Racing to the Bottom: Exploring the Deepest Point on Earth

 From: http://www.theatlantic.com
 
Teams led by Richard Branson, James Cameron, and some unknown guy from Florida are all hoping to make it to the Mariana Trench

At the southern end of the Mariana Trench, a deep scar that cuts into the bottom of the ocean floor, there is a point known as Challenger Deep. Here, just outside of the Marianas or Ladrones, a series of 15 islands made up of volcanic mountains that peak just above the water line, a small slot-shaped valley plunges nearly seven miles down. At 35,797 feet, Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the oceans. It is so deep that, if you were able to place Mount Everest inside of the valley, there would still be 6,811 feet of water separating it from the surface.
At just 7,000 feet down, about where the tallest mountain in the world would peak, the pressure becomes so great that whales rely on unique evolutionary traits when hunting for giant squid. Whales have lungs that can collapse safely under pressure and ribs bound by soft cartilage that allows the cage to shift and settle in extreme environments rather than snap. Without similar anatomical gifts, we don't know much about what happens below that level. Imagine what creatures might live at depths five times greater than where whales and giant squid battle in the pitch-black ocean.
We've been there once before, to the bottom of Challenger Deep. But we didn't see or learn much. On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard suited up, plopped down inside of Trieste, and sank to the ocean floor. The Swiss-designed, Italian-built, U.S. Navy-owned Trieste is an inelegant machine. The observation gondola, a sphere welded to the bottom of the ship's main flotation system, has walls that measure five inches thick and a tiny, cone-shaped Plexiglas window.
Story continues after the gallery.

TRIESTE

Historic Naval Ships

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After spending nearly five hours sinking to the bottom of the ocean, Piccard and Don Walsh, a Navy Lieutenant that accompanied him, were only able to peer through the Plexiglas while shivering in the 45-degree capsule and munching on chocolate bars for sustenance. Surrounded by a cloud of sediment that Trieste had kicked up when it smacked into the ocean floor, Piccard and Walsh couldn't see a whole lot from their window, which had cracked on the way down. What they did see, though -- a variety of sole and flounder, two types of flatfish -- proves that at least some vertebrate life can handle the extreme pressure in one of the Earth's most extreme places. Twenty minutes later, Trieste dumped tons of magnetic iron pellets and spent three hours rising back to the surface.
Now, more than 50 years later, humans are nearly ready to return to Challenger Deep. This time, though, they're planning to stay a while, collecting samples, videotaping whatever might be down there, sending out small remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) and then bringing home $10 million. Earlier this year, the X Prize Foundation made that prize money available to the first privately funded submersible to make two visits to Challenger Deep. This money, though, is little more than proof that humans are fascinated with the extreme: climbing Mount Everest, walking on the Moon, searching the floor of the ocean. Ten million dollars will only cover a fraction of the race to the bottom. And it is indeed a race; one with at least three competitors, each close to claiming the prize.

RICHARD BRANSON'S VIRGIN OCEANIC

Billionaire Richard Branson is known for the hundreds of companies that fall under the Virgin Group umbrella, including Virgin Megastores, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Records and Virgin Galactic, his space tourism company that aims to bring passengers into sub-orbital space for $200,000 a head. As part of his team perfects SpaceShipTwo, the plane that will fly more than 60 miles above the Earth as those inside gleefully float about the cabin for six minutes of weightlessness, another crew is busy preparing a kind of ship meant to take humans in the opposite direction.

Branson's team, led by legendary submersible designer Graham Hawkes and chief pilot Chris Welsh, has been planning to take the Virgin Oceanic out for water tests as early as this summer, but, due to setbacks, no date has been confirmed. In early rounds of laboratory testing, the borosilicate viewing bubble through which the Oceanic's crew would peer out at the ocean floor cracked under just 2,200 pounds per square inch of pressure, about one-eighth of the 16,000 psi expected at Challenger Deep.
Story continues after the gallery.

VIRGIN OCEANIC

Virgin Oceanic

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The 8,000-pound, 18-foot-long submersible that Hawkes has designed "represents a transformational technological advance in submarine economics and performance," according to Virgin Oceanic's official website. "The submarine provides the currently unequalled capability to take humans to any depth in the oceans and to truly explore." Taking some of the most elegant creatures of the sea as inspiration -- whales, dolphins and rays -- the Virgin Oceanic uses two sets of wings to fly through the water.

