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James Cameron's Titanic Gamble
Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
With perhaps the highest budget in movie history and a 3D technology that leaves audiences cold, the director's forthcoming Avatar has Hollywood holding its breath.
When audiences failed to turn out in droves for Robert Zemeckis’s dark version of A Christmas Carol earlier this month, executives at various studios started fretting anew about the costly technique that was once believed to be the future of movies.
Some of the mightiest directors in the industry are besotted with 3-D and motion-capture (in which actors perform with sensors attached to their bodies and their characters are filled in later with computer animation). Zemeckis is devoted to it. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are using it for The Adventures of Tintin, the film based on the Belgian comic due in December 2011. And of course the formula will be on display in James Cameron’s long-awaited sci-fi spectacle, Avatar, next month.
“There’s a scene early in the movie where something jumps out of the screen. Jim said, `I just did that so that they would know I know how to do it. But then I stopped doing it because that’s not what 3D is; 3D is bringing the audience completely into the environment of the movie.’ ”
There’s a lot for silverback directors to love about the 3D motion capture combo. It imbues them with the power to create worlds and minimizes the time that they must spend with actual mortal actors. But for the suits, the question is whether this technique can really help save their business. Some were already pessimistic going in to this season, and A Christmas Carol did not encourage them.
“Zemeckis is doing films that are aimed at adults but using a technique that hasn’t quite worked,” says a veteran producer of A-list films. “I worry that’s what’s happened with Cameron’s movie as well.” The alien characters in the Avatar trailers look “like giant goats,” this producer says, adding, “I don’t believe in motion capture.”
A studio chief agrees. “These characters have dead eyes,” he says. “Bob Zemeckis could have done a great job with A Christmas Carol in live action.” As for Avatar, he adds, “I’m curious to see it—I’m not anxious to see it.”
Another veteran executive offers the technique some qualified support. With Avatar, she notes, “they’re selling me a story that I want to see—a classic story that’s enhanced by technology and promises to take me to a world I haven’t seen before.” In her view, 3-D motion capture has its uses and it’s wrong to condemn the medium because of A Christmas Carol, a movie that she calls “ill-designed.”
Still, she describes Avatar as “iffy.” And that may not be the adjective that executives at Fox and their partners on the film want to hear. Given that it’s taken 12 years for Cameron to produce a follow up to Titanic, and considering the immense cost of the technology, the industry and the media have been guessing at Avatar’s budget, with the Los Angeles Times recently putting it at $310 million with additional marketing costs of about $150 million. Other estimates are even higher. (Fox co-chairman Jim Gianopulos told Reuters earlier this week that rumors the movie will cost $500 million are “ridiculous,” acknowledging nonetheless that it was “quite expensive.”)
Studios are never happy when the conversation about a film focuses on money but that seems to happen a lot when Cameron is in the director’s chair. It’s mandatory to note that many underestimated the might of Titanic, still the number-one box-office phenomenon of all time.
Avatar producer Jon Landau and Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman have both said that the film has the “emotionality” that previous motion-capture films have lacked. Cameron used tiny cameras mounted on his performers’ faces to avoid the dead-eye look that has been criticized so vociferously in Zemeckis’ recent films, Polar Express and Beowulf.
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bcacsas
The Xmas Carol was not sold as the next step. Avatar as a preview as interesting as a single story, maybe as a next step in the viewing of pictures. It caught my attention.
bbucol
Yes, the next step, but nothing worse. I've been hearing crap like: "save their business" for years. First time when I was in 5th grade, and learned about concerns that TV would kill movies. That was in 1955.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
tkondaks
cleves2007usa,
What brand of amphetamine do you use?
MrEKO73
"But for the suits, the question is whether this technique can really help save their business."
I wasn't aware it needed saving.
Robert Zemeckis' "The Polar Express" made a $139 million dollar profit. BEOWULF a $46 million dollar profit. And "A Christmas Carol" has made half it money back and its not even Christmas yet. Nor, has it been released to the Foreign Market where it will most assuredly do very well. And of course, none of the numbers are even talked about when it comes to DVD sales and digital distribution.
It's like all these Fat-Cats sit in a room together and say, "Gee, we only made a 300 million dollar profit, but wouldn't it had been great if we would have made a 304 million dollar profit?"
All of this hand ringing by execs is laughable. These are the same kind of guys that said "Finding Nemo" was going to be a bomb because kids couldn't relate to a fish. Lil' Nemo only went on to bring in $864 Million dollars and become one of the highest selling DVDs of all time.
I have no idea what Cameron is spending on Avatar, but the man made almost $2 BILLION dollars with Titanic. And, if everyone remembers, there were lots of frightened millionaire execs on that one to. So, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Cymatic
Well stated. I saw the preview for Avatar in the theater and even in 2D it looked like a movie that had to be seen on the big screen. Besides, Cameron is one of the great masters of effects based movies. Terminator 2, Aliens 2, and Titanic were all mind blowing for special effects.
gardengirl
am counting down the days til avatar opens.
what i've seen so far looks amazing.
hope it blows me away.
furiouskittens
Me too!! I can hardly wait to see it! It's going to be so fun.
raggedhand
I love animation and teach it for a living. And what I tell my students is that an artist doesn't fall in love with his tools and that in the end it's
all
about
the
story.
furiouskittens
Exactly! The story and the editing and the type of film used, and the actors, and the 3D!
Straelbora
Part of the problem, as 'raggedhand' points out, is that all this technology and creativity is being applied to weak stories. A lot of science fiction fans are already referring to "Avatar" as "Dances with Smurfs." And Zemeckis' "Christmas Carol?" Why retell a story, with that ham Jim Carrey, that everyone from Patrick Stewart to Miss Piggy has already covered? "The Yellow Submarine?" Does anyone under 55 even care?
For those of you who don't know about the phrase, look up "The Uncanny Valley." It's basically that reaction by the human brain to things that almost look alive but aren't, including human corpses and anything done by Zemeckis.
bryanlevi
It's interesting that nowhere in this piece do any of the people Masters is quoting talks about telling a good story and/or making a good movie.
All of these movies look dreadful to me. I was really excited to see the first teaser clip they put out from Avatar. Yikes, was I ever disappointed. Not even remotely what I what I was expecting. I'm not seeing it 3-D, so that might be part of it... but i kinda doubt it.
These guys need to do what Madonna needs to do. Step away from all the tech that is supposed to dazzle us and really think about what they might have to say- or whether they have anything to say. Then start from scratch & make a good movie.
ligligl
Seems to me that there is a vital component that is being ignored. The DVD market is fast approaching the in-house income for a project, but how do you translate real 3-D to the residential small-screen market. Has anyone considered that? Until that is conquered, the 3-D spectacular must economically suffer.
crymeariver
Can't wait for Avatar. I met everyone bitching about the previews will be in line on opening day, right behind me! It doesn't matter that the 3D tech has been wasted on other movies, people will still go see Avatar.
Kiauma
I can't wait to see it either. I would like to see it at the theater, but am also drooling at the prospect of seeing it on Blu-ray!
It's about time movies kept pace with other advances in electronic media. I find it interesting an idea originally conceived to save the cost expensive sets and locations is so expensive - I guess there is no silver bullet, thank goodness! I'd like to see things like 3D and motion capture mature, but add to, not replace, conventional movie production techniques.
Thank you.
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