Delgo may slap Avatar with a lawsuit

The comparisons between Avatar's recently unveiled footage and other films have been all over the Internet recently. There have been comparisons to Fern Gully, Jar Jar from Star Wars (guilty), and of course, Delgo.

There is now word that Delgo's creators may decide to sue Avatar over similarities between the films:

Fathom has been bombarded with emails on the topic and have now released a statement that says that the studio may actually consider suing. "From what we have seen, we are amazed by the visual similarities between the two films and we are reviewing what legal options may be available to us," said the statement. [Worst Previews via The Movie Blog]

Even though I find this mildly amusing (not to mention desperate), it's pretty well known that Avatar has been in development since 1996, while development for Delgo began in 1998. But, work on Avatar's visuals and production started after the script was rewritten in 2006.

Delgo earned a pathetic $700,000 at the box office, so maybe they're trying to make back some of that $40 million invested into the film.

And now, since I've had a good laugh at Delgo's expense, I figured I'd share this viral Downfall Avatar mashup from LiC. Apparently these Downfall mashups are popular - I had no idea, so I don't know if this means I'm out of it, or if I've been spared minutes wasted on idiocy. I doubt the entire Internet making fun of Avatar bodes well for it, but who cares? This thing is hilarious:

Avatar vs. The Wolfman

The entire universe has uploaded the trailers and the new glossy photos, so I'll join in starting with Avatar. Some are inevitably disappointed (gee, could it be because folks hyped the shit out of this based on scant concept art photos and the presence of an overrated James Cameron?), but I'm not. People expected realistic looking aliens because the film's special effects are ten years in the making. But we have some photographic evidence that shows the thing looks like an animated film created by Pixar. Images from the first Toy Story looked more real than previously released photos and the images from the new trailer. This is not to bash Pixar - they're great at what they do, but their animated kid-stuff looks better than the footage from a film that's supposed to completely revolutionize cinema.

I'm not disappointed mainly because I have not been excited about this film at all. I hate most of James Cameron's films, and I'm wary of hype. But, while I'm not excited by the trailer, I don't want to see the film any less than I previously did. That's kind of a big deal. Avatar day is tomorrow so I expect more unfettered hype or disappointment.

Finding a decent embed of the trailer has been hard, but the good people at FirstShowing are cool enough to provide us with one. Be sure to head on over to Apple to watch the HD trailer.





Synopsis and backstory from FirstShowing:

Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine on the planet Pandora who, as an Avatar - a human mind in an alien body - finds himself in a desperate fight for his survival and that of the indigenous beings called Na'vi.

Avatar is both written and directed by Oscar winning visionary filmmaker James Cameron, of Piranha II, The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, and Titanic previously. He has been developing the technology to make this movie for the last 10 years. 20th Century Fox is bringing James Cameron's Avatar to both IMAX and regular theaters in 3D around the world on December 18th.

The other big trailer unveil was for The Wolfman, which I've been pretty excited about. The trailer (via Awards Daily) does not disappoint and it's hard not to be impressed by the cast Joe Johnston managed to get. Some of my favorite actors are in this thing: Hugo Weaving, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins, and of course, Benicio Del Toro. It looks like it will actually be scary, especially when you consider that Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker co-wrote The Wolfman script. I should probably tone down the excitement because this could turn out to suck, but Benicio del Toro has that affect on me.




Old school Victorian goth horror below:



The Wolfman is set for a February 12 release. Photos courtesy The Playlist, IESB, and FirstShowing.

poll by twiigs.com

'Avatar' trailer to play before 'Transformers 2' ?

Now this is something to look forward to if The Movie Blog is right:

There is word flying all over the internet today that the first trailer for James Cameron’s “Avatar” is going to debut in front of Transformers 2. Nothing has been officially confirmed at this point as far as I know… but the info SEEMS to be legit.

I'm probably one of the few movie buffs on earth who isn't all that excited for Avatar, though that's likely to change upon seeing the trailer. But, I don't like James Cameron movies (yes, I dare blaspheme), and nothing about the plot entices me, my sci-fi fanaticism be damned. Its only saving grace, at least at this point, is Steven Soderbergh' s enthusiastic endorsement.

Steven Soderbergh really likes 'Avatar'

ComingSoon.net interviewed director Steven Soderbergh about his upcoming film The Girlfriend Experience. At the end of the interview, after discussing his other upcoming films The Informant and Moneyball, he was asked why he thought recent films didn't have the same impact or longevity as earlier classics. His response? ComingSoon shares:

We were asking why he thought recent films didn't have quite the impact or longevity as the classics, and he gave us a great response about how the volume of movies being made and seen made it hard for anything to have the cultural impact of a movie like The Godfather or be remembered. He was disappointed there weren't those sorts of benchmarks in the movies being made today, but he surprised us by adding that he thought James Cameron's Avatar would be one of those benchmarks:

"I've seen some stuff and holy sh*t. It's the craziest sh*t ever. That could negate everything I just said," he told us.

A lot of people are eagerly anticipating the film, being that it's Cameron's first narrative feature film since Titanic way back in 1997, but nothing has been seen of the movie beyond a poster and a brief report from TIME last month. To have a reputable and discerning filmmaker like Soderbergh give it such high praise certainly makes one optimistic that Cameron's return will be the stuff of cinematic legend.

I wasn't excited about Avatar before this. But if Steven Soderbergh's description of Avatar is "holy shit", then I'm on board.