I announced the release of Avatar Blu-ray 3 Disc set earlier this week. Then, stumbled upon the Blu-ray release trailer, which is breathtaking and gorgeous as ever.  I also stumbled upon the complete list of contents in the disc set.  I like what I see, but still wish it was in 3D format instead of 2D format.

Avatar Extended Collection’s Edition: 3-Disc Collector’s Edition Blu-ray:

Disc One

• Original Theatrical Version
• Special Edition Re-Release
• Collector’s Extended Cut
• Over 15 more minutes and exclusive alternate opening

Disc Two

• “Capturing Avatar“ An in-depth feature length documentary with James Cameron, Jon Landau and cast and crew
• Deleted Scenes – including over 45 minutes of new never-before-seen deleted scenes
• Production Materials

Disc Three

• Open “Pandora’s Box” and go deeper into the filmmaker process
• Interactive Scene Deconstruction: Explore the various stages of production through 3 different viewing modes
• Production Shorts: 17 featurettes covering performance capture, Scoring the film, 3D Fusion Camera, Stunts and much more
• Avatar Archives including original scriptment, 300 page screenplay and the extensive Pandorapedia
• BD-live Portal with additional bonus materials 

Avatar Collector’s Edition: 3-Disc Special Edition DVD:

Disc One & Two

• Original Theatrical Version
• Special Edition Re-release
• Collector’s Extended Cut
• Over 15 more minutes and exclusive alternate opening

Disc Three

• “Capturing Avatar“An in-depth feature length documentary with James Cameron, Jon Landau and cast and crew
• Deleted Scenes – including over 45 minutes of new never-before-seen deleted scenes

Avatar with special edition discs will hit the store shelves on November 16th, 2010 domestically and November 15th abroad.

According to THR, the DVD and Blu-ray disc versions of the James Cameron epic will include 45 minutes of additional footage not included in the original theatrical version and 36 minutes more than included in an August re-release of the winter theatrical blockbuster. The special edition discs are the first to include bonus special features.

But the movie will be presented in 2D. Avatar in 3D Blu-ray won’t hit the streets until next year.  That’s interesting because the technology is there and Cameron doesn’t give a clue to his reasoning.

“I told our team — let’s do the ultimate box set of Avatar, with everything in it the fans could possibly want,” Cameron said. “There’s an extended length cut that’s sixteen minutes longer, plus documentaries, behind the scenes featurettes, artwork and over 45 minutes of deleted scenes. Everything worth putting into a special edition is in this set.”

Except the 3D aspect that made the film so unique and beautiful.  Don’t get me wrong, I am a behind-the-scenes fanatic, and I can’t get enough of the stuff.  Avatar is a good story, but the 3D gives the film a certain edge of beauty that stands out from the rest.  I want the 3D movie and will wait until next year to get one for my library.  Are you reading this, Santa?

Avatar 2?  More like Avatar 2014!

Seriously though, that’s the current projection–basically, you’re not going to see a sequel to massive blockbuster Avatar until 2014.

Apparently, the problem is that writer / director James Cameron has a plot in mind and it’s patently massive.  So massive, in fact, he’s taking his time mapping the whole thing out properly to ensure that there won’t be any slow moments or, as Cameron describes it (edited to protect the innocent eyes of the poor children):

…this horrible second-act/end-of-The Matrix feeling. You know, “I’ve just sat through a three-hour movie and f- -k-all happened at the end!”

See?  Editing clearly required. But the takeaway here is that Cameron clearly does not plan to just phone this in and reap a pot of cash from the name. And that, frankly, is a good thing–it’s good to see him committed to this, even if it doesn’t turn out well, which it might.

Either way, we’ll have a long wait to find out how this one wraps up.

Avatar Special Edition press junket happened the other day in Los Angeles. It looks like the huge money maker still has money to make in the movie theaters starting August 27, 2010.  The studio is boasting  new footage that’s all ready to bow. It will be interesting to see how it does on the second run.

