Father Geek here, our resident Arnie & Sly spy ABking sent in the following report on Cameron's AVATAR scriptment. Now, I know some of you might have already picked up this info someplace or another, but I'm betting the great majority of our readers will be blown away by this project that James has been quitely toying with for a while now in the shadow of SPIDERMAN. This is the stuff of dreams...

For anyone reading this, this is what I thought about James Cameron's amazing scriptment/treatment for AVATAR. Cameron should make this right away because it will be his big version of STAR WARS. While reading this scriptment, only one movie star came to mind to play the hero. It was Jim's good friend Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I think Josh's character would be perfect for Schwarzenegger. The story start's of with Josh a bit downtrodden in a lot of ways like Arnie's character in End of Days. Maybe even more so. Avatar is the action epic that End of Days should have been, and I'm willing to bet on the epic level of With Wings As Eagles or Crusade.

I'll try to tell the story basically in three parts.

Part A: Josh ends up becoming part of a company program that mines resources from a distant planet called Pandora. On this planet are a race of 8ft tall, humanoid aliens called the Na'vi. The company has developed a process to "grow" Avatars, which are a combination of human and Na'vi DNA cells grown to full adult size. With these 8ft shells that look like the Na'vi and have enough human DNA in them, the human donor's mind can be linked into the body of the Avatar. This allows humans the ability to breath on the planet and communicate better with the aliens. See, Josh had a twin brother who was in this deal, and an Avatar was being developed for him. But his brother dies and because each Avatar costs the company 20 million to develop they go to Josh who agrees to take his brother's place. The human's mind is linked into his Avatar's body ala The Matrix.

Part Two: On the planet, Josh goes through training sessions where he learns to use his Avatar body. Eventually, he and other "controller" (humans who are linked to Avatar), learn to move around and survive on the planet, which is covered mostly by a rainforest. These forests are filled with fantastic and deadly creatures like the Manticore which is this gigantic, black-coated panther like creature with six legs and a tail with a poisonous stinger on it. Theres' also a creature called a tenticore I think, that's twice as big as an elephant, is armored and has a head similar to a hammerhead shark. There's a creature called a slinger that has a long neck, and can literally sling its dart-shaped head like a smart missile. the head nails its' prey, then it's headless body reattaches its head by regenerating the cartilage and nerves to the head, then the slinger eats its prey. Cameron creates all kinds of deadly creatures that infest the forests. Also, this planet's weird magnetic field causes a particular phenomenon. Many mountains and mountain ranges actually "float" above the planet. I can't remember enough to explain it now, but it's explained pretty well in the scriptment. Well, the company has a camp in the middle of this forest surrounded by guard towers and electric fences to kkeep these creatures out. they also have gunships and 14-ft armored hydraulic suits (reminds me a lot like the metal carrier suit used in Aliens) but with gatling guns and flamethrowers. This camp is ran by this dude who's only interested in raping the planet of its resources and making the company profit and doesn't really care about the damage mining causes on the eco-system of the planet and its aliens. Over a series of small adventures on Pandora, Josh meets this Na'vi woman who teaches him how to survive on the planet, and they become attracted to each other. Remember the Na'vi though alien, are very humanoid. Well soon conflict rises between the Na'vi, Josh, a few controllers and the company's military.

Part 3. Basically there are several battles between tne Na'vi led by Josh and the company army. Imagine gigantic tanks crashing through forests of trees 3 times bigger than the Sequoia's on Earth. Imagine these trees are so huge, gunships are flying through them weaving in an out as they blast at the Na'vi who are on foot, or flying on the backs of giant flying creatures. Imagine a couple of aerial battles in the air as gunships dodge between the floating mountains, and waterfalls in the air then flying down into the giant forests. Also, the creatures which the Na'vi can psychically link with are attacking the soldiers in their armored suits. There are battles like I've never imagined and plenty of action. josh jumps off one flying creature on the the back of one gunship, and manages to snatch the pilot out of the cockpit. There's even a scene where giant jellyfish-like creatures float through the air and cause several of the gunships to crash and explode.

There is literally too much to describe. I was exhausted after reading this scriptment, and it would make one of the best sci-fi/action/adventures ever made. But the cost to make this movie would be incredible. It would take literally 200 million at least, and the Na'vi, the Avatars, and the creatures would literally have to be computer generated. Actually, this movie could be made and made well even without Arnie, but to see an Avatar version of Arnie would be could. Imagine a eight-nine ft tall blue-skinned, slender but powerfully-muscled Arnie with cat-like eyes, fangs, three-fingers and a thumb on each hand and a panther-like tail. That's what Avatar would give you.

ABking