Movie: The Last Airbender

[saman]

Figured I'd start a thread on this, since we have some news about it. For those who are unfamiliar with it, this trilogy of movies is based on Avatar: The Last Airbender, the animated show that aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the first movie is being targeted for release in July 2010.

Well, after rounds of open auditions, we seem to have a cast for the four main characters. Aang will be played by an unknown actor named Noah Ringer who does karate.

Jackson Rathbone (Beautiful people, the O.C., Twilight) is in talks to play Sokka.


Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) has been cast as Katara


Pop/R&B singer Jesse McCartney is in talks to play Zuko.


from http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/12/10/...ast-airbender/

thoughts? apparently a lot of people are mad that an all-white cast is playing asian and inuit characters

[Dark Dragon]

Who was the person that decided M. Night Shyamalan is a great director choice after seeing his last 3 movies?

After movies like Forbidden Kingdom it should be pretty obvious that Hollywood would be willing to throw a random white kid into any setting for the purpose of "connecting with the audience".

If done well, i suppose this movie might be worth watching. As of now however, I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Ryllharu]

I don't really have an issue with the two playing Katara and Sokka. I wouldn't say the Water Tribe was necessarily "Inuit" in terms of race. Culturally, yes, but I'm less sure about appearance. The two above certainly look the part.

As for whoever is playing Aang and Zuko, those two should probably have been cast as Asians. Aang's whole tribe was modeled after Shaolin monks (with the exception of fighting style, swapped to the Fire nation), while the Fire Nation has always been a rather obvious Japan/Han Dynasty mix. You can probably get away with Aang being cast from Southeast Asia, but Zuko...well, maybe a Caucasian can fit the role well. Can't say the same for Azula, and the two siblings would obviously have to match.

It's going to be a trilogy made for kids, so I don't really have high expectations of it.

Hollywood has quite frankly always been totally racist about Asians, from horribly racist gag characters to snubbing them on casting.

[saman]

hmmm. honestly, i don't care what race the kids are, as long as they're good actors. if they have a white zuko, though, then they're going to have to make uncle white, and uncle just isn't uncle without his asian accent.

i'm also not too broken up about m. night shyamalan. that is to say, his last couple of movies have been utter crap, but i'm still willing to give him a chance. he says he wants to get away from his horror and suspense reputation, he's a huge fan of avatar, and he's the one who approached the creators of the show about making the movie. who knows, he might pull it off.

[Assassin]

i want to be interested, but i have a feeling it'll be a preteen/teen oriented movie and thus either be really cheesy or really crappy.

its really too bad, cuz i really liked the show. one of the few good cartoons in the past decade.

[saman]

jesse mccartney has been dropped (thank heavens), and slumdog millionaire's dev patel has now been cast as zuko. http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/02/02...ast-airbender/

huh. interesting casting decision. dev's not white, but i've never really thought of zuko as brown either. still, even if dev doesn't win that oscar this year, this'll boost the marketability of the film even more

[rockmanj]

Sokka and Kitara being Lily-white just doesn't sit well with me. I don't feel as strongly as this guy: http://www.angryzenmaster.com/2009/0...-faced-avatar/ but it still seems a little off to me. But we all know how Hollywood is anyway.

[Sapphire]

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramo...lastairbender/

New trailer above!!

I have only seen a couple eps of Airbender, but to my surprise, they weren't boring at all. So I am interested in seeing the movie. The trailer looks AWESOME!!!

BTW this guy looks really young, which is awesome.

[Penner]

this... :P

[Assassin]

i really, really liked the temple....its exactly as it was in the cartoon. Im hopeful that the movie will be true to the series, but i just hope shamalan doesn't try to put in a surprise ending or something and fuck it up.

[Munsu]

Super Bowl spot, it looks awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKQY-oIJtY0

[Assassin]

Heres hoping they dont try to make it too hollywood (ie: try to make it more than it is) and ruin what could be a very kool movie. Also hoping that Aang is the same quirky goofball that he is in the cartoon.....hard to tell from the trailer cuz its all fight scenes, but he looked pretty intense and dramatic.

[darkshadow]

That looked pretty cool indeed, I just hope they don't try to cram the entire show into 1 movie, deserves more then that.

[Munsu]

Heres hoping they dont try to make it too hollywood (ie: try to make it more than it is) and ruin what could be a very kool movie. Also hoping that Aang is the same quirky goofball that he is in the cartoon.....hard to tell from the trailer cuz its all fight scenes, but he looked pretty intense and dramatic.

I'm not sure if this movie will have the comedy that the cartoon employed. If I were a betting man, I'd say no. I'd rather they'd do it this way... hard to make it funny without looking lame with a bunch of kids running around. I'd go for the dramatic. We'll see. The action looks to be good though.

[Death BOO Z]

well, I'm finally on the airbending bandwagon...

how are they going to stick in 3 seasons of character development into a two hour movie?
does that mean they'll be dropping a whole lot of characters and content?
my estimate about the first people to go: Suki, Moon princess Yue, Admiral Zaho, Dai-Li. (and the personalities of many other, like Mai, Azula and Tylee, King earth and king Bumi).
and that still won't be enough to pack what's going on..
so I guess they'll drop the... fun.

It's going to be a blast.seriously.

also: slumdog millionaire guy would have been a perfect Sokka.

[Dark Dragon]

That trailer was indeed awesome. It looks like i will have to go see this movie after all.

[Sapphire]

I highly doubt they are going to stick three seasons into one movie. At LEAST they will open the plot up and give it room for a sequel. Anyway the trailer looks amazing. I thought it was awesome how the fireball was only partially blocked by the earth shield. And the glowing eyes?! I am usually very skeptical of CGI but this was very pleasing to see.

I MUST see this!!

[Assassin]

Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film “The Last Airbender” is the opening chapter in Aang’s struggle to survive.

-From the movie website.

So it seems they do plan on a sequel...perhaps even a trilogy. It would only make sense considering the show had 3 seaons. Also explains why we haven't seen Toph yet.

[Ryllharu]

I as recall, the live action versions were initially announced as a trilogy. They're just not filming them back to back (like Lord of the Rings).

Looks really good. They definitely have the visual design style of the series down perfectly.

[Assassin]

Ya, but if Munsu is rite (and the more i think about it, the more i suspect he is) about then not making it as light hearted as the show, them theres still cause for concern. Im hoping shamalan will pull it off nicely, but a huge part of the show was the lightheartedness. All the character interactions, the jokes and silliness, the general attitude that each character had as a result of being a kid, it was essential to making the show what it was. Without that, its just another action movie.