Archive for the ‘Avatar’ Category
| Zoe Saldana: Bad-Ass Chick Talks Losers and Avatar 2 | April 21st, 2010 |
Not too long ago we attended a press conference for The Losers where the lovely Zoe Saldana talked about what her life has been like with three huge action packed films back to back and what she would need in order to come back to Avatar 2. There’s no doubt that she has earned the title “bad-ass chick” between all of her amazing and aggressive performances that she’s put in with spaceships, a bow and arrow, and now a bazooka.
Below she talks about what her year (with a few small comments from Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has been like and why she loves being the only girl in an all male cast…
I wonder what kind of training did you do to own the title of “Bad-ass chick”?
Zoe Saldana: The stunt coordinator that worked on The Losers, was the stunt coordinator on Avatar so I’ve known Garrett Warren for three or four years. He trained me so he’s the one that has beaten me up and knows exactly what my body can do at times when I didn’t even know that I can do it myself. So, by the time we got to Puerto Rico, we basically just changed a couple things because I had to substitute the bow and the arrow for the guns and the knives and things like that.
Throughout the entire summer while we were shooting I was still training with Garrett especially ‘cause we really wanted to get that fight scene to be amazing ‘cause Sylvain wanted it to be violent but he always said it to us, he’s like “well, they’re beating the crap out of each other but they’re also getting to know each other” so it’s sort of like a conversation, a very violent conversation and Jeffrey and I really wanted to capture that.
How much fun was it kicking Jeffrey’s ass and being the only female in this ensemble?
Zoe: It feels good.
Jeffrey Morgan: She didn’t kick my ass. (laughter) It was even-Steven.
Zoe: You know, when you’re the only girl in the cast there’s a level of, I almost feel like you have twice as much work to do because you don’t want to be singled out, you’re already the only girl. So if you’re the one who says “I can’t do this” or it’s going to be like “Oh, my God she’s wimping out ’cause she’s a girl whatever,” so I toughed it out, I really wanted to impress the guys and I liked being around them. I’ve always feel like I can hold my own and Jeffrey was absolutely amazing in the fight scene. There were couple of moments there where you know where I had to immediately look at him like “Oh, my God, did I really hit you hard on your head?” Or he would look at me like “Did I slam you really hard?” But it was fun, I liked it.
| Avatar: An Interview with Zoe Saldana | April 21st, 2010 |
Fans of Zoe Saldana will get a one-two punch from the actress this week with the April 22nd release of Avatar on Blue-ray and DVD, and the April 23rd release of The Losers in theatres. Earthsmightiest.com has a one-on-one interview with Saldana conducted shortly before Avatar was released.
When she’s not manning the communications console of the starship Enterprise or donning her motion capture outfit for Avatar, the odds are you’ll find Zoe Saldana getting her geek on with Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, the Travel Channel series in which the host travels around the world to feast on local cuisine — often times to the audience’s horror.
“I’m not known to watch things over and over again,” Saldana smiles sheepishly, “but I can watch his episodes over and over again. I totally freaking geek for Anthony Bourdain.”
Reassuringly, she also gets pleasure from Nintendo DS. “It stimulates my brain,” she offers matter of factly, “and I have this fear of becoming dumber as I get older. The brain is a muscle and if I don’t exercise my brain, then I’m going to be dumb. So I’m really hooked on Nintendo DS for brain activity.”
She’s also hooked on acting. Born on June 19, 1978 in New Jersey to a Dominican father and Puerto Rican mother, Saldana’s early roles include the Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads as well as the part of the pirate Anamarie in the original Pirates of the Caribbean before graduating to the roles of Uhura in Abrams’ take on Star Trek and the alien Neytiri in Cameron’s Avatar.
EARTH’S MIGHTIEST: Having worked with J.J. Abrams on Star Trek and James Cameron on Avatar, I wonder if there’s a way to compare and contrast the two of them as filmmakers.
