. After all these years, he's finally hard at work on the sequel(s) to the biggest movie of all time. But there's a reason for the long delay. Not only because Cameron is making not one, but four sequels to Avatar, but the underwater motion capture he's using for much of the Avatar sequels took a long time and a lot of money to perfect. They've literally invented this complex technology for Avatar 2. Here's what James Cameron had to say about it in a recent interview.

"Well, we're doing it. It's never been done before and it's very tricky because our motion capture system, like most motion capture systems, is what they call optical base, meaning that it uses markers that are photographed with hundreds of cameras. The problem with water is not the underwater part, but the interface between the air and the water, which forms a moving mirror. That moving mirror reflects all the dots and markers, and it creates a bunch of false markers. It's a little bit like a fighter plane dumping a bunch of chaff to confuse the radar system of a missile. It creates thousands of false targets, so we've had to figure out how to get around that problem, which we did. Basically, whenever you add water to any problem, it just gets ten times harder. So, we've thrown a lot of horsepower, innovation, imagination and new technology at the problem, and it's taken us about a year and a half now to work out how we're going to do it."
Long before we were made aware of James Cameron's lofty plans to make four Avatar sequels, we knew he was planning on shooting much of the follow-up underwater. The problem is, he had to invent the technology to make that possible. That's part of what contributed to the eight-year delay between the first movie and the sequel. However, all of that time and money has finally paid off, as they've successfully perfected shooting full scenes underwater.

"We've done a tremendous amount of testing, and we did it successfully, for the first time, just last Tuesday [November 14th]. We actually played an entire scene underwater with our young cast. We've got six teenagers and one seven-year-old, and they're all playing a scene underwater. We've been training them for six months now, with how to hold their breath, and they're all up in the two to four minute range. They're all perfectly capable of acting underwater, very calmly while holding their breath. We're not doing any of this on scuba. And we're getting really good data, beautiful character motion and great facial performance capture. We've basically cracked the code."
James Cameron has always been very ambitious in terms of technology and filmmaking. Not only has he historically made very great, or at the very least incredibly successful movies, but he's always pushed the limits of what technology can do for movies. These Avatar sequels are going to be no different. If he has his way, we're going to have glasses-free 3D by the time Avatar 5 rolls around. He also reveals in this new interview that the majority of Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 will take place underwater and, while Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 will have water work as well, the "emphasis" is on the next two installments.

"Now, we're still working in our small test tank. We graduate to our big tank in January. There's a tremendous amount of water work across Avatar 2 and 3. It's ongoing into 4 and 5, but the emphasis is on 2 and 3."
Currently, Fox has dated the Avatar sequels for release on December 18, 2020, December 17, 2021, December 20, 2024, and December 19, 2025. Granted, those dates could change again, but with production underway, Avatar 2 will finally see the light of day in the next few years.


from movieweb.com

Jim Cameron and Suzy Amis clip



Hollywood power couple James and Suzy Amis Cameron are fighting climate change, one meal at a time. They join the program to discuss how that one meal can change the planet.

Watch it HERE - http://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/filmmaker-james-cameron-author-suzy-amis-cameron/

Or read the transcipt here -

from pbs.org

Saturday, October 20, 2018

Avatar: Tsu'tey's Path #1 variant cover

Check out this awesome Avatar: Tsu'tey's Path #1 variant cover from our #AvatarFamily at Dark Horse Comics!

Coming January 2019, Avatar: Tsu'tey's Path tells the story of the first Avatar movie from a new perspective.


Saturday, October 6, 2018

JAMES AND SUZY AMIS CAMERON’S VEGAN MUSE SCHOOL KITCHEN WINS FIRST ‘GREENEST RESTAURANT’ AWARD

A California vegan school has received the award for the Greenest Restaurant by The Green Restaurant Association, a US and Candian nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting sustainability in foodservice and hospitality. MUSE Kitchen, the MUSE School’s onsite cafeteria, accepted the award.

MUSE School was co-founded in 2006 by sisters Suzy Amis Cameron and Rebecca Amis, the former a successful actress and wife of famed vegan director and environmental activist, James Cameron. The unorthodox education model focuses on ‘passion-based learning’ in addition to core academics, communication, self-efficacy, and sustainability. Students range from early education preschool to grade 12. In 2015, MUSE became the first US school to become 100 percent solar powered and virtually zero waste, with a completely organic plant-based lunch program.

The school’s commitment to and successful implementation of its ambitious sustainability practices have led it to become a 4 Star Certified Green Restaurant. In addition to the intelligently sourced, organic plant-based food, the MUSE Kitchen’s solar panels offset 80 percent of its annual energy use. The kitchen also utilizes recycled and reusable serving ware and packaging.

Michael Oshman, CEO and founder of the Green Restaurant Association, said in a press release, “MUSE School’s Kitchen has just pushed the edge of sustainability even further from vision to reality. I applaud MUSE’s leadership in providing a successful foodservice operation that is in concert with the oft-used word Sustainability.”

