Avatar and the Avatar Cadence (James Cameron, 2009-2028)

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mfunk9786
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#351 Post by mfunk9786 » Sun Jul 07, 2013 8:52 pm

Wow. Looks like it'll be a big payday for this guy
Last edited by mfunk9786 on Mon Jul 08, 2013 1:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

flyonthewall2983
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#352 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:28 pm

I hope so. Roger is someone I'm surprised has never had a career in film, be it in England or Hollywood. I think the only non-album cover thing he's famous for designing is the Tetris logo.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#353 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Jul 08, 2013 11:52 am

After seeing AVATAR in 2009, I told friends it was like watching a Yes album cover brought to life for three hours. I'm surprised it took Dean this long to prepare a lawsuit. In fact, one of the comments to this AVATAR lawsuit story from last September questions why Dean didn't sue earlier as well!

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#354 Post by stroszeck » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:11 pm

Since it seems like Cameron keeps getting into trouble for "ripping" off ideas etc (See Terminator in the past), why wouldn't he just do a straightforward collaboration of sorts with some of these artists? It would've been cool and noteworthy if he just brought in Dean as a consultant or something from the beginning...

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#355 Post by Zot! » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:27 pm

What was the rip-off from Terminator? Ray Harryhausen? I've actually always enjoyed Cameron's eye for cool looking technology, but there is no doubt certain things were borrowed from here and there.

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knives
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#356 Post by knives » Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:30 pm

Harlan Ellison.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#357 Post by matrixschmatrix » Wed Jul 10, 2013 1:23 pm

That case always seemed pretty unfounded- I've read both of the Ellison stories he claimed were ripped off (I know Demon with a Glass Hand was one, don't recall the other offhand) and neither seemed any closer to the conception of Terminator than, say, Philip K. Dick's Second Variety. And God knows that Ellison is a man more than happy to file a groundless lawsuit (it's part of what makes him him!)

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warren oates
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#358 Post by warren oates » Wed Jul 10, 2013 2:54 pm

I agree with matrix. And I'd go further and say that people who are jumping on the Avatar IP-theft bandwagon lack an understanding of copyright law (both as it was originally intended and as it operates now) and the nature of creativity. Artists are always "stealing" from each other. That's fundamental to the way innovation in the arts works. This weird corporatized notion that every last musical note or image anyone farts out (while under contract) is immaculately "original" and can be monetized and legally protected is a very recent fabrication of the twitchy and rapacious legal departments of huge conglomerates.

The Terminator suit was settled out of an abundance of caution by rights holders who didn't want to jeopardize their mega franchise. I could see something similar happening here, but I hope they fight it. Floating islands seem like a staple of fantasy imagery. It's not at all as if, say, the Alien films had used those much more distinctive Giger creature designs with no compensation or acknowledgement.

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Reverend Drewcifer
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#359 Post by Reverend Drewcifer » Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:09 pm

Coming soon: Ellison sues matrixschmatrix for defamation of character, and me for using his name in vain.

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#360 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:11 pm

With regards to Roger Dean, I can imagine someone who's looking at his art (he still does exhibits) who's never heard a note of Yes' music and isn't familiar with his artwork saying that he ripped off Cameron. I think it's why the movie Roger was making wound up in development Hell.

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solaris72
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#361 Post by solaris72 » Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:25 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote:That case always seemed pretty unfounded- I've read both of the Ellison stories he claimed were ripped off (I know Demon with a Glass Hand was one, don't recall the other offhand) and neither seemed any closer to the conception of Terminator than, say, Philip K. Dick's Second Variety. And God knows that Ellison is a man more than happy to file a groundless lawsuit (it's part of what makes him him!)
It was specifically his Outer Limits episodes- Demon with a Glass Hand and also Soldier. And I definitely agree that the resemblance is extremely vague; honestly, a better case could be made for suing Ellison over his TV pilot Phoenix Without Ashes ripping off Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky (and that would still be a pretty poor case in itself). I at first suspected Ellison's win was the result of a judge or a jury that just didn't know much about science fiction, but apparently it never got that far, the production company freaked out and settled (making Cameron go along with it by threatening to deduct losses from his earnings from the film if they lost in court). I'm no huge fan of Cameron, but that's kinda shitty.

