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Cameron Wants to Compete With Star Trek
Topic Started: Aug 27 2010, 08:42 AM (108 Views)
caltrek
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Lieutenant Commander
Chicago Tribune

Quote:
 
The ubiquitous "Avatar" pulled in $2.4 billion in worldwide box office, which raises the question of who the target audience is for the release of "Avatar: Special Edition" -- how can moviegoers miss a film if it never really went away? More than that, "Avatar" now stands as the bestselling Blu-ray ever and in its first three weeks on shelves the film sold a record-breaking 19 million units on DVD and Blu-ray….

Be it with toy-shelf ventures, video game releases or the wildly ambitious online tie-ins, Cameron and company have approached "Avatar" as a candidate to join “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” omni-media franchises that inspire pop-cultural tribal followings across decades.

At this point, though, "Avatar" might just as easily go in a different direction and become a cinematic phenomenon with narrower life off the screen -- like, say, "The Matrix" or Cameron's own "Terminator" films. If that happens, it won't be for lack of trying by Cameron.

The filmmaker, for instance, is finishing a companion novel to "Avatar" that will go further into the characters, the history and the environs presented in the movie's story. At one point he had hoped the book would be finished in time for linked release with the film last year, but that didn't happen.

Cameron said it may be on shelves in time for the holidays.

"It gets into the nuts and bolts of the Na'vi culture, their lore and mythology, and has more about Dr. Grace [ Sigourney Weaver's character] and her time on Pandora, but it doesn't go beyond the end of the film other than to tease a little bit about what's going to happen next. It will also be the bible for any future publication, a look-up guide for future writers who can come in and work within the world.... Think about all the 'Star Trek' novels and how they contradicted each other for a few years and it made it tricky to be a Trekkie for a while."

The novel will tune Cameron up to write the scripts for the next two "Avatar" films to be released this decade.

"It will steep me in the stuff so I can write the two-film story arc that I want to do next," Cameron said.

(He) admires the universes created by George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry and the man who now has the two highest-grossing films of all-time (Cameron's "Titanic" from 1997 still floats there at No. 2 worldwide with $1.8 billion) openly admits that he aspires to compete with his own cosmic aspirations.

"You've got to compete head on with these other epic works of fantasy and fiction, the Tolkiens and the 'Star Wars' and the 'Star Treks,'" Cameron said. "People want a persistent alternate reality to invest themselves in and they want the detail that makes it rich and worth their time. They want to live somewhere else. Like Pandora."



So, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Personally, Star Trek is enough of an alternate reality for me. I haven't even seen Avatar yet. I guess that makes me pretty old school.

:shrug: :fixhalo:

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Dandandat
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Shirley
“Cameron and company have approached "Avatar" as a candidate to join “Star Wars” and “Star Trek””

PU-lease :vulcan: <--- talk to the hand

If and when there is a Avatar 3 maybe we can start taking like this, and even then it would be premature.

What it’s been a year? and people want to put Avatar into the books next to franchises with decades long staying power? Ohhhhhhhhh they have a Blue-Ray disk, it must be like star trek.

This just makes me not want to watch this movie more.
Edited by Dandandat, Aug 27 2010, 01:33 PM.
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24thcenstfan
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I've seen "Avatar", and while I was blown away by the visuals (its coming back to the theaters by the way), I think the bones of the story presented in the movie are not enough to compete with Star Trek in the long run.

Both Star Trek and Star Wars have broader and more complex mythos...which has sustained its longevity.

In general, I do think "Avatar" will compete financially. Its reaching a massive audience. There will probably be at least three movies and some kind of cartoon animation (I suspect). However, I don't think it will have as big of an influence on pop culture as Star Trek has...or Star Wars for that matter.

Avatar will probably have a bigger impact on CGI and how movies are made for the next decade though.

This is all from a current perpective. We could be looking back in 30 - 40 years and think, man, that franchise sure did become pervasive!. Cameron better start expanding on the "Avatar" mythos beyond Pandora if he really wants to begin the competition.
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Swidden
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Professional Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large

I guess it had to happen. Roddenberry and Lucas have blazed a trail and others are bound to follow it. I see the strongest comparison to Lucas' work, especially since he shrewdly held onto rights that almost meant nothing back then to just get "Star Wars" made. The "Harry Potter" series, "Twlight" are among the more recent forays into this area. Cameron seems to be following quite astutely in Lucas' footprints. He knows that this could very well have a life well beyond a single movie. Unlike "Terminator" it not as pessimistic, it is more hopeful. That is something that does seem to resonate with viewers more over scary, evil cyborgs.
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