MUSE Kitchen also won the “Sustainable Food Award,” “Greenest School Cafeteria,” and the “Energy Conservation & Renewable Energy Award.”

Although The Green Restaurant Association has been in operation since 1990, this is the first year it has doled out awards to recognize the most sustainable kitchens in America. The organization stated, “The restaurant industry has such an enormous environmental impact, and all of the Certified Green Restaurants® are truly going the extra mile to preserve this earth for generations to come.”

from livekindly.co

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Return to James Cameron’s Avatar in New Dark Horse Comic

Dark Horse Comics is no stranger to adapting filmmaker James Cameron’s highly-successful film franchises like Terminator and Alien into monthly comic book series, and that trend will continue in 2019 with the release of Avatar: Tsu’tey’s Path, set during the events of the original 2009 Avatar.
Avatar: Tsu’tey’s Path promises to reveal never-before-seen events that were only hinted at in Cameron’s Avatar, which holds the record for the highest grossing movie of all time. Cameron has plans to expand the world of Avatar with four movie sequels, the first scheduled to arrive in theaters in 2020.

Doug Wheatley, will provide covers for the six-issue companion series. Dark Horse’s Avatar: Tsu’tey’s Path #1 (of 6) by Sherri L. Smith, Jan Duursema, Dan Parsons and Wes Dzioba goes on sale January 16, 2019.



From CBR.com

Monday, August 27, 2018

Titanic Collectors Edition Out Now

A magazine special dedicated entirely to Titanic movie is out on newstands now. You can grab your copy today


Thursday, August 16, 2018

Happy Birthday Jim!



We, at JamesCameronOnline.com, would like to wish Jim Cameron a very happy and healthy birthday. We thank you for your work and hope for much more to come!

JCO Staff (Adrian, Johnny, Vanessa, Fredrik)

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Reminder: The Terminator Sector War


Reminder: the first issue of Dark Horse's The Terminator: Sector War comes out on August 15th. It will mark Dark Horse's return to the franchise since 2014's Enemy of My Enemy. JamesCameronOnline will review the series

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

James Cameron backs British campaign to save Titanic treasures for the nation

A group of British museums has launched a joint £15 million bid for the salvaged treasures of the Titanic, after the US firm that owns them filed for bankruptcy.

The campaign is backed by James Cameron, the Oscar-winning Titanic director, and by Dr Robert Ballard, the oceanographer who discovered the wreck of the ship in 1985.

The bid by the Royal Museums Greenwich, National Museums Northern Ireland, Titanic Belfast and Titanic Foundation Limited seeks to raise sufficient money to buy the 5,500 artefacts recovered from the seabed over the course of seven deep sea expeditions between 1987 and 2004.

The haul ranges from a 17-ton section of the hull to the bronze cherub that once adorned the grand staircase; clothing, crockery, jewellery, documents and even a packet of cigarettes.

The company that salvaged and owns the items, Premier Exhibitions, has filed for bankruptcy in the US, leading to fears that the collection will be split up and sold off to private collectors.

Cameron, whose 1997 Titanic film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio fuelled interest in the Titanic story, said the collection must not be allowed to disappear into private hands.

“The story of the Titanic has captivated imaginations, hearts and minds of people around the world. It has played an important role in my own life - as a film-maker, a deep sea explorer and as an advocate of deep-ocean research.

“The sinking of the Titanic was a heartbreaking moment in history. Securing the irreplaceable collection of artefacts - protecting and preserving them for future generations by placing them in the public trust - is a unique and important opportunity to honour the 1,503 passengers and crew who died,” the director said.

The four museums are seeking private and public donations in order to reach their target, and have secured $500,000 (£380,000) from National Geographic.

A court in the US will decide today [Weds] whether or not to accept the British bid. If it is accepted, there will be a 60-day period in which to raise the required funds.

A spokesman for the bid said: “We are currently in conversation with private funders, and we hope in time to launch a public arm of the campaign, encouraging the general public across the world to pledge their support to the journey of returning Titanic artefacts to an appropriate final resting place.”

In addition to the artefacts, the organisations are seeking salvage rights, which will be assigned to the National Maritime Museum (part of Royal Museums Greenwich) and National Museum Northern Ireland.

The ship sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on April 15 1912. The wreck was discovered 73 years later by a joint American-French expedition led by Dr Ballard, lying 2.5 miles deep and around 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

Dr Ballard, a former US naval commander, said: “I’m lending my voice to this campaign as it is the right thing to do. This bid is the only viable option to retain the integrity of the Titanic collection. The collection deserves to be returned home to where its journey began.”

Since 1994, RMS Titanic Inc, owned by Premier Exhibitions, has been “salvor-in-possession”, the only company that can legally sanction a diving mission to the wreck.

source: telegraph.co.uk

Monday, July 23, 2018

New Alita: Battle Angel trailer unveiled by James Cameron


Directed by Sin City's Robert Rodriguez and shepherded to the big screen by James Cameron, we now have a new trailer for Alita: Battle Angel.

https://youtu.be/cw-KKYpCARA

The latest glimpse at the movie was released today (July 23) in conjunction with a Facebook Live Q&A featuring several members of the team behind Alita. Cameron and Rodriguez were joined by Jon Landau and Rosa Salazar for the exciting event.