The Virgin Oceanic will be carried out to sea and launched by an enormous 125-foot racing catamaran that was once owned by adventurer, aviator and sailor Steve Fossett. Welsh, the pilot for the submersible who made his money in real estate and then decided to take to the seas, purchased the catamaran after Fossett disappeared in a single-engine airplane over the Nevada desert in 2007. He traveled to Fossett's estate to close the deal on the Cheyenne and was sold on the Challenger, the original name for what would become the Virgin Oceanic, as well.

JAMES CAMERON'S DEEP CHALLENGE TEAM

The Avatar and Terminator director is an explorer first and a filmmaker second. The box office-breaking Titanic wasn't on Cameron's radar as a Hollywood project because he knew it could earn huge dividends, rather, he has long been obsessed with the famous sinking of the ship. He has made several trips to the wreckage, shooting footage using 3-D cameras he designed himself to capture the 100-year-old ship as it has never been seen before. He plans on using some similar technology at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Admittedly, Cameron doesn't care if he's the first (well, the first of this group) to reach the bottom ... he just wants to be the best. Cameron's team is working on building what appears to be the most high-tech (and least reliant on a tourism-based model to fund future exploration) submersible. The as-yet-unnamed project will include a giant lighting array, several 3-D high-definition cameras, an arm that can grab samples from the ocean floor and a small ROV similar to that used to swim in and around the Titanic wreckage, according to an email that Cameron sent to Outside's Anna McCarthy.

Unlike Branson's Virgin Oceanic, Cameron's Challenger Deep project has passed pressure tests; at a Penn State University lab, the team turned the dials to 16,000 psi and waited. Nothing. But at what cost? Nobody knows how much time or money Cameron has put into this submersible, about which he has been pretty tight-lipped since kicking off the design stage with a couple of sketches in 2003. Now, more two dozen people are working around the clock to prepare the sub for sea trials next April.

BRUCE JONES' TRITON SUBMARINES

Bruce Jones is the odd man out in this triumvirate. And that's because you have no idea who Bruce Jones is -- and you're not alone. Building a vessel that can safely sink to the bottom of the ocean is no easy feat; it's one that requires big backers with deep pockets, something that Jones doesn't have. While the 55-year-old entrepreneur has drawn up plans and marketing materials -- they call this project the "race to inner space!" -- he has not yet secured the funds to construct a prototype. He's currently shopping around the idea. "We're talking to a number of first clients because, quite frankly, we don't have the money to build one of these on spec," Jones told Outside.

Jones' Florida-based company is hoping to build a number of Triton 36,000s -- named for its maximum depth, obviously -- and sell them for about $15 million each to individuals who can shuttle people down to the bottom of the ocean for even more than Branson plans to charge for a space ride: $250,000 each.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Transformers 3: Or, How James Cameron Got Michael Bay to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love 3-D

by Jen Yamato
from http://www.movieline.com/

When Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon barrels into theaters this summer in 3-D — the first 3-D outing for the film series and for Bay himself — you’ll have one man to thank for it: James Cameron. Fittingly, Bay took the stage at a Transformers 3 footage screening Wednesday night on the Paramount Studios lot to compare notes on the format, its future, and its frustrating limitations with none other than Cameron himself.

Sitting side-by-side with moderator Jay Fernandez of The Hollywood Reporter leading a conversation filled with tech details and friendly banter, Bay and Cameron took it back to the beginning, when Avatar had yet to prove itself worth the giant leap of faith and money and Bay was still hesitant to leave his comfort zone.

Having once invited Bay years ago to the set of Titanic, a film whose vertical sinking ship set piece is evoked in a building-toppling sequence from Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Cameron welcomed Bay onto the set of Avatar while he was in production. But Bay, a purist at heart who still prefers film over digital, felt alienated by Cameron’s tech-heavy production. “3-D is all ones and zeroes,” Bay explained to the audience of journalists and film students. When Paramount asked him to make Transformers 3 in 3-D, Bay says, Cameron (“the man who talked me into it”) insisted he give it a shot: “[He said] Michael, we’ve done everything. You’ve got to look at it as a toy, another tool to get emotion and character in the experience.”

Cameron, meanwhile, has been drinking the 3-D Kool-Aid for years. It was his desire to make 3-D a viable cinematic form that led him to abandon film for digital in 1997, knowing that the advancement of digital tools was a prerequisite for working in 3-D.

[SLIDESHOW: Click for images from Transformers: Dark of the Moon.]

