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timepiececlockHere's the 10 minute interview with M. Shyamalan regarding the Avatar live-action trilogy. This is the first I've heard or seen about the movie since the news that he was doing the project, and I am actually somewhat reassured by what we see here. Initially, at least.
I'm mixed feelings of him as a director: I think he has talent and skill but his lastest movies have fallen flat for me, and I only actually enjoyed about half of his total film work. But what I liked, I *really* liked. I'm excited to see this because I feel like his talent as a director exceeds his talent as a writer, so maybe if he does an adaptation--particularly from a well-written source--then the end result will shine. And since the three films will apparently mimic the three season plotline with ongoing story arcs (a good choice and better than a single film) we know that he'll have to be significantly faithful to the material because the path is already laid out ahead of him.
Unlike his previous films (except perhaps Stuart Little) this comes with an enormous fanbase. I don't mean the online fans or the convention- go-ers , I mean all the kids and teenagers that give the series it's high ratings and buy merchandise and come preladen with expectations. From the interview he says his daughter got him to watch it, so I'm going to cross my fingers that he'll be faithful to the spirit of the show to impress her if for no other reason.
Apparently he is:
1) "in love" with the series
2) prepared to devote his entire life for the next six years to this trilogy
3) actively involving the original creators/writers in his outline/script process
4) thanking the series creators for writing "the coolest mythology I've ever seen"
5) a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki / Studio Ghibli films which have pervasive and visible influence in ATLA's visual style
6) plans to cast unknown child actors for the leads
This is really happening folks! That's right... in a few years everyone on my flist who isn't watching this insanely great magical martial arts epic that I keep blabbing about will have the chance to experience the story on the big screen and see what all the fuss is about.
Minor notes: I am a bit sad, I admit, that this means we probably will never see an animated full feature-length film for the show. I would love to see this written and animated with a feature's budget. I am also curious as to how the series will handle the violent content. The series is already PG-level in animated form, and certain things could be pushing PG-13 if shown with real actors, where the fighting won't get away with as much as it can in animated form, where people are inclined to judge it with a lower rating than the content might otherwise get. It's true that a lot of the mature ideas are in dialogue and implication rather than visually shown, but there's enough visual violence to make me wonder, especially in season 2.
What am I most excited about?
THE COSTUMES!
No matter how good or bad the movie is, I bet the costumes will be great and I can't wait to see how the costume-designers translate the animated character designs to clothing for live actors. The costume styles and varieties and cultural influences are one of most interesting and consistently strong parts of ATLA's style, so I am really excited to see what the designers come up with.
I'm mixed feelings of him as a director: I think he has talent and skill but his lastest movies have fallen flat for me, and I only actually enjoyed about half of his total film work. But what I liked, I *really* liked. I'm excited to see this because I feel like his talent as a director exceeds his talent as a writer, so maybe if he does an adaptation--particularly from a well-written source--then the end result will shine. And since the three films will apparently mimic the three season plotline with ongoing story arcs (a good choice and better than a single film) we know that he'll have to be significantly faithful to the material because the path is already laid out ahead of him.
Unlike his previous films (except perhaps Stuart Little) this comes with an enormous fanbase. I don't mean the online fans or the convention- go-ers , I mean all the kids and teenagers that give the series it's high ratings and buy merchandise and come preladen with expectations. From the interview he says his daughter got him to watch it, so I'm going to cross my fingers that he'll be faithful to the spirit of the show to impress her if for no other reason.
Apparently he is:
1) "in love" with the series
2) prepared to devote his entire life for the next six years to this trilogy
3) actively involving the original creators/writers in his outline/script process
4) thanking the series creators for writing "the coolest mythology I've ever seen"
5) a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki / Studio Ghibli films which have pervasive and visible influence in ATLA's visual style
6) plans to cast unknown child actors for the leads
This is really happening folks! That's right... in a few years everyone on my flist who isn't watching this insanely great magical martial arts epic that I keep blabbing about will have the chance to experience the story on the big screen and see what all the fuss is about.
