Avatar: Watch The 60 Minutes Profile; Real Running Time Revealed, New Featurette And International Posters

CBS' 60 Minutes aired a 13-minute segment on James Cameron on Sunday night. You can watch the entire segment, embedded after the jump. The piece claims the budget for Avatar is "roughly $400 million plus" and the segment contains a ton of cool never before seen behind the scenes making of footage in addition to the new interview with Cameron. We also get a small tour of Cameron's office, which is filled with props from his previous films. He points to the wheel from the ship of the Titanic, and explains that he keeps it because he knows "what it feels like to be at the helm of a sinking ship." He also shows off a baseball cap he wears on set featuring the letters "HMFIC," which stands for "head mother fucker in charge".

Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox clears up run time rumors in The Hollywood Reporter, claiming that the actual length of the film is 150 minutes (or two and a half hours), which "may rise to 156 minutes when all of the credits are added on, but that would be the maximum running time. " This is a decision mandated by IMAX, which has a maximum running time of 170 minutes (with pre-show entertainment and trailers). A two and a half hour running time will allow exhibitors to have a total of five shows per day in each auditorium, with screenings beginning at 10:00am, and two evening showings in each screen, most likely at 7:00pm and 10:00pm. Of course, screenings will begin at midnight on Thursday 17th, and run around the clock for the first weekend, or until demand dies down. Fox estimates that the film will play in 3D on 3,500 screens in 2,500 locations, and will also be available in about 1,500 other locations in 2D on 2,000 to 2,500 non 3D screens.

In addition to the 60 minutes segment mentioned above, after the jump we also have a new featurette called "Through Eyes Of Colonel Quaritch", which is of course about the character played by Stephen Lang. Also included is a couple new international posters for the film.

60 Minute Profiles James Cameron's Avatar:

Brand new featurette: Through Eyes Of Colonel Quaritch

And two new international posters (via: The film stage):