But current 3-D rigs aren’t yet ideal in weight or versatility — at least, current to the time when Bay was filming Transformers 3. So in order to shoot his film in 3-D, Bay had to adjust his preferred methods: shooting 10 shots per day instead of 50, for example. And the unique risks involved were unprecedented to the director. After the first day of filming on Dark of the Moon, Bay woke up exclaiming, “I’m in love with 3-D,” only to discover that the hard drives housing that day’s worth of footage had been corrupted and his precious footage lost.

Bay, then, is much more frustrated with the limitations of current 3-D filmmaking than Cameron seems to be; practically speaking, it requires him to change the way he shoots. But judging from the approximately 10 minutes of footage shown, including the first five minutes of Dark of the Moon and an extended reel of footage, 3-D might have been one of the best things to happen to him.

Perhaps because working with 3-D required him to slow things down in terms of action, Bay’s action sequences appear to be clearer and more discernible. Extensive hand to hand robot fight sequences, robot transformations, aerial scenes, and a show-stopping set piece involving a massive robot constricting itself around a skyscraper in downtown Chicago are much easier to follow than similar scenes in the first two films. Also impressive are scenes of a squadron of military paratroopers, led by Josh Duhamel, who leap out of a plane mid-air and wind their way through a cityscape in freefall like flying squirrels caught on the wind.

More on the footage, briefly: [SPOILER ALERT] The opening first five minutes set up the premise of Dark of the Moon. A massive Star Wars-esque battle between robots is raging on Cybertron, where an escaping bot is attacked and crash-lands on the moon. Meanwhile, in 1960s America — think Michael Bay’s version of Mad Men — NASA and the government catch wind of the landing and race to put a man in space to beat the Russians to the crash site. Mixing archival footage with face-replicating CGI, Bay depicts the secret U.S. mission that we never knew about: Neil Armstrong isn’t on the moon to make one small step for man, he’s there to investigate the Transformers landing, bringing back to Earth the knowledge that we’re not alone in the galaxy. [END SPOILERS]

Reaction to the footage was mixed, though the reel drew applause. The 3-D looks fantastic — and, as Cameron himself complimented, one can’t tell the difference between native-shot footage and converted footage. (The percentages, according to Bay: 60 percent native 3-D, 15 percent digital, and the rest conversion.) “I like that you’re using 3-D aggressively,” he told Bay.

“The question is, how many millions more will it make in 3-D?” Cameron asked, turning to Bay. “I guarantee more than $30 million.”

But 3-D isn’t just an involving process, requiring complex added technical steps to shoot — it’s expensive, given the labor, equipment, and added post work involved. Bay spent seven months testing various conversion houses to find companies he trusted with the job, and made sure his fx techs got footage well in advance. The extra cost of 3-D for a film, Bay estimates, is $30 million. To Cameron, that $30 million is worth every penny. “The question is, how many millions more will it make in 3-D?” Cameron asked, turning to Bay. “I guarantee more than $30 million.”

Finally, conversation turned to the problem with the current state of 3-D filmmaking: Bad 3-D conversion jobs. “Bullshit 3-D is turning off audiences,” said Bay. Cameron agreed, citing bad 3-D as a step backwards in the struggle to get audiences back in theaters. The appeal of 3-D, he claims, is a direct solution to the threat of VOD. “But we’re abusing it,” he said, blaming studios for rushing through the time-consuming process of fine-tuning the 3-D treatment.

Another problem facing would-be 3-D filmmakers? Brightness levels in theatrical projection, another result of money-saving efforts, only controlled by theater owners. “Laser projectors are the future,” he predicted. Also in the near future, according to Cameron: Passive vs. active shutter home 3-D glasses, “tablets and laptops that don’t require glasses and are auto-stereoscopic,” and within 5 years, glasses-free 3-D television screens. We’re in the 3-D equivalent of the auto industry circa 1905, Cameron insisted.

Bay had a slightly different take: “It’s the Wild Wild West,” he said, of the current disconnect between filmmakers, exhibitors, technology, and the audience. But if Cameron has his way, it won’t be this way for long.

What a dive: The underwater realm that inspired James Cameron's new 3D film Sanctum

By Chris Hall

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

This is a real photograph from one of the most mysterious environments in the world

80ft below the surface, the Cascade room in Dan's Cave, on Abaco Island in the Bahamas, is one of the most sensational chambers in the cave system 

No, it's not a still from Sanctum - although James Cameron's new diving film was inspired by a near-catastrophic expedition by the man who took these pictures, Wes C Skiles. 


