'Avatar' director arrives in New Zealand
17 Oct 2007
Hollywood's Oscar-winning director James Cameron has arrived in New Zealand to start shooting scenes for his new movie Avatar.
The US$200 million science fiction movie is being filmed in Wellington where 80 imitation-gun-toting, camo-wearing stunt people and actors have been gathered for days of rehearsals.
Avatar is written by Cameron and is about an ex-marine who finds himself amid hostilities on an alien planet. As an 'Avatar' - a human mind in an alien body - he falls in love with a local girl and joins resistance fighters in a battle for survival.
Cameron is shooting the film using a new 3D process and will feature a blend of live-action photography and virtual photorealistic production techniques invented by his team.
The film will also feature six computer-generated actors known as 'synthespians'.
Some work on the film has already been done in Los Angeles and Hawaii.
Peter Jackson's Weta Digital is supervising the special effects, and 31 days of additional live photography will be carried out on Weta's soundstages.
The cast includes Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi, Zoe Saldana and Michelle Rodriguez.
Cameron's blockbuster Titanic holds the world box office record for a film, at US$1.8 billion. It won 11 Oscars in 1998, a record it shares with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
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