Discussing the origins of his involvement with the project, which has been a long journey for the filmmaker spanning two decades, Cameron explained: "It's an interesting history going back I'd say 20 years, Guillermo del Toro is a good friend of mine and he turned me onto the anime."

"I loved the anime just for its kind of poignant, simple story. But I wound up doing Avatar instead, it was literally practically a coin toss between the two, we were literally developing them in parallel" he added.

The Aliens director then divulged the process of giving Rodriguez the reins on Alita, with the two being really close friends.

"A couple of years after [Avatar], Robert [Rodriguez] and I were just hanging out, we'd been hanging out for like 3 hours gossiping and being pals.

"So he's getting into his car and the door's about to close and he says 'So you got anything?' like a total afterthought and I thought 'I'm not going to get to do Battle Angel for a long time', because I'm doing all of these Avatar sequels, so I handed him the baton. The rest is history."

Alita: Battle Angel arrives in cinemas this December.

source: digitalspy.com

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Calgary dancer Jenn Stafford uses performance capture for James Cameron's Avatar sequels

It was nearly 10 years ago. She was 18 at the time and knew she was going to dedicate her life to dance. So the thought that she would one day be spending her time on the secretive set of Cameron’s Avatar sequels in Los Angeles never entered her mind. Why would a dancer from Calgary go to work on a sci-fi action film? It just wasn’t done.

“I don’t think I really realized what goes into those movies and how they create these films and the kind of movement that is in there,” says Stafford, in an interview with Postmedia from her home in Los Angeles. “Maybe that was just me being so involved in the movie itself and being taken away. But it’s funny, I never thought: ‘Yeah, that’s probably a dancer doing that movement. It’s probably someone like me.’ I never thought a dancer could do that.”

They can, and she is.

Since last October, the Calgary native has spent most of her time on sound stages as part of a troupe of artists working with performance-capture, or motion-capture, technology as part of Cameron’s giddily anticipated sequels. Every day Stafford puts on a form-fitting suit and a helmet fixed with cameras. Markers placed all over her body and face capture her movements and expressions and transform them into computer simulations for potential use in Avatar 2 and 3, which are being filmed back to back.

Not surprisingly, Stafford has been sworn to secrecy about the productions, particularly the plot points. Cameron spent nearly a decade developing the sequels, which will eventually include fourth and fifth instalments, providing the next two are successful. The original Avatar, released in 2009, is considered the highest-grossing film of all time, earning $2.7 billion with its complicated plot about futuristic humans looking to exploit the resources of a moon inhabited by creatures call Na’vi. It was considered pioneering for its use of performance-capture technology and special effects.

Stafford is part of a team dubbed “the troupe,” a collection of 10 to 12 stunt people, actors and dancers working on the films. She can’t say who or what she is playing, but acknowledges that it will likely be multiple characters.

It’s been a learning experience for the dancer, who had never worked with anything like  performance-capture technology before. So the sequels’ lengthy pre-production process was a blessing for Stafford, who soaked up everything she could about the strange world of performance capture.

“As an audience member, especially if you’re not involved in that world, you don’t really realize how it’s made,” Stafford says. “You just think someone draws it up. But it’s really cool. With performance capture and motion capture, you are able to capture the authentic performance of the actor and make that into the character and the animation. It’s not like you are just filming them and animating over them, you get the authentic emotion and body motion of the person playing the role.”

The experience is just the latest adventure for the Sir Winston Churchill high school graduate. It’s been a long, often surreal journey since she took dance lessons in Calgary at the age of seven. She performed with the Young Canadians, did a three-year stint with Cirque du Soleil performing the Beatles LOVE in Las Vegas, made videos with Katy Perry and shared a stage with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Pharrell Williams and Brad Paisley for 2014’s The Grammys: A Salute to the Beatles.

Stafford said she was convinced by her boyfriend, stunt performer and fellow Cirque performer Chris Silcox, to go to an open “stunt and movement” audition for the Avatar sequels in the spring of 2017. Initially, the tryouts were done for stunt co-ordinator Garrett Warren and his team, which was a decidedly daunting experience for the dancer.

“I was super nervous,” Stafford says. “As a stunt co-ordinator, he gets a lot stunt performers. It was intimidating going in knowing that a lot of them would be flipping off the walls and doing crazy stuff. I went in and said ‘I’m a dancer.’ He said ‘great.’ He wanted to see what I could do. He let me free-style, improv for him.”

Stafford was eventually brought before the assistant director and the auditions became more specific.

“She put us through a lot of different situations: What environment we were in, what emotions we were feeling with our motion,” Stafford says. “We were using prop weapons. It was just to see how we could improvise. It was interesting because with Cirque du Soleil, their auditions are similar. After we got through all the technique and dancing portions, they want to see if you can improvise and make a character with whatever you are given.”

There were two more callbacks and a test shoot that finally brought her to set, which is when she first met Cameron.