This is a real photograph from one of the most mysterious environments in the world. You could visit Abaco Island, in the Bahamas, and have no idea that beneath you lies this vast network of caves, accessible by as many as a thousand 'blue holes' - submerged vertical caves peppered with entrances to this forbidding domain.

Of the 1,000 or so blue holes in the Bahamas, fewer than 20 per cent have been investigated, and almost none fully explored

Exploring these passages is the diving equivalent of climbing K2  -  you've got to be exceptionally well trained and well prepared. Even then, safety is no guarantee; Wes C Skiles died during a dive last summer.
Sanctum is dedicated to him.

Of the 1,000 or so blue holes in the Bahamas, fewer than 20 per cent have been investigated, and almost none fully explored. It's a perilous mission to undertake; the caves are pitch black, vast and labyrinthine: the deepest blue holes can be 600ft deep, and the connecting caves run on for thousands of feet in all directions. 

 

Light filters down from the entrance of Ben's Cave (left) in Lucayan National Park on Grand Bahama. There are over six miles of caves under Grand Bahama. The caves can get so narrow that the divers have to remove their equipment to fit through the gaps (right). Here one of the team explores Garbage Hole, with his guideline clearly visible in the foreground

Divers maintain a taut safety line at all times. Without it, it could be nigh on impossible to find your way out before your air supply runs out. Divers carry three tanks of nitrox mix - one to use on the way in, one on the way out, and one for emergencies - and three lights, which are used to communicate as well as navigate. 


Standard practice states that if any one light fails for any diver, the whole dive is called off. 

In Sawmill Sink, another of Abaco's blue holes, bacteria colour the water a violent red, and signal the presence of hydrogen sulphide clouds 

Wes Skiles died during a dive last summer. Sanctum is dedicated to him

As well as the routine hazards of diving, the unique water chemistry of inland blue holes brings its own problems. 


In inland blue holes, a thin layer of fresh water, provided by rainfall, sits on top of denser salt water. The fresh water acts as a lid, preventing oxygen from entering the water. 


Bacteria in the salt water produce hydrogen sulphide as a result, generating toxic clouds of gas, suspended near the surface throughout the caves.
Divers cannot spend too long exposed to these clouds; it can penetrate their wetsuits and skin, leading to nausea, delirium and even death.
These conditions also contribute to the blue holes' interest, however.
Life on Earth began in prehistoric times, when oxygen was vastly less prevalent in the planet's atmosphere. 


By exploring these caves, and studying the bacteria that exist here, scientists can learn not only about life as it was four billion years ago, but as it might exist now on other worlds: it is possible that there are pockets of liquid water beneath the surfaces of Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa, and distant planets. 


The oxygen-deficient conditions also preserve animal remains.
Marine biologists have recovered the remains of crocodiles and tortoises with their soft tissues perfectly intact, even after thousands of years. 

Divers thread a careful path between stalactites and stalagmites in Dan's Cave. The fragile rock formations are tens of thousands of years old 

 

 

 

Divers Brian Kakuk and Kenny Broad (left), from the team of scientists exploring the blue holes, surface in Sawmill Sink. A team of divers explore the north passage of the blue hole known as Stargate, on Andross Island (centre). Dean's Blue Hole (right), in a cove on Long Island, is the deepest known underwater cave in the world, stretching down more than 600ft

James Cameron: 'Avatar' sequels coming Christmas 2014 and 2015

by Darren Franich

from http://insidemovies.ew.com/

 
Image Credit: WETA

James Cameron has spoken frequently about his intention to turn his mega-hit Avatar into a trilogy. Now, according to the director himself speaking at the PGA Awards on Saturday, those two sequels have release dates. Cameron tells EW, “I am in the process of writing the next two Avatar films now. We are planning to shoot them together and post them together, and we will probably release them not quite back to back, but about a year apart. Christmas ’14 and ’15 is the current plan.” Of course, it’s probably best to take those release dates with a grain of salt, since the first Avatar had several release dates before its December 2009 release. Still, now fans know that they’ll have to wait at least three more years for a return to Pandora.

