Avatar the Last Airbender

[Krakalakachkn]

I have to say, I'm really excited about this movie.  I am a huge fan of the tv show and the trailers just keep making me more excited to see it transferred to the big screen.

 

Here's the new tv spot for the Super Bowl:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zipnvpNVTYc

 

Here's the Teaser Trailer:

 

 

 

M. Night Shyamalan is branching out with Paramount's live-action big-screen adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender"

 

Shyamalan will write, direct and produce the adaptation, which Nick hopes will turn into a three-picture series with Shyamalan's continuing involvement reports the trades.

 

The story is set in a world balanced on four nations -- Water, Earth, Fire and Air. In each society, there are masters who can manipulate their native elements -- Waterbenders, Earthbenders, Firebenders and Airbenders -- while the one person who can master all four is the Avatar.

 

When the current Avatar, a 12-year-old boy still learning to master his powers, seemingly dies, the Fire nation launches a war for global domination. One hundred years later, two teens discover and free the Avatar and his flying bison from suspended animation, and he must fight to restore harmony among the four nations.

 

The project marks the first time that Shyamalan will direct material he didn't create, along with his first kid-aimed feature.

 

[Red2111]

i've been waiting for this one as well.  though the fact that M.Knight is directing it makes me a bit etchy about how well it will come out.

 

the guy hasn't put out a decent movie since unbreakable or 6th sense honestly.

 

 

i love the cartoon though so i will have to go see it :)

[Silver]

*sigh* Seems like everybody in the movie is white.

[Red2111]

^ ???

 

 

how is what color the actors are relavtent to the movie??

[Silver]

Personal grudge, but I'd like to see a movie based on animes and such just once use Asians...

[reyler]

Avatar isn't anime. It was made by two white Americans specifcally for Nickelodeon. Katara and Sokka being whitish is kind of annoying, but I'm not interested in joining in the "whitewash!" baying.

 

It is relevant because in the show, the Water Tribe was brownish (apparently based in the Inuit), while the other peoples were, at least culturally and architecturally, based on various Eastern cultures, and the Fire Nation looked sort of Japanese. Aang, though, with his big round eyes, has no reason that he shouldn't be played by a white actor, just because the show was based in Eastern styles.

 

Basically, the argument is that there were no characters on the show that were definitely Caucasian, and the fact that much of the cast of the film is (except for the villains) is supposed to be evidence of racial bias.

 

On one level I can sort of understand the frustration, but at the same time, you're casting for characters 12-16, looking for actors with both the dramatic ability and physical ability (Noah Ringer is a black belt and in the trailer I don't not see Aang) - given the relatively shallow pool you're fishing in, ethnic background probably isn't as important, especially when your setting is an alternate universe.

 

I don't recall hearing much protest when Michael Clarke Duncan (black) was cast as the Kingpin (white) in the Daredevil film. Possibly something to do with him being a very good choice for the role, regardless of physical resemblance.

 

I'm pretty sure I saw Princess Yue in the trailer - they devoted three episodes to the Northern Water Tribe at the end of the first season, can they really fit enough of that in while still giving appropriate development prior? Have they announced a runtime?

[SinisterDeath]

Its like the Dragon Ball movie, or the Street Fighter. The people were ARE asian, weren't in the movies. Specially in Chun-li. :P

[Silver]

The Kingpin role I don't mind because he fit that role perfectly.

[reyler]

And yes, it's possible that, being white, I Just Don't Get It. But it really kind of comes down to whether they sacrificed acting ability to have a cast more palatable to a majority-white audience, or whether they simply chose the best they could find. Is Dev Patel as Zuko any better than Jesse McCartney, who was originally cast?

[SinisterDeath]

The Kingpin role I don't mind because he fit that role perfectly.

 

He's supposed to be russian though isn't he? Siberian-Russian the the most. <_<

[Krakalakachkn]

The Last Airbender will be filmed in 3D

 

Also announced today via the trades is that M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" will be converted into 3D via the company Stereo D who did some work on "Avatar". Unlike "Clash of the Titans" though, there will be no delay with the release date of July 2nd 2010 being maintained.

[reyler]

The

shows brief glimpses of Appa, Roku's dragon, and the Blue Spirit. Princess Yue is even more in this trailer than the previous one, and the presence of the Blue Spirit on top of everything else heightens my concern about how much they're cramming into this film.