“He’s there every day,” says Stafford. “He’s the hardest working person. I got to meet him for the first time on my test-shoot day when they were trying me out on the set. He noticed I was there and was like ‘Oh, I don’t recognize you.’ He’s awesome, because he’s Canadian as well so we bonded on that.”

A year later, Stafford is still going to work for him every day. If she could speak to her 18-year-old self sitting in that Calgary movie theatre, what would she say?

“Have patience with your career, with yourself, because things will happen and will come,” she says. “Stay present in each moment. When I was young, I thought I knew exactly what I was going to do and what I wanted. I now realize that those were good ideas, but they weren’t really my ideas. They were just what I thought someone from Canada, a Calgary dancer, should do.

“Have patience, work hard, take all your classes and training but be open to the many opportunities that come your way. Honestly, all the weirdest, strange opportunities that came my way were the best experiences.”

source: calgaryherald.com

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Terminator 2: Judgment Day Endoarm 4K Review


On July 17, 2018, after many delays, the collectible release of the 4K Terminator 2: Judgment Day is finally here. And it's in the form of an endoskeleton forearm encased in a tube like it was at the Cyberdyne vault. For a brief and to the point review, our primary webmaster, Adrian Czarny, who is a Terminator historian and a hardcore collector was asked to share his opinion on this release:

By far it's the best collectible Terminator release out there. There were quite a few of those and the ones that are most remembered are the VHS US box set in a slipcase with a book and hologram, the UK T2 "lunchbox" release and of course the endoskull DVD release from 2009. While the endoskull release was quite cool, with sound effects from the movie, lit up eyes and the overall design, it did look like a cool toy, but a toy nonetheless. It was very silvery and visually obvious that it's made out of plastic, and most details were glossed over, discarded or just vaguely outlined. Which is fine, since it wasn't a Sideshow release or anything like that. However, this particular release of the endoarm certainly holds the candle and scrutiny even to the Sideshow releases. The details aren't glossed over for sure, and every part seems to be fine crafted separately and thoroughly. The proportions are perfect, and the paint job gives it a great, darkened metallic look which looks very much like steel. It's a top notch job and a MUST have for any Terminator fan. 




Wednesday, July 18, 2018

"Aliens" Turns 32



Today James Cameron's heart pumping Aliens turns 32. If you haven't, or you have but you want to do it again, head on to JamesCameronOnline.com and check our Aliens section (http://www.jamescamerononline.com/Aliens.htm). Some of our most popular articles are The Design of The Alien Warrior which showcases the alien from the first movie and the second side by side (http://www.jamescamerononline.com/AlienWarrior.htm) or a Perfect Sequel (http://www.jamescamerononline.com/AlienandAliens.htm) showcasing 'Aliens'' respect and continuity to the first film

Monday, July 16, 2018

James Cameron's and Robert Rodriguez's 'Alita: Battle Angel' Heading to Comic-Con

Fans will get a chance to attend the panel by going on a scavenger hunt.
Fox’s Alita: Battle Angel is heading to Comic-Con, but fans are going to have to earn the chance to see her.

There will be a sneak peek, as well as a Q&A with some of the cast, of the movie, directed by Robert Rodriguez and produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, but it won’t actually take place in Hall H or the San Diego Convention Center.

Instead, the panel, set for Friday, July 20, will take place at the Regal Theater Horton Plaza. It will occur in the evening.

Rodriguez, Landau as well as stars Rosa Salazar and Keean Johnson will be on hand for the proceedings. In order to get in, conventioneers have to participate in a scavenger hunt and win tickets. 

“You have to earn your way there,” says producer Landau of the process. “We think it’s a fun way to do it. And we’re excited to show what we made.”

Titled Alita: Battle Angel – Pillars of Iron City Search, the hunt calls for participants to use a passport obtained at the Loot Crate booth to collect six Alita-themed stickers in order to win a prize. Other partners include Titan Books, Hot Toy/Slideshow Collectibles, Prime One Studio, Weta Workshop and Funko.

When Landau and Cameron were at Comic-Con in 2009 to present Fox’s Avatar, they were in the famous and historic Hall H. This time, the producers and studio are taking a new approach.

“It’s doing something different and unique,” says Landau. “It’s about getting out there and involving a small group of people who are engaged. There is nothing wrong with Hall, but this felt like the right approach for this."

Alita stars Salazar as a young cyborg with no memory who is taken by a doctor, played by Christoph Waltz, and given a new lease on life in mean streets of Iron City. But when the corrupt forces that run Iron City come after Alita, she discovers keys to her past lie in her latent and unique fighting abilities.

“What makes it special is that it has the trademarks of a typical James Cameron movie,” says Landau. “It has a strong female protagonist with universal themes. Alita as a character goes on a journey of self-discovery. She thinks of herself as an insignificant girl. Through her journey she comes to realize that within her is the ability to make a difference. I can think of no greater universal message today.”

