Bureau Exclusive Report: James Cameron's AVATAR

We were thrilled to attend the Cinema Expo in Amsterdam yesterday. The highlight for us was the Avatar screening and after party. James Cameron unveiled 24 minutes of his 3-D, sci-fi film Avatar. The film stars Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana and Stephen Lang. On hand at the RAI convention center (in addition to Cameron) to talk about this $300 million production were the film's producer Jon Landau, and Fox's Jim Gianopulos. This film is cinematic hybrid of CGI, motion-capture animation and live action and it is Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's Titanic. Media in attendance was very restricted – they were not allowed to discuss Avatar images and interviewing members of the viewing audience was prohibited. However, we are going to give you a sneak peek at the images anyway.

"Three years ago, I stood up here and said the 3-D renaissance is coming," Cameron started. "And from what we've seen in the business, we can now say it has arrived." In Avatar, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na'vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.Cameron said that the assemblage of footage he was showing came from the first third of the film.

He also showcased some images from not yet finished portions of battle scenes later in the film. These involved the earthlings and the aliens fighting over control of the fantasy world Pandora.According to Cameron, later in the film the action comes non-stop at viewers. Worthington will be "a remote-controlled character created by melding his crippled human form into a super-human being -- whose fate lies ultimately in doing battle with his own former race."The footage that was screened received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from all in attendance.

Cameron is championing the campaign for theater owners throughout the US to outfit their theaters with the latest 3-D capability. "I just want to say that I think Avatar is going to play great in 3-D, 2-D, any 'D.' " said Cameron.

A lot of the technology that was used to record the actor’s performances was created especially for Avatar, and the crews behind the effects were the geniuses from Industrial Light + Magic in Northern California and WETA Digital in New Zealand. Avatar will be released by 20th Century Fox, hitting theaters on December 18th.