Katara & Zuko Battle – Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Four nations tied by destiny. The Fire Nation has declared war and only the Avatar, has the power to control all elements and bring peace to the war-torn world. Watch this battle of Fire against Water from The Last Airbender, a new film by M. Night Shyamalan, which opens in the UK August 13, 2010.

I’m sure many fanboys cried out in disgust at the double-whammy of bad news regarding Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro over the past few weeks. Not only was he forced to pull out of Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit due to production delays, but he then announced his next project would be a film adaptation of the theme park ride The Haunted Mansion (which was already made into the horrifically bad Eddie Murphy vehicle in 2003). Not exactly the next Pan’s Labyrinth. But this week Deadline announced the more heartening news that Del Toro is teaming up with King of The World (and Pandora) James Cameron to make At the Mountains of Madness.

HP Lovecraft is considered to be one of the best and most influential horror writers of all time. But unlike Stephen King, the many attempts to adapt his works into movies have all failed critically and commercially. At the Mountains of Madness is one of his best-known works, a novella following a group of explorers in the Antarctic in the 1930′s who discover an ancient frozen city, and accidentally awaken its bizarre inhabitants.

Del Toro has been trying to make the film for years, but now it seems that he will finally make it work (let’s just hope it’s more Pan’s Labyrinth in style than Hellboy 2). It helps when James Cameron, whose long-anticipated Avatar made over $2 billion worldwide, has signed on to produce the project. So the film is set to start prepping soon and commence shooting next year. And considering Cameron is involved, it will of course be filmed in 3D. Lovecraft’s work on 3D is a truly chilling proposition.

A lot of people were nervous–me included–about the revelation that M. Night Shyamalan, whose career has been on a careening death spiral pretty much since Signs hit theaters, was to be the one to take over writing and directing duties for Avatar: The Last Airbender.  But then, even the most skeptical among us figured that the sheer concentrated awesome of the source material was pretty much guaranteed to at the very least not suck.

Sadly, we all underestimated the power of M. Night Shyamalan’s flaming wreckage of a career, because his translation of The Last Airbender tried, but could never quite keep its momentum going.

The Last Airbender is actually a pretty close, but highly compressed, interpretation of the first season of the cartoon, specifically, Book One: Water.  Here, we discover that there’s a country full of sociopaths led by a megalomaniac who apparently only got that way because some guy who could talk to ghosts accidentally got frozen in some ice a hundred years ago.  Anyway, the sociopaths are now running roughshod over the rest of the world, until two kids from a much calmer tribe go out hunting and end up finding the guy who could talk to ghosts.  Except now, he’s a kid.  And that kid is going to try his best to defeat the nation of sociopaths.

Right now, Avatar fans are mocking my choice of synopsis, mostly because they know that the “nation of sociopaths” is actually called the Fire Nation and the “guy who talks to ghosts” is really the Avatar.  See, this is mostly one for the fans–people who’ve already seen the Avatar series, and thus understand the preposterousness of what they’re seeing as part of the established canon.

And that’s the big problem with The Last Airbender.  It’s very close to the source material.  But any time you try to condense a season’s worth of material into one two hour block, you’re going to have some problems.  They’ll show up everywhere–strange sequences where the dialogue is stilted, obscure plot elements are introduced, poorly explained, then the story moves on from there leaving everyone vaguely confused, and of course, my personal favorite, a bizarre sequence in which Aang and Sokka talk, and all you see is a tight zoom on their faces.  I really didn’t need to be this close to the Avatar’s face.  And yet, there I am.

And it’ll happen several times.  I’ll actually be enjoying what I’m seeing–the effects are patently unbelievable–and then all of a sudden, here comes some bear trap of a scene to ruin the mood and collapse the momentum.  The end result is a movie that tries desperately hard, succeeds on several fronts, but can never keep the successes going long enough to make it worthwhile.

It kills the Screenhead Ten Scale to do this, but it’s got no choice but to give The Last Airbender a four out of ten.  It tried, and succeeded in some parts, but could never keep its successes going long enough to be fun.

Rentrak Corporation put together the top ten movies-on-demand titles based on consumer transaction rate. Movies-on-demand are transactional (pay-per-purchase) films available through cable and Telco providers.