[Red2111]

i looks like their trying to make all 3 seasons into 1 movie.  it can be done, there's alot of filler they can leave out in the 3rd season but i hope hey wont lack because of it.

 

i have to agree reyler, it does make me a bit concerned.

 

 

btw, this will be the first movie i see in 3D *nods*  i've been waiting for it and if there is any movie to see in 3D it will be this one :)

[reyler]

Oh, no, Shyamalan's plan is to do one movie per season/book; The Last Airbender is culled from Book One. That's why, for example, Toph and Azula aren't in this movie.

 

Although I'm not sure there's a real reason for Suki to be in this movie (where would they even fit her in?) outside of setting up the Kyoshi warriors for the climax of the second season. It kind of makes me writhe to have said that, because Suki is TEH AWSOM, but she's also not particularly essential to the plot. I'd be more worried if I heard they were having Haru or someone equally useless in the film. Check that, apparently Aunt Wu or a character like her is in the film.

 

I'm still having a super hard time picturing Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show as Zhao.

[Red2111]

i thought i did see azula.

 

veiw the trailer, at 30 seconds there is a person on the back of a lizard.  Azula and her two partners in crime are the only fire benders i remember being featured on those tracking lizards.  because they hounded Appa and Ang in season 2.

 

 

Suki and her warriors were breifly seen in season 1 though, it was while they were roaming around and hiding from Zuko.  because the guy Kira falls for, Jed or soemthing like that, is last seen in season one around the time Suki is introduced

[reyler]

Yes, there's a Fire Nation soldier astride a lizard thing, but it's in the assault on the Northern Water Tribe, where Azula wasn't and where they have plenty of reptilian mounts anyway. Anyway, if Shyamalan is being detail-oriented, if it were Azula then the character would have been throwing blue flame, not red. Plus, there hasn't been any announcement of her being cast. If she were to show up in anything more than a brief cameo, they would have announced an actress.

 

Suki was introduced in the fourth episode of season one, but has no real bearing on the overall story for the first season, and isn't really important at all (except as Sokka's girlfriend) unless for explaining how Azula gets into Ba Sing Se in season two, and if they want to include the Boiling Rock in the last film (which would again be overkill).

 

Jet wouldn't have any business being in this movie. He would clutter it up even more than it already is for no reason. He has a larger role in the second season, but there isn't much in his role there that requires him to be a preexisting character.

[Red2111]

true, i'd forgotten about her throwing the blue fire. 

 

Azula is the best though :)  and i hope that M. Knight includes her breif spot at the end.

 

 

honestly, the characters (Suki & Jet) end up playing a rather big part for character development and plot developement later in the series. 

 

seeing as e's planning on doing a movie per season then he has ample space and time to get in the smaller things and minute details.  and it will be worth it.

 

also, taking into acount that his kids are big fans of the show and thats the main reason he took on the movie i can see him taking the smaller things into account.

 

 

and i wouldn't call it cluttered either.  if it was from an actual book and being adapted into a movie (like Goblet of Fire) then yeah i'd say getting in majority of the main points woudl clutter the film, but this series should actually be an easy job to adapt into a movie without leavign out any reoccuring characters.

[Krakalakachkn]

Just as long as M. Night doesn't pull any shit like he did in The Happening.  Please man, just make a good action movie with comic elements like the show and don't take the movie too seriously.  The show didn't, and I desperately want the movie to be of the same vein as the show.

[reyler]

Shyamalan has said that he's toning down the humor, ie: the various slime gags, slapstick, Sokka being a complete screwball. Which makes sense, as you can't get away with that nearly as easily in a live action movie and still keep your tone intact. As long as there's still some humor there (which you can't take away without erasing half of who Sokka and Iroh are), I'll be satisfied. The show did take itself plenty seriously, just not all the time.

 

It's one thing to include little side characters like Suki and Jet, it's another thing to devote the screen time necessary to establish them the way the show did. They each had a 22 minute episode to establish themselves, while this movie can't really get away with being more than three hours (preferably less, since the target demographic skews a bit younger than LotR) and needs to devote the bulk of that to Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko, while giving Yue and Zhao enough time to make their ultimate positions in the plot not be shoehorned in.

 

I'm not saying that they won't try crowding in as many superfluous characters as possible and end up turning the thing into Mortal Kombat: Annihilation all over again, but I'd like to think they've been smarter than that. I'll wait to pass judgement on Suki's inclusion once I see how they handled it. I'm glad Jet's not anywhere near this film.