Source: hollywoodreporter.com

Thursday, July 12, 2018

James Cameron’s New Film Exposes ‘the World’s Most Dangerous Myth’



Forget everything that you thought you knew about eating meat. From Academy Award winners  James Cameron and Louie Psihoyos, director of The Cove, comes a new film that is about to turn the biggest and longest-held meat myth on its head. The Game Changers chronicles “a quest for the truth” that ultimately became “a shocking exposĆ© of the world’s most dangerous myth.”

The film follows military combat instructor and former Ultimate Fighting Championship martial artist James Wilks. After being badly injured, he began researching what he could do to help his body recover. His search became a five-year quest that led him to four continents and dozens of the world’s top athletes and nutrition experts. “What I discovered was so revolutionary, with such profound implications for performance, health, and the future of the planet itself, that I had to share it with the world,” he says.

Among the experts Wilks meets are Arnold Schwarzenegger, two-time World Surfing Champion Tia Blanco, world record–holding strength athlete Patrik Baboumian, former president of the American College of Cardiology Dr. Kim Williams, founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute Dr. Dean Ornish, and several members of the Miami Dolphins football team. They all agree that meat, egg, and dairy consumption is a barrier to optimal health.

Schwarzenegger, who has been dairy-free for 40 years, notes, “If they tell you to eat more meat to be strong—don’t buy it.”

The film is slated for global release this fall or winter

From peta.org

visit the website at http://gamechangersmovie.com

Monday, July 2, 2018

T2 Terminator 2: Judgment Day Turns 27


On July 3rd T2 aka Terminator 2: Judgment Day turns 27. Those who have been around at the time of its release know what kind of phenomenon it was, watched and talked about by everyone, present in every magazine. Many of us collected the magazines, sticker, pinups and just about anything with the T2 logo on it. It's hard to describe what kind of an event that movie was and a milestone in pop culture for those who haven't experienced it. Only few matched it since then

If you haven't yet read our popular T2 related articles, you can head on to JamesCameronOnline.com to the T2 section (http://jamescamerononline.com/Terminator2.htm) and look around. Our most popular features are the FAQ section (http://www.jamescamerononline.com/T2FAQ.htm) as well as our 'Complexity of T2' article which was cited as one of the sources for the phenomenal Terminator Vault book (http://www.jamescamerononline.com/T2Complexity.htm) and our very popular 'Locations then and now' feature (http://www.jamescamerononline.com/Terminator2Locations1.htm)

Our main webmaster/founder is an avid collector of the vintage The Terminator and T2 merch and vintage magazines, so we asked him what is the hardest item to obtain and what is his favorite: "In my experience the hardest to obtain are either a coloring book Terminator 2: Crayon By Numbers with Light or European, 2 paged sticker album (and I'm not talking about the Topps stickers or the binder for them) for stickers that came with bubble gum over there. When it comes to the first movie, I guess the press kit and certain magazines. My favorites are quite easy to obtain - it would've been the Cinefex issues for The Terminator and T2 (issues #21 and #47) and some other magazine specials. I liked vintage magazines, they almost always have some rare photos and they're a snapshot of the time. Not to mention they're very interesting because most of them contain obscure interviews with either Arnold or Jim"



Sunday, July 1, 2018

Reminder: Aliens Dust to Dust #2 coming soon

Don't forget - Aliens: Dust To Dust #2 hits the newsstands on July 11.
A mother and son bound by a shared terror--separated by an implacable alien force! A spaceship that should carry them away from the fear becomes a deathtrap from which escape seems impossible!
Writer:
Gabriel Hardman
Artist:
Gabriel Hardman
Colorist:
Rain Beredo
Cover Artist:
Gabriel Hardman

Saturday, June 30, 2018

T2 Unreleased Tracks


As a part of the Terminator week due to upcoming T2's anniversary, we would like to once again shed a spotlight on a terrific work by Python Blue of recreating to an absolute perfection unreleased themes and cues from T2. Enjoy

Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja2Qd4iy2CU

Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMiiA38bnRM

Part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja2Qd4iy2CU

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

New James Cameron Documentary Explores The Athlete Vegan Movement


A new documentary called “The Game Changers” is out to prove that a plant-based diet is the most advantageous one for athletes — or, really, for anyone interested in improving their health.

The film, executive produced by “Titanic” and “Avatar” director James Cameron, is slated for release in fall 2018. It’s the latest signifier of the growing trend in sports in which an increasing number of athletes are choosing a plant-based diet — eschewing the traditional high-protein or high-carb diets of the past.

Everyone from Venus Williams to the defensive line of the Tennessee Titans to the NBA’s Kyrie Irving and the NFL’s Colin Kaepernick is eating plant-based diets, citing numerous health benefits as their motivations.

Several other films, such as “What the Health” and “Forks Over Knives,” also focus on the health benefits of a plant-based diet, but “The Game Changers”’ producers have a clear and somewhat new angle: It also aims to dispel myths tying manhood, virility, and strength to meat consumption.

In one section of the film, researchers conduct an experiment proving that a plant-based diet leads to stronger and more frequent erections — and it’s led to some, shall we say, firm responses.