Cameron also notes that we’ll see some familiar faces return. “Basically, if you survived the first film, you get to be in the second film, at least in some form,” say the director. One thing’s for sure: some percentage of the presumably-massive Avatar sequel gross will go to charity. “Fox has partnered with me to donate a chunk of the profits to environmental causes that are at the heart of the Avatar world,” says the director. “I didn’t want to make more Avatar movies without a grander plan in place.”

(Reporting by Carrie Bell)

Keanu Reeves Reveals Plans For Matrix Four And Five

From:  http://www.contactmusic.com/
 
The fourth and fifth sequels to 'The Matrix' may be shot in 3D, with creators Andy and Larry Wachowski reportedly keen to ''truly revolutionise'' the action movie genre.
 

Keanu Reeves has revealed plans are underway for two more sequels to 'The Matrix'.
The actor - who appears as Neo in the first three movies of the sci-fi action drama - hinted he and the writers of the franchise, Andy and Larry Wachowski, have discussed the possibility of shooting the two new movies in 3D and are reportedly seeking further advice from 'Avatar' creator James Cameron.

However, the Wachowskis are said to be keen to deliver something which has "never been seen" in the movie world and would "truly transform" the action movie genre.

Hearing Keanu commenting during a key note speech at the London School of Performing Arts, a reporter for Ain't It Cool News said: "They have completed work on a two picture script treatment that would see him return to the world of 'The Matrix' as Neo.

"Keanu says the brothers have met with Jim Cameron to discuss the pros and cons of 3D and are looking to deliver something which has never been seen again. He stated that he still has an obligation to the fans to deliver a movie worthy of the title 'The Matrix' and he swears this time that the treatment will truly transform the action genre like the first movie."

However, according to the reporter, the Wachowskis are looking to complete their current work on new movie 'Cloud Atlas' before discussing the possibility of adding to 'The Matrix' series.

Sundance: Gaspar Noe On Enter the Void, Avatar, and Magic Mushrooms

From: http://nymag.com/ 00Comment 00Comments

Avatar: James Cameron straight tripping?Photo: 20th Century Fox

Even here in Park City, it’s hard to escape Avatar’s long shadow. And it’s not just because everybody’s talking about the sci-fi epic’s record-breaking box office. Comparisons to James Cameron’s film came swiftly among both critics and moviegoers after the premiere of French director Gaspar Noe’s stunning Enter the Void, a borderline experimental techno epic about a junkie whose spirit floats above the streets of nighttime Tokyo after he’s killed during a drug bust. Sort of an art-film counterpart to Cameron’s film, Void is a fever dream that blends elements of 2001, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and dozens of other films, books, and videogames to craft a journey into an alternate reality, one that seems to have emerged from the deepest recesses of one passionately twisted auteur’s mind. (Though, unlike Avatar, it’s also got acres and acres of explicit sex and nudity.) And for all his arthouse cred, Noe doesn’t seem bothered by the comparisons: He freely cops to loving Avatar, and the fact that he and Cameron share a Stanley Kubrick obsession.

He’s also convinced they have something else in common: “I’m sure Cameron did some mushrooms,” Noe told us during a chat here. “Those scenes in the forest with the glowing plants — if you’ve ever done mushrooms any time in your life, you know those are exactly the kind of visions you have. I’m sure he must have done some ‘mental research’ before he made that movie.” Cameron, of course, has denied ever having done drugs (except inadvertently, when someone infamously spiked the catering for Titanic). Noe shrugs: “Michel Gondry also does very trippy images, and I know for a fact that he’s clean as water. So maybe it’s true.”

For his part, Noe has been fairly open about how drug use played a part in the conception of Enter the Void, which the director has been working on for over a decade. (Along the way, to test out some of his techniques, he made the super-controversial Irreversible, which told a rape-revenge story in reverse, opening with a man being bludgeoned to death on-camera and then progressing backwards to the 10-minute Monica Bellucci rape scene which triggered the act.) “One day, in my 20s, I was with friends, and had done too many mushrooms,” he recalls. “I turned on the TV as I was coming down, and it was showing Lady in the Lake, the Robert Montgomery film noir that’s filmed entirely through the character’s eyes. I wasn’t so much hallucinating at that point, but I thought it would be great to make a movie like this and add all the experiences I had today on mushrooms — telepathic perception, strange colors around people, the sense of floating.”

So, will Enter the Void, which has been picked up by IFC Films and is set to be released later this year, now generate armies of imitators, as Avatar surely will? Noe isn’t so sure. “This is mainly a big budget underground movie, and it could only have been made in Europe. If it wasn’t me, then maybe it would be Lars von Trier or somebody making it. But I don’t know how many people will try to do what we did. It was pretty exhausting.”

