Last week conceptual artwork which was supposedly from James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi epic film Avatar “leaked” online. We hoped and prayed that it wasn’t real, as it wasn’t too impressive (actually it looked a lot like Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s mother in Beowulf). Well Cameron e-mailed the guys at AintItCool to clear the air and dispel the rumor:
“You recently posted some artwork of a supposed Na’vi character. Don’t know where you got it but it’s spurious. I’ve never seen that piece of art. We had a lot of free-ranging conceptual stuff in the early days of design two and a half years ago, and it might be something that was [...]

The photo to the right has been circulating around the web for a couple days now, but I have decided until now, not to post it because I believed it to be fake. Tonight, all the major movie websites are running with the photo, so I thought, what the hell. So what is the photo of?
Unknown sources are claiming that the photo is of an indigenous alien race called the Na’vi from James Cameron’s upcoming $190+ million super-epic 3D performance-capture/live action/animation hybrid Avatar. The original treatment for Avatar described the Na’vi as tall and blue, so this very well could be conceptual art for the species, however, I’m hoping that [...]

At least 5,000 3-D systems expected to be in place by 2009. DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg expects there to be 12 to 18 3D feature films by 2010. 3-D is clearly the future of cinema, at least for the near future. With the recent announcements of Tim Burton’s Alice and Wonderland/Frankenweenie, and today’s announcement of Final Destination 4 in 3D, we’ve decided to compile a schedule for the upcoming 3D movie releases. Enjoy!
2008:
January 25th 2008: U2 3D: Performances from seven different shows of U2’s Latin America Vertigo Tour in early 2006. Previews of this film have tested incredibly well.
February 15th 2008: Fly Me to the Moon: A computer animated tale [...]

There are a lot of casting updates tonight, however, very few of them could be considered interesting. But as of 11:30pm on the West Coast, the news forecast for Monday is looking slow… So we’re going to run with it.

Jay Hernandez, Jennifer Carpenter and Columbus Short have joined Johnathon Schaech and Steve Harris in Screen Gems’ remake of remake of the Spanish horror movie Rec. John Erick Dowdle’s Quarantined follows a reporter and her cameraman who are among those trapped inside a downtown Los Angeles apartment building where a deadly strain of rabies has broken out. Sounds interesting, but Screen Gems has a long record of horrible films (which I [...]

Lost and Girlfight star Michelle Rodriguez has been sentenced to 180 days in Los Angeles County Jail after admitting to violating her probation from several DUI-related charges. I know you’re probably thinking to yourself “Who cares.” And normally you’d probably be right on, but this might seriously effect James Cameron’s follow-up to Titanic.
As you may recall, Rodriguez was cast as ex-Marine pilot Trudy Chacon in Cameron’s upcoming 3D sci-fi epic film Avatar. She is now required to begin her sentence by late December, but who knows what Rodriguez’s shooting schedule looks like. I know that most of the live-action segments have already been filmed, but that doesn’t mean that she’s [...]

There have been a bunch of new release date changes announced in the last 24 hours, let’s take a look.
DreamWorks has announced that they are moving Monsters vs. Aliens 3D from May 15th 2009 to March 27th 2009. The monster film was originally scheduled to go head to head with James Cameron’s Avatar in what was being called the first head to head 3D battle. Now that the film is opening a while 2 months earlier that Cameron’s epic sci-fi tale, both films might have a chance at finding an audience, and filling up more of the available 3D digital screen space. Monsters vs. Aliens, which reinvents the classic ’50s [...]

Stephen Lang (Gods and Generals, Gettysburg) and Michelle Rodriguez (Girlfight, Fast and the Furious, Lost) have joined the cast of James Cameron’s $190+ million super-epic 3D performance-capture/live action/animation hybrid sci-fi film Avatar.
Written by Cameron eleven years ago as an 80-page treatment, Avatar follows a wounded ex-marine who is unwillingly sent to settle and exploit the faraway planet Pandora. When he gets caught up in battle for survival by the planet’s inhabitants (called Na’vis) he unexceptionally falls in love with one of them.
Lang plays a seasoned Marine Corps colonel who travels to the faraway planet Pandora to take charge of its troops. And Rodriguez plays an ex-Marine pilot.

United Artists is targeting August 8th 2008 (8-8-08) to release the Bryan Singer-directed Valkyrie which stars Tom Cruise in the real life story of the attempted assassination of Adolph Hitler at the height of World War II. Valkyrie will go head to head with New Line’s Journey 3-D, Sony’s Pineapple Express, Disney’s South of the Border, and Warner Bros’ The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. [via: ComingSoon]
Dreamworks Animation is moving Monsters vs. Aliens up one week for a May 15th 2009 release to avoid direct competition with James Cameron’s Avatar. This a a good move since both films are going to be released in digital 3D. Today only around [...]

We’ve briefly discussed the upcoming Summer 2007 3D showdown which will pit James Cameron’s Avatar up against Jeffrey Katzenberg/DreamWorks’ Monsters vs. Aliens in the digital movie theater stage. There has been no mention of a simultaneous IMAX release from either side, until now. The president of IMAX appeared on this weekend’s edition of Sunday Morning Shootout and inadvertently mentioned the possibility of an IMAX 3D release of Avatar.
On of the hosts commented that Cameron’s film would be shown on 1000+ digital screens, but not IMAX.
“Might be… might not be [available in IMAX],” quickly snapped IMAX Film Entertainment Chairman and President Greg Foster.
Cameron has released a couple IMAX 3D documentary films [...]

With 3D becoming the emerging format in the Hollywood scene, I always believed it was only a matter of time before we would see two films go head to head in the third dimension. And it looks like Memorial Day 2009 will be that day, pitting James Cameron’s AVATAR up against DreamWorks Monsters vs. Aliens.
Today only 750 screens are equipped with the digital projection technology to allow 3D projection, but that is expected to change. Jeffrey Katzenberg has told people that he wanted to debut Monsters vs. Aliens on 6,000 screens. I’m not sure the exhibitors will buy that quickly into the digital technology. I think it’s more reasonable to [...]

The latest Batman The Dark Knight casting rumor has Maggie Gyllenhaal to replace Katie Holmes as Assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes. Not a bad idea. But I’m guessing that like most of the other Batman casting rumors, it’s not true.
All Star directors helm The Office: Lost Co-creator JJ Abrams, Serenity/Buffy The Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, and Groundhog Day director Harold Ramis have directed episodes of the Office. Whedon’s episode airs tonight, while the Abrams episode will air next week.
James Cameron has confirmed more Avatar castings: Wes Studi, Sigourney Weaver, Peter Mensah, and Joel David Moore.
Cast-a-date allows people in the entertainment industry to meet romantically. Very sad.
Comedian Al Franken (Saturday Night [...]