Minor notes: I am a bit sad, I admit, that this means we probably will never see an animated full feature-length film for the show. I would love to see this written and animated with a feature's budget. I am also curious as to how the series will handle the violent content. The series is already PG-level in animated form, and certain things could be pushing PG-13 if shown with real actors, where the fighting won't get away with as much as it can in animated form, where people are inclined to judge it with a lower rating than the content might otherwise get. It's true that a lot of the mature ideas are in dialogue and implication rather than visually shown, but there's enough visual violence to make me wonder, especially in season 2.
What am I most excited about?
THE COSTUMES!
No matter how good or bad the movie is, I bet the costumes will be great and I can't wait to see how the costume-designers translate the animated character designs to clothing for live actors. The costume styles and varieties and cultural influences are one of most interesting and consistently strong parts of ATLA's style, so I am really excited to see what the designers come up with.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-25 07:55 am (UTC)I'm really hoping they're smart enough to keep the ethnicities intact.
I am hoping for that too
Date: 2008-03-25 08:08 am (UTC)There are ways to play with the ethnicities, but still keep a diverse cast: the Southern water tribe could have the Pacific Islander or Inuit look of the series but the Northern Tribe could be pale-eyed and pale-haired like Icelandic or Scandinavian people. The Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom are almost indistinguishable on the show except for eye color, and the appears to be variety of skin tone even within the Earth Kingdom (Song being much paler than Jet or Haru), so you could take opportunities to bring in other North Asian, South Asian or Middle Eastern ethnic groups and work them into the cultures of the show. That might be better, from one perspective, than having exclusively East Asian ethnic groups because it would allow the audience to visually and immediately distinguish between the ethnic groups and their corresponding nations. I want the Air Benders to look different from the Fire Nation, and I think you can do that while maintaining the cast as primarily people of color. I would be flexible about all that stuff as long as it was internally consistent and logical within the parameters of the ATLA worldbuilding system.
Re: I am hoping for that too
Date: 2008-03-25 03:30 pm (UTC)in other video-clip-related news, those three guys are huge dorks, and it makes me smile inside to see how goofy they are. *crosses fingers and hopes for a good film*
Re: I am hoping for that too
Date: 2008-03-25 04:24 pm (UTC)caveat
Date: 2008-03-25 08:15 am (UTC)Yue, on the other hand (and all the northern tribers), could totally be pale Scandinavian and it wouldn't change much at all. It actually might be interesting and draw a creative division between the two tribes: if bending is biological as well as cultural, how could the two strongest water tribes look so profoundly different? Plus, I could imagine Sokka being smitten with a princess who looked so different from the people he grew up with.
For some reason (probably because she reminds me of an old friend) I really want Toph to look Fillipino. I am just stuck on that image.
Re: caveat
Date: 2008-03-25 08:26 am (UTC)I am actually hoping they stay away from blondes in general - other than that, word.
There are plenty of people who are eurasian (I'm thinking of the women who played River and Inara, respectively, on the show Firefly) for people from the earth kingdom, and I actually have no idea who should play people from the fire nation.
Good point about Shamalyn being a person of color - that gives me much more hope than having some random Hollywood white guy doing it.
(Toph as Philipino would be awesome. I admit, I'm not that great at guessing ethnicities, but from what I know, I think that would work.)
Have you seen
Re: caveat
Date: 2008-03-25 04:30 pm (UTC)Re: caveat
Date: 2008-03-26 04:15 am (UTC)And I thought his story of how he fell in love with Avatar was super-adorable. I want to buy his daughter ice cream.
IRONY:
Date: 2008-03-25 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-26 03:40 am (UTC)Anyway, I'm also curious about how he'll handle the special effects; here's to hoping that they're quality! Do you think it depends more on his skills as a director or on the kind of budget the trilogy gets?
no subject
Date: 2008-03-27 12:22 am (UTC)