Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Okay. I guess it’s time to discuss one of the worst-kept best-kept secrets in Hollywood right now.
Word’s been leaking for a little while, little by little, and it’s harder and harder to pretend like the secret isn’t out there. James Cameron has long been rumored to be working on a big-screen adaptation of BATTLE ANGEL ALITA. I know he’s been working on it. He’s worked with other writers, and he’s been working his art department hard, as long as two years ago. And as he gets closer and closer to production, it seemed like BATTLE ANGEL was pretty much a sure thing. James Cameron’s big return to narrative feature filmmaking. An event on the scale of any LORD OF THE RINGS or STAR WARS or Spielberg event. And make no mistake, Cameron’s return film will be a genuine cultural event, no matter what he ends up making. It’s just exciting to know that he’s finally back at work, his head back in the game completely.
But last summer, when word of PROJECT 880 first broke, it genuinely was a secret. Cameron had been quietly taking measures to keep that secret for about six months before that, and in doing so, he sort of gave the game away early. The moment we started seeing those clues, Harry and I both spoke and decided to let it play out a bit before mentioning it. We didn’t want to spook Cameron off of it again.
And “it” is a project that Cameron almost made about a decade ago, a film that I have always mourned the loss of with the same fervor that Knowles bemoans the fact that CRUSADE never got made. I considered “it” to be a genuine loss for cinema in general, and for James Cameron superfans in particular. And it’s funny. I haven’t really ever had a James Cameron film to cover during my time at AICN, so I haven’t spent a lot of time writing about him. I don’t think I’ve ever fully articulated just how insane about Cameron’s work I am.
And despite Cameron’s assurances that we are going to see BATTLE ANGEL ALITA next, we were getting bombarded with rumors about the resurrection of “it,” a film called AVATAR, to the point that Harry had to finally mention it last August.
So is that what we’re going to see in 2007? Is it going to happen instead of BATTLE ANGEL? Are we finally going to get a look at AVATAR? We’ve been talking about this film for pretty much the full ten years that Ain’t It Cool has been around. We’re missing a lot of that first year and a half, but here’s one of our early mentions of the project, and a review from the year 2000 of the treatment, which cracks me up if only because AB King somehow managed to make it all about Arnold Schwarzenengger... again.
But all of this simply raises a question, one that I wish I could ask Cameron directly. I wish I could just say, “My question for you today, Mr. Cameron, is very simple: are we finally going to Pandora?”
What set me off? This e-mail appeared in the mailbox earlier tonight:
All are registered to Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman Machtinger & Kinsella LLP, the law firm that represents James Cameron. All were registered in May or June 2005.
It looks like we'll be able to take a virtual safari of Pandora's flora and fauna once the marketing campaign begins...which sounds pretty awesome to me.