Titanic 3D Confirmed by Avatar Director Cameron

by David Finklehorn
from http://gnews.com/

Avatar director James Cameron confirmed at the D8: All Things Digital conference that Titanic would be rereleased in 3D.

During an interview with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, Cameron was asked about the possibility of bringing a 3D uplift to his classic love story.



“We’re not thinking about doing that, we’re doing it. We’ll have it ready for the ship’s 100th anniversary,” Cameron said according to CNET News.



The triumph of Avatar has prompted a surge of 3D movies which have had varying degrees of success. “There are ways to do it well and there are ways to do it poorly, and I think we have seen examples of both; mostly the latter,” Cameron added. The stunning visuals of How to Train Your Dragon are perhaps the best example outside of Avatar of how 3D done properly can really add to a film. By comparison, the Clash of the Titans 3D experience was little more than cheap parlour tricks to jump on the 3D bandwagon.



Unlike Clash of the Titans however, Cameron promised that Titanic would be handled carefully and scheduled a Spring 2012 release of the 3D version to coincide with the centenary of the ship’s demise. Clash of the Titans was blitzed for 3D in two weeks, Cameron intends his project to take at least six months.

Asked whether other blockbuster classics would be renovated with a 3D treatment such as The Terminator, Cameron was coy: “It depends. We’re going to spend months and millions converting Titanic. But if we do lousy jobs of conversions, “pop-up book style”, that’s going to get old quickly.”

The 3D movement has been set in motion, but as far as Cameron is concerned, it’s a revolution that could be extremely short-lived if not handled properly. A lot rides on Titanic for the future of 3D retro films, let’s hope that it doesn’t sink in the dramatic fashion of the ocean liner.

by David Finklehorn

James Cameron's Personal Pandora

From: http://www.radaronline.com/

Pacific Coast News

Hollywood director James Cameron is the most successful director of all time with Avatar grossing over $1.292 billion and Titanic pulling in $1.242 billion at the box office so it makes sense that his Malibu spread is equally epic.

PHOTOS: See James Cameron's House Here

Cameron bought the six bedroom, seven bathroom, 8,272 sq ft property back in 1989 for a modest $3.475 million.

Wedded Bliss: Hollywood’s Most Married Celebs

He currently shares the property with his fifth wife actress Suzy Amis and their three children. The home boasts a tennis court, swimming pool, gourmet kitchen, interior garden and courtyard, guest house and an indoor cinema.

In late 2003, Cameron’s Archer Trust paid an undisclosed amount to buy the late actor George C. Scott’s 6,672-square-foot house right next door that he now uses mostly as a production facility for his staff and crew.

But with his bank balance bulging following the success of Avatar, Cameron could now easily afford to buy the whole gated community where his two homes currently sit.

The environmentalist has taken elaborate precautions to protect his properties from any Malibu brush fires this summer. He built his own pump house so that he can beat back any dangerous flames! He told New Yorker Magazine: “We have a big fire problem here- we take the pool water, mix it with Class A foam, and pump it out over the whole property. Everybody else just runs for the hills.”

And after previous wildfires got close to his homes in previous years Cameron admitted that he and his staff had run some emergency drills just in case.

He revealed: “We sit and wait. Put on our yellow coats and our breathing gear and wait. And, you know what? It’s impressive.

“When these hills light up with a hundred-foot-tall wall of flames coming over the top of the hill there, you feel like it’s Armageddon.”

The mega-wealthy director even has his own customized red Humvee platform fire truck parked in the driveway just in case!

James Cameron trashes Glenn Beck

'Avatar' director wants to debate Fox News host

By Alex Ben Block

From: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

James Cameron (Getty)

Update: Beck responds (video)

"Avatar" director James Cameron lashed out at Glenn Beck at a news conference Tuesday, offering to debate the Fox News personality on environmental and political issues.

Asked what he thought about Beck during a junket appearance in support of the "Avatar" home video release, Cameron said: "Glenn Beck is a fucking asshole. I've met him. He called me the anti-Christ, and not about 'Avatar.' He hadn't even seen 'Avatar' yet. I don't know if he has seen it."

Cameron was apparently referring to Beck's reaction to his 2007 documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," which casts doubt on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and makes the case that the ancient "Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries" belonged to Jesus' family.