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#362 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Jul 10, 2013 4:36 pm

Hmm, I never knew about that. You read about these things in one-sentence paragraphs and one would automatically see it as black-and-white. And yeah, that does suck for Jim (less so for the people that continue to drag this franchise out, but that's another story).

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domino harvey
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#363 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:53 pm

Two sequels? Nah, how bout three sequels to be filmed simultaneously

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#364 Post by EddieLarkin » Thu Aug 01, 2013 6:00 pm

Whenever multiple sequels to a new hit franchise are filmed simultaneously, it always ends badly. The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean, and... Critters 3 & 4. Back to the Future is the one exception.

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#365 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Aug 01, 2013 6:41 pm

EddieLarkin wrote:Back to the Future is the one exception.
Sort of, the two sequels did okay numbers and were critically accepted. But Bob Gale criticized how the studio promoted the 2nd one, not really inferring that it would be part of a trilogy. So that when II came out, the first week was good but had a bit of a fall-out from there on because of word-of-mouth from people who were mislead by the promotion for the film.

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#366 Post by criterion10 » Thu Aug 01, 2013 7:53 pm

domino harvey wrote:Two sequels? Nah, how bout three sequels to be filmed simultaneously
Great news! .... Not really. Damn it, Cameron. ](*,)

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#367 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu Aug 01, 2013 10:39 pm

Well, Cameron has had an excellent track record with sequels.

Then again, he hasn't made a good film in almost 20 years...

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#368 Post by MichaelB » Fri Aug 02, 2013 1:53 am

Mr Sausage wrote:Well, Cameron has had an excellent track record with sequels.
Piranha 2: The Spawning is one of the towering masterpieces of its era.

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#369 Post by Mr Sausage » Fri Aug 02, 2013 6:33 am

MichaelB wrote:
Mr Sausage wrote:Well, Cameron has had an excellent track record with sequels.
Piranha 2: The Spawning is one of the towering masterpieces of its era.
Had to know that was coming.

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#370 Post by MichaelB » Fri Aug 02, 2013 6:36 am

Mr Sausage wrote:
MichaelB wrote:
Mr Sausage wrote:Well, Cameron has had an excellent track record with sequels.
Piranha 2: The Spawning is one of the towering masterpieces of its era.
Had to know that was coming.
I know - some things are impossible to resist.

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Brian C
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#371 Post by Brian C » Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:15 am

Frankly, I'm surprised no one has chimed in to claim, with absolute sincerity, that Piranha 2 actually is a masterpiece, or at least criminally underrated.

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#372 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:59 am

I don't think James even would.

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colinr0380
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#373 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Aug 03, 2013 5:40 am

EddieLarkin wrote:Whenever multiple sequels to a new hit franchise are filmed simultaneously, it always ends badly. The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean, and... Critters 3 & 4. Back to the Future is the one exception.
I don't have an opinion on Piranha 2's flying fish yet but certainly have to take issue with Critters 3 and 4 - they're great (especially the third one confining its action into the drab about to be demolished apartment block) and introduced Leonardo Di Caprio to the movies! The fourth was also one of the first times I noticed Angela Bassett too, though she'd been in Boyz 'N The Hood before that.

Especially comforting is the idea that if Don Opper can rise from a rather minor secondary character in the first Critters to become the de facto hero of a franchise of sci-fi action films by the fourth (equivalent in my mind to the rise of Reggie Bannister's character in the Phantasm sequels), there is hope for us all! Not all of us find it easy to relate to the studly Sam Worthington-types you know!

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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#374 Post by RossyG » Sat Aug 03, 2013 5:52 pm

Zot! wrote:What was the rip-off from Terminator?
Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks (1972)

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domino harvey
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Re: Avatar (James Cameron, 2009)

#375 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 22, 2013 12:39 pm

James Cameron: All cinema destined/doomed to be 3-D eventually
Chatting recently with the BBC, the director made it clear that 3D is here to stay. "For me it's absolutely inevitable that entertainment will be 3D, it'll all be 3D eventually, because that's how we see the world," he said, adding: "When it's correct and convenient for us, we pre-select for that as the premium experience."

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