ZOE SALDANA: It’s like comparing every actor or every writer. People are going to be different. They’re both special for being authentic. J.J. is known and there is an essence to him, and there’s a James Cameron essence. I will say that they did meet and I was sort of their connecting point. It was just amazing, because they’re both very much fans of the other. Jim definitely surprised me. He was shooting one day on the set and he said, “I have a surprise for you,” and there was J.J. and J.J. — you should have seen his face. He was so happy to be there as a filmmaker and a fan of Jim. They were both talking and Jim was pretty much putting in a good word for me, and J.J. was, like, “You don’t have to sell me. I’m already sold on Zoe. I want her for the part [of Uhura]. She doesn’t want to do it.” Jim looked at me and said, “What? You don’t want to do it?” I said, “That’s not what I said,” it was just very funny. I was hesitant of Star Trek for a slight second for the same way that J.J. was hesitant to direct. It was stepping into these big shoes that already existed since before I was born, and there was a real fear of failing the fans.
| Zoe Saldana: ‘James Cameron made little soldiers out of Avatar cast’ | April 21st, 2010 |
Avatar actress Zoe Saldana has said James Cameron ‘made little soldiers out of’ the cast.
Saldana, 31, was referring to director Cameron’s environmental fight to help the real-life natives in the Amazon forest try and protect their land.
She said to Parade.com: ‘It sort of recalls the Navis in Avatar. He’s in Brazil helping natives in the Amazon forest try to stop a major dam project that could destroy their land.
‘Jim just contacted everybody and was like: ‘We need to see if we can go down to Brazil and help some people.’ He wanted us to have his back. He’s a lot more than a legendary filmmaker.
‘He’s a man that feels, that cares a great deal about a lot of things. He can’t just sit down and not do anything. So this is typical Cameron behaviour. He made little soldiers out of us. I am looking at hopping on a plane and going down there and helping him.’
From Monsters and Critics
| Fox to mine “Avatar” DVD release three times | March 17th, 2010 |
Twentieth Century Fox on Tuesday set Earth Day, April 22, for the DVD and Blu-ray release of “Avatar”. But fans will have to wait until November for another disc with all the usual extras, and even longer for a 3-D version.
Fox said it had chosen Earth Day as “Avatar’s” U.S. and Canada home video release, because the film’s theme matches the day’s goal of environmental awareness.
The April release will be in 2-D and is thought to be one of the first major movies put out in home video format without any of the special features that are normally included, such as deleted scenes, trailers and behind-the-scenes footage.
The studio plans another home video release in November of the “Ultimate Edition” of “Avatar,” and that will include extra features, said sources at Fox, a division of News Corp.
A third version, in 3-D, will likely come out next year, they said. By then, more consumers are expected to have 3-D televisions in their homes.
“Avatar” has made a record-breaking $2.64 billion so far at worldwide box offices since its December 18 release, with a large bulk of that coming from 3-D showings.
Sources at Fox said the April disc will come without extra features so that all available storage space can be used for the best picture and sound possible.
“Avatar,” which won three Oscars, is about a soldier from an environmentally degraded Earth who is sent to infiltrate a tribe of humanoids aliens living atop a rich mineral deposit on the distant moon Pandora.
The soldier’s mission is to find a way to move the tribe so humans can mine the mineral, but he falls in love with a member of the tall, blue Na’vi and leads a revolt against the human colonizers.
Some U.S. conservatives criticized the film, with columnist John Podhoretz of the Weekly Standard faulting it for displaying “hatred of the military and American institutions.”
The DVD and Blu-ray disc for “Avatar” will be released in the U.S., Canada and some other countries on April 22. In France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, it will be available on April 21, and in Japan, Germany and Mexico it will hit stores April 23, with other dates varying by country.
From Reuters
| ‘Avatar’ may get second theater release | March 17th, 2010 |
The film “Avatar” may be re-released in U.S. theaters in a new version containing scenes previously cut from the action hit, The Hollywood Reporter says.
The New York Daily News said Friday, citing the Reporter story, that 20th Century Fox is considering re-releasing the 2009 blockbuster hit from director James Cameron in 3-D theaters nationwide.
The potential move by Fox comes after theaters across the country limited showings of “Avatar” on digital and IMAX screens due to the March 5 release of “Alice in Wonderland.”
“Avatar,” which stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, is already the highest-grossing film of all time with $712.5 million in domestic earnings to date.
The Daily News said more than 80 percent of the film’s domestic earnings have come from showings at 3-D theaters.
The new version of “Avatar” would include as much as 12 additional minutes of film time that was cut from the film’s original version.
From UPI
The Losers
Death at a Funeral
Takers
Avatar
Star Trek
The Skeptic
