An Open Letter From An AVATAR Team Member To CHUD's Devin Faraci

**UPDATE - July 26: Here is Devin's response to the letter. Also I would be remiss in not linking to his original video post.

Jim here. Wondering if I should post this email I received from one of my key inside AVATAR sources - but what the heck - this is the Internet baby!

Now let me be clear here - most people who saw the 24 minutes of AVATAR at Comic-Con were suitably impressed - nothing has really changed in that regard. But there are always exceptions to the rule for one reason or another. Needless to say the guys working the hardest on AVATAR have been amazed at some of the few 'less than stellar' reviews of their work in progress. Let me be clear here as well - these reviews did NOT pan AVATAR or even hint at panning it; rather they think that it is not living up to its hype. "Evolutionary, not revolutionary" as one put it.

That one person is Devin Faraci of CHUD. Prior to his review of what he saw of the AVATAR clip, Devin was clear to point out that Fox hates him. Does this color his review? I believe so, but that is my opinion - and I have supported AVATAR from day one.

But of greater importance I think is getting the opinion of the guys working hard under Jim Cameron to get this epic movie done on time. To hear from ALL parties. And in particular this one source, who while conferring with others on the team wrote this open letter to Devin and felt comfortable enough to send it through me to the viewing masses.

One final note before I post his letter: I trust him. He is indeed a valued source not by what he has given but by what he has vetted for me. You see I have sources that really want to share exciting developments with everyone about AVATAR or other projects, and others who simply want to authenticate the multitude of tips and photos I receive on a daily basis. This source checks facts for me in other words. That said, I did have to edit out some expletives as of course these guys are close to the project.

So - here is an AVATAR team member's response to CHUD's Devin Faraci:

Dearest Devin Faraci

Everyone is entitled to views, yes even you Devin. which as colleagues point out you share endlessly on "Attack the show" or whatever the title may be. and all this was before a friend shared with me your views on Avatar...

Devin in your words " The story that I could gather looked very bleh" is that right Devin ? ok. "In the end I think this would have been better without all of the 'THIS WILL CHANGE THE WORLD OF CINEMA' stuff that comes right from Cameron's mouth (I heard him say essentially that at the IMAX presentation yesterday). This is an impressive step forward, but I don't think it's Jurassic Park when it comes to breathtaking new visual stuff." Now lets look at context as to what mr Cameron meant with that statement shall we

Well as you should know being an internet blog king, you understand the aspects and research and development that has to go into the pre planning of a movie. you understand that time and time again, budgets are slashed, scripts butchered, and visions compromised endlessly in favour of cheap substantial routes, which sometimes can even be a good thing. James Cameron has a vision, James Cameron has a cause, and that cause is to make the viewing experience of watching a film, better for the movie going people, not to mention the home market. James Cameron doesn't compromise. so when i read shitty statements like "The story that I could gather looked very bleh" it really f**ks me off. this movie is coming from the best people in the industry headed up with the most successful and competent director of all time. "THE STORY COMES FIRST" "THIS IS NOT A WETA DIGITAL SHOW REEL" that insults everyone involved. Avatar, is the best of everyone, and every department. No stone has been left unturned to make this the ultimate movie going experience! and that includes making the story the absolute best of its kind! so don't compare this with a Kevin Costner bore fest ok ? this is Avatar, NOT dances with wolves in space. and further more it will be a CLASSIC. and what movies are ever classic just for CGI ? so are you aware that this movie IS going to change the face of cinema ? its already started. and when the change hits home for you, lets have less bitching and whining, and have more for the people striving to make you movie going experience a better one! after all isn't that where your bread and butter is made ? unless of course you still want to be watching movies in 20 years time the way you are now ?

Any scene viewed out of context, on an alien planet without cohesion from previous scenes, will be jarring. Avatar IS photo real. and you will believe it is a real place once you have seen it in its final form. you Devin and the rest of the negative druids will eat everyone of your words come December 18th. and if fox hates you, who could blame them. you come across as a hateful person. with very outright negative judgemental hatred ready to spew forth into this miserable world. "your walk of shame speaks volumes for the real you" while there may well be people who hate Avatar when they see it, i promise you they will be the minority, anyone who knows anything about movies in a professional light is going to be as swept up as the person next door, who goes once a year, and owns scary movie on DVD.

yes i agree we are far more advanced then WATCHMEN. lmao

but still Devin you can comfort yourself with the fact that you have The Final Destination coming soon. oh and not to mention your favorite movies of all time "which are due for further butchering" Planet of the apes. seriously... you have all the time for grown men in ape suits. and will actively try and hock the ultimate apes movie compendium or whatever its called to your "CHUDS" :-) ?
and you want to rag on 10ft tall natural blue born killers ? CGI or not, what gives ? are you for real ? what kind of movie knowledgeable journalist can look at what they saw and say its nothing short of a technical miracle. and what you saw was most assuredly the tip of the iceberg.

forgive me for the ranting, im sure i will get lampooned for being so outright in my displeasure, but hey i guess that just means we are both passionate.

keep up the witty wise journalism, it will get you places, maybe not where you want, but it will get you noticed.

i will be sure to tune in for "Attack of the BLOGGER.

and as for the rest of you, real movie fans with no hidden agenda. have faith in us and show up. we will not let you down. we promise.

you will see things never seen before, in ways never considered before, made for you by one of the last great gunslingers of our times. oh and there wont be a talking ape in sight :-) sorry Devin. we like our talking guys and girls tall and strong.

what is the in word for the online community ? EPIC FAIL ? NOT US :-)

I think my source makes some pretty darn valid points here. I happen to agree 100%.
Mr. Faraci? You have a comment on this? :-) And of course MarketSaw readers' comments are ALWAYS welcome!