After blasting Beck (audio at left), Cameron, surrounded by journalists inside a West Hollywood hillside mansion, seemed to reconsider: "I think, you know what, he may or may not be an asshole, but he certainly is dangerous, and I'd love to have a dialogue with him."

What makes Beck dangerous, THR asked Cameron at the junket.

"He's dangerous because his ideas are poisonous," Cameron answered. "I couldn't believe when he was on CNN. I thought, what happened to CNN? Who is this guy? Who is this madman? And then of course he wound up on Fox News, which is where he belongs, I guess."

Asked by THR if he felt the right wing's attacks against him were continuing, Cameron replied: "They're not attacks. They're just people ranting away, lost in their little bubbles of reality, steeped in their own hatred, their own fear and hatred. That's where it all comes from. Let's just call it out. Let's have a public discussion. That's what movies are supposed to do, you know, you can have a mindless entertainment film that doesn't affect anybody. I wasn't interested in that."

The "Avatar" director was equally unsparing in his comments about those who don't accept global warming as fact.

"That's right," Cameron said. "I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads."

Turning more serious, he added: "Anybody that is a global warming denier at this point in time has got their head so deeply up their ass I'm not sure they could hear me."

By making the environment the theme of his home video release plan, Cameron is sending a message.

"Look, at this point I'm less interested in making money for the movie and more interested in saving the world that my children are going to inhabit. How about that? I mean, look, I didn't make this movie with these strong environmental anti-war themes in it to make friends on the right, you know.

"They're not on my Christmas card list," Cameron added. "It's not going to change my lifestyle at all if they don't talk to me. But, you know, they've got to live in this world, too. And their children do as well, so they're going to have to be answerable to this at some point."

Fox had gathered nearly 100 journalists from around the world for a press junket that included a screening of four vivid video clips from the movie to show the quality of the conversion.

Cameron and "Avatar" producer Jon Landau opened the program by pledging an environmental theme to the release of "Avatar" into the home video market. The video release of "Avatar" is now set for April 22, which is not insignificantly Earth Day, as Beck is likely to notice.

While still working for CNN, Beck teed up an on-air interview with Cameron regarding "Tomb" with the following comment, according to a CNN transcript: "Many people believe James Cameron officially has tossed his hat in the ring today and is officially running for anti-Christ."

Aliens Retold As A Rap

Author: JT

The entire plot? Yep.


The song comes from a group called RoboMayhem, check out their wickely cool YouTube channel right here. I can't wait to see these guys take on Avatar.

News Corp. in early talks for 'Avatar' sequel

Rupert Murdoch said company is 'pushing' for followup pic

By Georg Szalai

From: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

"Avatar"

NEW YORK -- News Corp. is in very early talks with James Cameron about a possible "Avatar" sequel.

Asked about potential "Avatar" sequels, chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said on his quarterly earnings call Tuesday that the conglomerate is in "very early talks about it." Director James Cameron "has ideas" for a sequel, he said, adding: "We will be pushing for one."

But he cautioned analysts not to "hold your breath for an early one" in a possible reference to Cameron projects often taking a long time to come to fruition.

News Corp. deputy chairman, president and COO Chase Carey interjected that both sides want to make another movie. "We certainly both intend to have one," he said.

The executives said financing of a sequel like of any movies these days would be key as News Corp. likes to lay off risk, especially since Cameron films tend to go over budget. But given the success of "Avatar," financing details could come together.

Management also said 60% or more of the profit from "Avatar" will come in over the next two quarters, adding the firm will continue its theater run as the boxoffice goes well, with a DVD release also planned soon after the theatrical run. A DVD release date hasn't been announced so far.

Pushed further on details about the DVD plans for "Avatar," Murdoch said it will be released during his company's current fiscal year, which ends June 30. But he also highlighted that it won't be a 3D DVD release as that technology isn't developed enough yet. But Carey added there could be a 3D "Avatar" DVD release further "down the road" when the technology is ready.

[Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly quoted Murdoch in the previous as saying to analysts not to "hold your breath for ANOTHER one." A review of his recorded comments reveal he said "early one."]

Funny Cards between, Spielberg, Lucas, & Cameron

1982: Spielberg sent this to Lucas, E.T / R2D2


1977: Spielberg sent this to Lucas, when Star Wars took over Jaws



1998: Lucas sent this to Cameron, when Titanic dethroned Star Wars at the box-office


Whats next. Cameron sends himself a card...