“At our very first screening at the Sundance Film Festival, I had a long line of people who wanted to know how to start eating plant-based RIGHT NOW,” U.S. Olympian Dotsie Bausch, an athlete spotlighted in the film, says. “After seeing the film, no one wants to wait or make the transition slowly. My hope for ‘The Game Changers’ is that it jump starts this plant-based revolution.”

Bausch, the oldest Olympic competitor in her discipline, stood as a plant-based athlete on the Olympic platform at almost 40 years old. She experienced nearly immediate changes when she went vegan. “My blood flow increased, my digestion improved, my recovery time was cut in half, and I had teammates who were 10 years my junior chasing me around the track,” Bausch tells GOOD.

Rip Esselstyn is another accomplished plant-based athlete featured in the film. A top-10 Olympic distance triathlete in the United States for over a decade, he attributes his success to a diet that strengthened his immune system.

“Even though I was putting all this stress on my body every day, I very, very rarely got sick,” Esselstyn says. “As an athlete, a huge nemesis is getting sick.”

In the film, Esselstyn challenges 35 New York City firefighters to take his Engine 2 Seven-Day Rescue Challenge to see how their weight, blood pressure, and internal biochemistry could measurably shift in just one week. “When they're doing whole plant-based foods, we've got an average total cholesterol drop of 31 points, weight loss of almost seven pounds, and blood pressure at 10 over 5 — and these guys were just blown away,” Esselstyn reports.

The reasons athletes and normal folks alike experience these physical changes are multifold.

“A whole food plant-based diet is inherently rich in unprocessed carbohydrates,” Dr. James Loomis, a plant-based-diet doctor interviewed in the documentary, explains. “It helps us maintain adequate glycogen stores, which is the energy we use for shorter duration exercise and short bursts of energy.” Inflammation is also reduced significantly while antioxidant consumption rises, leading to improved recovery time. “The compounds that make blueberries blue or raspberries red or sweet potatoes orange—those are all very potent antioxidants. By eating a plant-based diet, it significantly increases your ability to offset this oxidative stress.”

Of course, people often ask: But where do you get your protein?

“There is more than enough protein in the plant-based diet to help build and repair muscle and body tissue after athletic performance,” Loomis says. “I mean, you don't see mountain gorillas or elephants and ask, ‘Oh my God, where do they get their protein?’ But what do they eat? Well, they eat plants.”

Plant-based athletes load up on protein by eating lentils, beans, tofu, seitan, peanut and almond butter, and seeds, among other foods, according to Derek Tresize, a professional vegan bodybuilder.

According to published studies, 97% of Americans get more than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of protein. And overconsumption of protein is associated with kidney disease, diabetes, certain kinds of cancer, and even osteoporosis. Fiber, on the other hand, is what most people are actually deficient in — 97% of Americans don’t get the RDA, increasing risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic diseases. More immediately, this deficiency can also hurt athletic performance.

“Meat has zero fiber,” Esselstyn adds. “We now know that fiber is so imperative in giving us even stores of energy over the course of the day, in allowing us to be as regular as a Swiss commuter train so we're not backlogged, constipated, and having all this nonsense basically festering in you for days at a time.”

Another common question is whether you need dairy for strong bones. In reality, we can get all the calcium we need from plants and may actually be hurting our bones with high dairy consumption. On average, we absorb just 30% of the calcium in milk, yogurt, and cheese, but we absorb twice that percentage if we eat dark leafy greens, nuts, and legumes.

“If you look at population data, countries with the highest milk intake, dairy intake, have the highest rates of osteoporosis,” Loomis says. Theories as to why this might be are numerous. Dairy lowers pH levels in the blood because of increased amino acid intake, and we have to neutralize that acid by leaching calcium out of our bones, Loomis explains. “The calcium that's in milk, where did that calcium come from? It actually came from the dirt that the plants were grown in.”

In his opinion, no distinction should exist between sports medicine and regular medicine—we were all designed to be active.

“There's no such thing as sports nutrition; there's just healthy nutrition,” he says.

For Loomis and a growing consensus of doctors, nutritionists, and athletes, that nutrition plan couldn’t be clearer.

source: sports.good.is

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

James Cameron Provides an Update to CineEurope on the Avatar Sequels

20th Century Fox hosted their presentation at CineEurope, and one of the things they spent some time talking about was James Cameron and his various Avatar sequels. We haven’t learned much about the movies just yet, but Cameron did send a video to the people at the presentation that provided an update. Deadline was on hand to get all of those details.

Lightstorm Entertainment’s Jon Landau came to the stage to say they are in the middle of production on James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, and tossed to a video from Cameron on set who said he is on day 130 of performance capture. He was standing in front of a giant water tank and noted water “plays a huge part” in the new movies which will travel to “never before seen parts of Pandora.” He asided that Kate Winslet can hold her breath underwater for seven minutes and that Zoe Saldana wrapped her part last Friday. The early results on the movies “are beyond even our expectations,” Cameron concluded.