Thought For The Day 7/25/09

So, we're all fair to moderately excited/interested about the "Green Lantern" movie, yes? I mean, not as excited as Ryan Reynold's agent or any blank t-shirt distribution middle-man with an excess of stock in "green," but it's got the people it needs talking talking. But... here's something that I haven't seen considered around much:

GL is one of those comic figures like Iron Man who (prior to the movie) is HUGELY important and well-known in the comic-reading world but not so much outside of it. To that end, the only real "penetration" the GL brand has had into the cultural mainstream has been the character's heavily-featured presence on the Bruce Timm "Justice League" cartoons - which was probably watched and internalized by more young kids than will EVER pick up a GL comic these days - sorry, Geoff Johns.

On the one hand, that means that the character already has some semblance of a "broader" audience. On the other hand, well... the movie is using the "best loved by fans" Hal Jordan Green Lantern (briefly: The Green Lanterns are a space police force, so there are and have been a fuckton of different ones) while the League cartoons used the John Stewart version. Principal difference between the two: John Stewart is Black. And for a pretty solid segment of the generation "behind" the comic-reading thirtysomethings who're thrilled to have Hal Jordan back (it's complicated); Stewart isn't just "a" Black cartoon superhero... he's THE Black cartoon superhero. In other words, when the posters and trailers for this movie start showing up within the next two years, there's going to be A LOT of people who're genuinely surprised to see that Green Lantern is white - and a good number of them are likely to be African-Americans who have "grown up" with John Stewart and may be more than a bit dissapointed to now "lose" one of the (scandalously) few superheroes who looked like them.

Make no mistake: This WILL come up. And it'll get a little ugly in spots, too, particularly on the "comic fan" side. One of the less-attractive elements of geekdom is the way some of "us" occasionally behave toward people who're fans of properties from "second tier" versions, (want to make a hardcore DC comics devotee bleed from the eyes? Tell him you think the "Smallville" version of Superman's origins is superior to the comics'...) add a racial component to that and... yikes. My question is: How much do you want to bet that Warner Bros. has NO IDEA that this is going to be an issue?

NOW SHOWING AT A BLOG NEAR YOU

Well, I’m still two or three weeks from being able to blog on a regular basis again (I will not whine about having a job, I will not whine about having a job, I will not…), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other things out there to read or watch involving the intersection of movies and religion. And if you’re pressed for time like I am, nothing beats a good list for a quick and easy read. It just so happens I know where you can find a few.

A fun one to start off with is the Only Good Movies Blog’s list of the Top 85 Robot Movies. Okay, so it’s not really a religious blog, but they were kind enough to link to my review of Cherry 2000 as one of their picks for best Bad Robot Movies (naturally), so I’m returning the favor. The funny thing is, even after listing a whopping 85 movies, the comment section is still full of the obligatory “How could you leave out…” posts.

A little more on the religious side is this article by Joseph Susanka posted at insidecatholic.com in which he asks the question, “When Did Movies Stop Being Funny?” After discussing what he feels is the coarsening of the American comedy film over the past fifty years, Mr. Susanka offers up a list of his Top 5 Classic Comedies. Of course, with a list of only five, it should come as no shock that hoards of “How could you leave out…” comments immediately follow.

Speaking of comedy, over at Sancta Santis, Enbrethiliel continues her lonely campaign to convince the world of the Catholicity of Sylvester Stallone movies with her list of Fourteen Things about the movie Assassins. Hey, I’m not casting stones. You can bet your life that if Judge Dredd didn’t have a budget of a gazillion dollars, it would end up on this blog in a heartbeat. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to look elsewhere for a movie where the hero is cop, jury, and executioner all rolled in one. (It’ll be easier to find than you might think.)

While I’m looking, however, it seems the bad guys have been left to roam free. Right now, there’s a big group of them over at Creative Minority Report where Matthew Archbold has assembled a list of movie villains and pitted them against a rogues gallery from The Bible. Guess which group gets their butts kicked?

As long as we’re talking about losers, I may as well go ahead and point out the program list for the recently completed, first ever Atheists Film Festival which was held in (wait for it) San Francisco. With a seating capacity of 240 (snicker) and a line up consisting almost entirely of documentaries (snore), the festival has been proclaimed a rousing success by the organizer (bwah ha ha). Anyway, be sure to check out what the cultured atheist is viewing these days, maybe you’ll find something to throw on some rainy day when you need a quick laugh. (And Joseph Susanka thinks movies aren’t funny anymore.)