I find the list covering a whole spectrum of flavors from romance to horror and kiddie movies. I find it interesting that Dear John is the top movie. Why not Avatar or It’s Complicated?

Below are the top ten movies from May 24, 2010 through May 31, 2010:

1.  Dear John 

Channing Tatum stars with Amanda Seyfried about a couple who fall in love.  Yet, Tatum’s character is in the Army and is consistently deployed away from the woman he loves. For seven years they are constantly apart only to stay in touch through a stream of love letters — typical Sparks romance.         

 2. Valentine’s Day          

Watching Gary Marshall movies is like going to a party. They are fun because he has fun making movies. I have a feeling that Taylor Swift is going to stand out in this movie, which will lead her to more movie offers.  After all, she gets to play Taylor Lautner’s girlfriend.

3. Avatar                           

I am excited about this movie, the visuals are breathtaking.  I want to swim in the crystal clear water of Pandora!  If you haven’t seen this move yet, then you are in for a treat.

4. Edge of Darkness

The acting is intense and Mel Gibson does a great job.  It’s a typical cop story but it resonates a better quality than most.  Martin Campbell directed the movie.  Casino Royale is on his resume as well as Mark of Zorro, the guy knows action.  

5. The Road

The best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road, is now a movie. An all-star cast is featured in this epic post-apocalyptic tale of the survival of a father and his young son as they journey across a barren America that was destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm.

 6. The Spy Next Door 

The story is about a spy (Jackie Chan) who is babysitting his neighbor’s children. He is a mild-mannered guy, who winds up having to fight off secret agents after one of the kids his is babysitting inadvertently downloads a secret code.  

7. Tooth Fairy

Dwayne Johnson looks awesome in this movie, especially without his shirt on. That’s all I remember about the movie.   All kidding aside, Julie Andrews, Billy Crystal and Diane Lane also star in this kiddie movie.  Hockey player learns his lesson while being a tooth fairy. I hope they can pull it off and create a fun movie for the kiddies.                     

8.  It’s Complicated

Two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep (nominated again this year for Julie and Julia), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Alec Baldwin (“30 Rock,” The Departed) and Emmy winner Steve Martin (The Pink Panther, Baby Mama) star in the latest smart, funny, feel-good comedy that’s the perfect gift for Mother’s Day from Oscar nominated writer and director Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, What Women Want).    

9. Invictus

The movie is about the true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.  

10.  Daybreakers                

The movie Daybreakers takes vampires in a new direction with the futuristic sci-fi thriller where a mysterious plague has swept over the earth, transforming the majority of the world’s population into vampires. Humans are now an endangered, second-class species forced into hiding by the Bromley Marks blood bank as they are hunted and farmed for vampire consumption to the brink of extinction.

In the last four days 6.7 million copies of the first Avatar DVDs and Blu-ray Discs have been sold, which are 2D versions of the action fantasy with  no bonus features.  Now, Avatar is the top-seller in home entertainment discs for 2010.

I can’t wait until the special edition version of the James Cameron epic comes out at the end of the year. That version includes special features of the sort normally included on home entertainment discs.  There’s even a 3D Blu-ray version of the movie that will be released early next year.

Entertainment Weekly posted an interview with James Cameron two days before the release of Avatar on DVD and Blu-ray.   No extras and no thrills DVD means the next one will have added scenes but no revisons.

Cameron told EW:

“I’m not into revision. I think every film should be exactly as it was executed in the moment. We’re not changing the rest of the film, we’re just dropping these scenes in. I actually don’t believe…like when George went back and put new creatures into the original Star Wars, I find that disturbing. It’s a revision of history. That bothers me. I certainly wouldn’t go back and do that to any of my films. A film I made in 1984, it’s what it is. It’s a creature of its time. But with these new scenes we’re adding, I think people certainly had an appetite for more Avatar than we gave them. Nobody complained about it being too long. The scenes we’re putting back are righteous scenes, they’re not Jake sitting around talking about his childhood.”