The presentation took a shot at the Disney-Fox deal, with President of International Theatrical Distribution Andrew Cripps and President of International Marketing Kieran Breen “packing” for the trip in a little video. At one point in the video Cripps pulls out a set of Mickey Mouse ears from his suitcase and Breen pulls out a Comcast shirt, so Fox is admitting that they have no idea what they’re going to end up doing.

They also showed new footage from Alita: Battle Angel and a first look at Dark Phoenix, but descriptions of that footage are likely under embargo. At the end of the day the theater industry is marred with uncertainty in the era of streaming and VOD, if nothing to say about the uncertainty when it comes to 20th Century Fox’s future. Fox Film Chairman and CEO Stacey Snider acknowledged this, so Fox is self-aware, but assured the crowd that:

“We cannot lose sight of the ultimate goal which is the sustainability and vitality of going to the movies. We must continue to make movies to be seen out of the home.” And to the exhibitors in the audience, she said, “Thank you for being by our side for 80 years.”


Avatar 2 will be released on December 18th, 2020. Avatar 3 will open December 17th, 2021, Avatar 4 is set of December 20th, 2024, and Avatar 5 will open December 19th, 2025.

Source: BleedingCool

Friday, June 8, 2018

An Article By James Cameron

When I first learned to dive, every coral reef or kelp forest looked like something out of a science fiction story. Over the years, I’ve spent more than 3,000 hours underwater, even co-designing a submersible and piloting it to remote, otherworldly destinations. What I’ve witnessed and learned has helped shape me, as an explorer and a resident of our planet, as well as a filmmaker. When I traveled 12,000 feet underwater to the Titanic, it profoundly reinforced my reverence for the ocean and the importance of bringing powerful stories back to the surface.

The ocean has been a source of inspiration for millennia. Our ancestors looked to the watery horizon, expanding the boundaries of what we know about ourselves and the globe. Where their knowledge ended, they filled the gaps with dragons and other myths. But instead of turning away in fear, they sailed beyond the edges of our maps, returning with stories that inspired generations of future explorers.

Today, with seemingly every corner of the planet laid bare, we only have to look beneath the surface of the ocean to encounter another world right here on Earth that is an integral part of our own existence, yet that we barely know. It’s a realm that helps make our planet livable, and one that we are in danger of changing before we’ve had a chance to understand it.

Just 650 feet down, at the edge of the sunlight’s reach, is a region known as the twilight zone, one of the last and most important remaining frontiers on Earth. This vast, largely unexplored layer is home to some of the most fantastic life on Earth. The bristlemouth — a tiny fish with a gaping, “Alien”-like jaw and bioluminescent patches on its body — is thought to be the most numerous vertebrate on the planet, possibly numbering in the hundreds of trillions or quadrillions, meaning that there may be more of them than there are stars in our galaxy. The twilight zone is also home to the largest animal migration on Earth, as its inhabitants swim up at night to feed in surface waters and down in the daytime to avoid predators. Theirs is a motion that sweeps across the planet every day, and that may actually help mix the upper ocean, which is critical to sustaining life beneath the waves. And while there’s tantalizing evidence to suggest that there may be more fish biomass in the twilight zone than in all the rest of the ocean combined, no one can say for sure how much — or even what — lives there because we simply don’t know enough about it.

Nevertheless, the sheer mass of life in the twilight zone has, predictably, begun to attract the attention of commercial fishing fleets. Those enterprises have focused on extracting resources from surface waters, but plans are in the works to begin tapping the twilight zone’s seemingly endless supply of protein to feed aquaculture operations and to manufacture “nutraceuticals” like krill oil.

Almost every other major fishery on the planet started in this way, building on the assumption that the ocean’s resources were limitless. That is almost always a mistake. We need only study the lessons of the Northwest Atlantic cod fishery to see that not only can we overfish a single species, but that doing so can devastate a whole marine ecosystem. And this time, it’s not just a fishery that we stand to lose.

Exploitation of the twilight zone with little knowledge of what’s there and how it functions as a whole may disrupt one of the most reliable natural systems we have to counteract widespread climate change. Since the dawn of the Industrial Age, the ocean has absorbed nearly one-third of the excess carbon dioxide humans have poured into the atmosphere, largely thanks to tiny, plantlike organisms known as phytoplankton. Those organisms, in turn, become food for many twilight zone residents and migrants that create a cascade of “marine snow” that carries carbon dioxide into the deep ocean, where it can remain safely removed from the atmosphere, sometimes for thousands of years or more. Disrupt that ecosystem, and far more carbon dioxide will remain in the atmosphere, warming the planet.

There are other risks, too: Harvesting even the most abundant organisms without understanding their role could also indelibly alter the complex marine food web. In the process, we risk disrupting surface fisheries and threatening large animals such as whales and sharks — charismatic symbols of a wild, open, and healthy ocean that we turn to again and again for inspiration.

But where there are threats and peril, there are also openings for hope. I look at the ocean and see a near-limitless opportunity for us to explore our planet more deeply than ever before. As we collect scientific data, we will tell stories that fill gaps in our knowledge, feeding our collective imagination, motivating ourselves and future generations to better our world in the process.