Finally, although it’s not really related to religion or movies, there’s this list of 10 Things You Might’ve Been Better Off Not Knowing About Your Body! It’s enough to make even the aforementioned atheists shout, “Oh, Dear God!”

Thanks to everyone for bearing with me while the blog has been on semi-hiatus. We’ll be back in business soon.

Cameron Still Wants to Do Battle Angel! Plus more from Cameron/Jackson Panel

Michael here with a report on the James Cameron / Peter Jackson panel. I'll be updating this post soon with videos and audio.

Here is our podcast of the entire panel:




Both the best news and funniest line of the night came when an audience member asked Cameron whether he was still interested in making Battle Angel Alita.

Cameron said that he really wants to do it, but that asking about his next project now is like asking a mother-to-be about her next baby while she's crowning.

Cameron talks Battle Angel:



Cameron also revealed that he hopes to include a feature on the Avatar Blu-Ray where you can see the actors' performances and those of their CG counterparts side by side so the audience will be able to see how perfect the facial capture has become, and how even the smallest details are replicated.

There was also a great discussion on the absolute importance of story and emotion in film that generated a huge audience applause.

More Videos-

Cameron on Filmmaking Tech in 20 Years (including higher frame rates):



Cameron on 3D Titanic, Jackson on Lord of the Rings 3D, and 3D Industry Discussion:



Also, head over to Movies Online, which has a transcript of yesterday's post-footage press conference with Cameron. It's a very good read.

Alice, TRON: Legacy, Carol, Final Destination + The Hole reactions!

Michael here with some stuff from yesterday's 3D panels.

A new Alice in Wonderland trailer, set to rock music, is leagues above the leaked one. We get some amazing glimpses of Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, taking a shrinking potion, with the Mad Hatter, on a balcony with the White Queen, the Cheshire Cat, and an assortment of fantastic creatures. The overall style was great, and the trailer - which was shown three times - got the audience pumped.

A Christmas Carol masterfully incorportated its 3D, as can be expected by Zemeckis. We were shown an entire scene that progressed from Scrooge plucking the coins off the eyes of his departed friend's corpse, to his solitary walk back to his mansion, to his panic and fright when visited by the ghost of his departed colleague, who promises him visits from three spirits. The stylized CG works and the acting is great, but I must emphasize that there are some pretty dark and disturbing scenes and subject matter.

Lastly, TRON: Legacy looks like it will be a huge amount of fun. They just finished principal photography last Monday morning. They reshowed the test footage from last year's Comic-Con, but this time in 3D. They also showed off a very well-shot live action 2D scene of Sam Flynn (Jeff Bridges' son) entering the arcade, which has been closed for twenty years. Journey’s “Separate Ways” plays in the background as he explores the dated 80’s game machines. At the end of the clip he finds the TRON machine, pushing it aside to find a secret passage.

The movie's plot will involve Sam's search for his father. Olivia Wilde plays a confidante to Sam.

We were shown a lot of concept art from the virtual world, but what struck me as super cool was was that some of the martial arts /sports scenes were shot at 1000 frames per second with a Phantom camera, and then played back at regular speed for an amazing super slow motion effect. We were shown behind-the-scenes footage of martial artists (in 2D) performing amazing spinning flips and kicks. In finished 3D these scenes will be absolutely spectacular.

Here is a short clip to give you an idea of what this will look like:



The Final Destination and The Hole clips both caused many of the 6500 in Hall H to jump up in their seats or squirm in fear. The Final Destination is certainly not holding back in terms of violence and the creativity of its kills. And, other than Avatar itself, it has the best live-action 3D I have seen. Everything is bright, crisp, and framed to perfection to surround the audience with the action. The Hole isn't up to that level 3D-wise, but it definitely has a very strong scare factor: possessed dolls and clowns are always scary.

But The Final Destination footage - which included scenes at a car racetrack, in a mall, and in a swimming pool - was as seamless and immersive as any 3D to date. I could feel the years of knowledge and experience of PACE and the Fusion Camera System in both this and the live action Avatar footage.

Fast Food Nation

This is how noob I am at this job...

Alright, so... here's what it is:

I've got a question... a search for info, really. And since making phonecalls and chasing leads doesn't seem to yield much I'm going to try a desperation move: I'm told the blog here is actually getting somewhat widely-read, so, let's try throwing it up out in the open and see if anyone knows. So, here goes...

Movie Critic press-screenings: How do you get into these?

Yeah. Strange question for a (technically) professional film-critic to be asking, but for a guy only starting out it's like digging for Hoffa trying to find out how you get on the "list" (lists?) of pro critics who get invited to pre-screenings for new/upcoming films. No one seems to know, and the folks who do know (i.e. publicity houses that run that particular side of the business) don't seen to return phonecalls.

So... yeah. Do I have any readers who maybe know anything about this? Any little scrap of info or lead would be appreciated, either here in the comments or feel free to email me at MSTmario2@aol.com . I'm based in the Boston, MA area if that makes any difference to the "who should you call" end of it.

Thanks in advance to ANYONE who knows anything. We now return you to our regularly-scheduled movie gripe-fest ;)