To do this, scientists and communicators will have to partner in a sweeping exploration of the twilight zone. New knowledge and understanding, communicated widely, will foster greater respect for the ocean and everything it does to make our planet habitable. This will be a voyage of discovery in the tradition of human exploration through the ages — one that just might encourage us to protect the ocean that protects us, before we change it forever.

source: washington post

Saturday, June 2, 2018

'Avatar' Sequels: James Cameron Confirms Use of Sony Venice Cameras for Production



The cameras will be used with 3D stereoscopic rigs.
Ever since James Cameron announced plans for his Avatar sequels, there's been plenty of speculation about which cameras he would use. Today, Cameron and producer Jon Landau's Lightstorm Entertainment confirmed that Sony’s Venice cameras with 3D stereoscopic rigs will be used for Avatar 2 and 3, which will be lensed by Oscar winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter (Cameron's Titanic).

Cameron had also previously expressed interest in high dynamic range and incorporating high frame rates. The Venice (and generally all major motion cameras) support these options as well.

Said the director in a released statement: “The Venice camera delivers the most astonishing image I’ve ever seen. The blacks are rich, deep and velvety, the highlights and source lights are amazingly bright. For the first time, we truly appreciate what the term high dynamic range means.”

Sony said it worked closely with Lightstorm to customize the Venice camera — Sony's first full-frame digital motion picture camera, which was unveiled last September — for the production's specific needs, with regular meetings taking place between Cameron, his production teams and Sony’s engineering group.

The camera maker explained that "using the new Sony cabling system, the only part of the Venice carried on the rig will be the image sensor optical blocks, significantly reducing on-board camera weight to about three pounds per sensor block. By lowering the weight and improving ergonomics, Cameron and the Lightstorm team will have the ability to shoot with greater flexibility and freedom." This could include use with Steadicams, drones, gimbals and shooting in confined spaces, a Sony rep added.

Performance capture work is already underway on the sequels, though principal photography isn't expected to begin until early 2019.

The first of Cameron's four planned Avatar sequels is scheduled for a Dec. 18, 2020 release.

Source: HollywoodReporter.com

The Terminator: Sector War Variant Cover



Here is a variant cover for the upcoming Dark Horse's mini series The Terminator: Sector War coming August. The series was announced earlier however this variant cover wasn't widely publicized

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

James Cameron Explains How Avatar Sequels Will Revolutionize 3D



After revolutionizing visual effects and 3D cinema with his 2009 sci-fi film Avatar, James Cameron hopes to make the four upcoming sequels just as jaw-dropping. It's been a long wait to find out what comes next for Pandora, but given that the first Avatar movie took fifteen years to get from Cameron's original treatment to the big screen, it's hardly surprising that the sequels are taking a while as well. Filming on Avatar 2 and 3 began last summer, and the next movie is set for release in December 2020.
Avatar 2's biggest technical challenge was shooting motion-capture performances underwater, and this has been a considerable challenge for the cast as well, who have been trained to hold their breath for two to four minutes at a time. The focus on this new frontier doesn't mean that Cameron is neglecting his love of 3D, though.
Last week, Cameron spoke at the Vivid light festival in Sydney, and vfxblog transcribed the highlights from the director's Q&A session. Cameron said that "Hollywood has done 3D a disservice by embracing post-conversion," and lamented the fact that, because of this reliance on post-conversion, "Native production technology has basically stalled as of about three or four years ago." With the Avatar sequels, he hopes to give 3D technology another push forward:
"From my own perspective since I’m not doing television production, I’m doing Avatar sequels – four of them. They will be, to the best of my ability, the best 3D that’s possible to make. That includes collaborating with the people at Dolby Cinema, who have developed high dynamic range projection that could put 16 foot-lamberts of light on a 3D screen through the glasses, which is revolutionary. Normally, you’re looking at about three foot-lamberts. Sixteen is what you should be seeing. That’s what movies should look like."
The next step in 3D will be making it possible to watch 3D movies without the use of glasses - something that Cameron has talked about enthusiastically in the past. For now, however, he is collaborating with Dolby Cinemas to try and solve the problem of 3D movies looking too dark. "Normally, you’re looking at about three foot-lamberts," Cameron explained, referring to a unit measurement for the amount of light reflected off a movie screen. "Sixteen is what you should be seeing. That’s what movies should look like." When 3D movies are finally looking their best, the technology can move forward to even more exciting places:
"We need to see the roll out of these laser projection systems, so that we can fully appreciate 3D through glasses in cinemas. Then, we need the roll out of autostereoscopic screens – large panel displays, where you don’t need glasses at all. You have multiple discreet viewing angles and all that sort of thing. Anybody that’s geeking out on 3D knows what I’m talking about. It’s all possible. It’s just a question of will it happen or not."
Once new and exciting, 3D has lost much of its shine due to so many movies adding it as an afterthought. If anyone can make 3D exciting again, Cameron can. "I guarantee one thing," the director said. "Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all going to be in 3D and they will look sumptuous."
Source: SCREENRANT

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