The popular Nickelodean animated series, Avatar, the Last Airbender, is being brought to the big screen by none other than M. Night Shyamalan, so you know it’s going to be good. But this time, instead of scaring the audience with a horror-suspense flick, he’s making a movie the whole family can enjoy.
In The Last Airbender the world is divided into four major powers: Water, Earth Air and Fire. A 12-year old boy named Aang (Noah Ringer) is the last Avatar and the only person able to mater all four elements. When Aang befriends a brother and sister, Sokka and Katara, the trio sets out to stop Prince Zuko and the Fire Nation, who plan to enslave all the elemental tribes.
“I knew about the cartoon three years before,” notes Ringer, who plays Aang. “Ever since I’ve been shaving my head, everybody has called me Aang. I watched the show because everybody would tell me, ‘You have to watch this cartoon. He looks just like you!’ The movie is definitely different [from the TV series], but if we would’ve done the same thing as the cartoon, what would be exciting about that? It’s fun to change that and do something new.”
Prince Zuko is played by Patel, his first role since 2009 Best Picture Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire. “Zuko is a boy, and he’s struggling to impress his father and trying to get his honor and love back,” remarks Patel. “And then there’s Shaun Toub, who plays my Uncle, and who treats Zuko like a son. Like in life, you take your anger out on the people you love the most, and Zuko sort of neglects his uncle because he’s on this one-track mission to find this boy. It makes it really interesting. They have a good dynamic: This naïve boy who acts on aggression all of the time, and then you have this wise, older uncle who is like the calm within the storm. It’s a good dynamic.”
iF Magazine recently interview Shyamalan. Following are exerpts from that interview:
iF: Are you going to push for the political tone in this film as we’ve seen in your other films?
Shyamalan: Well, there is a lot in the mythology. What I did was remove anything that was too slap-sticky and cheesy -- the stuff that was there for the very little kids, but wouldn’t work in a live action feature like the fart jokes. I grounded the thing a little more. I grounded Katara’s brother for example [played by Nicola Peltz] and it brought a great new overall tone to the whole movie.
iF: The movie feels a little bit like it was inspired by the art of Hayao Miyazaki?
Shyamalan: Well, I’m a huge and giant fan of his work ... My favorite is Spirited Away. He is amazing, but to be honest, the film was more influenced by martial arts movies in general. What is funny is that you can see so many influences in the cartoon with scenes almost copied entirely from martial art movies, but I wanted the live action film to be truly original with action scenes you had never seen before. I’m a huge martial art freak. I even have a Bruce Lee statue in my office!
iF: What was the biggest challenge for you before and during the making of this film?
Shyamalan: It’s been a great on-going experience both as a director and a human being ... It’s two and half times compared to my other movies. It feels like I’m a student again and I’m learning new things, new tricks and for me this is the way to get a great movie, when you’re a student again. You learn again and you’re open to everything again.
iF: When did you realize, “wow, this is an insane film!”?
Shyamalan: Right away when we were filming in Greenland. It was great filming over there and if I had the all money in the world I would have filmed this movie on location around the world -- but that would be so expensive. It was great shooting in Greenland, in the tundra and to see the actors moving. It felt so real. This is when I realized this was an amazing movie. Also, when I saw the army coming in the village I was overwhelmed by the size and the scope of this film.
Release date: July 2, 2010
Source: Starlog and iF Magazine
Comments
i always loved the show avatar ,but was very supprized to seew a movie. Its going to be hard making the movie has good as the show
I love the show avatar but I thought the movies characters would be more realistic like the real zuko doesn't look anything like the cartoon zuko
It's going to take a lot to make this movie as good as the show, in live action, a lot of things don't flow as well as in the cartoon. I am anxiously awaiting this film, but I am not getting my hopes up. This film has large shoes to fill compared to the series.
im a 15 yer old girl and i love the avatar i cant believe your making a movie out of this...it bettter be good your going to let alot of people down and your and your cast members careers will go down the tubes if this goes bad so i hope you know what you are doing...but i cant wait to see it good luck
I am just worried that i am going to expect so much from this and then it not be that great! i hope i am wrong because i absolutely love Avatar and i hope this movie is just as good as it is be sought out to be...and also it would help if the characters were more like the cartoon.. i understand the part of taking out the childish humor but for example Zuko his scar is significant to his character... well thats what i think... but ya!!!
i love avatar but a movie thats going to be very werid but it seems ok ill watch and ill just might love the movie.
it makes me mad because that kid looks NOTHING like aang and the dude who plays zuko looks so fake, they should keep it a cartoon its best like that and m.night shyamalan should stick to horror
i also LOOOOOOOOVE avatar the last airbender so dont let everyone down. i mean i will watch it but its going to be a little weird seeing it not in cartoon =)
man all the actors are all wrong, no asian people, seriously!?...yea asian people got screwed on the asting for what could be a badass movie. change is good, but dont steer too far from the material, thats what people love. all im saying is im sick of watching stuff get turned into movies and suck, if you aint gonna do it right dont do it at all.
-TRANSFORMERS 2 is AWSOME!!=)
this is crazy i can't believe there is no asian to play the at least one of the lead. so disappointing.
so they changed "stuff" from the original series huh. If it's more of MNight's craptacular writing, count me out.
I love how the main good guy characters are all white! Yay, I can actually feel for them! I was worried they were gonna have actual colored people playing the 'ugh' dark skinned characters. WhoO!
i realy like the show avatar and cant wait to see the movie but im hopeing that it is as good as the show so far the characters dont even look like the cartoon characters like zuko doesnt have his scar without the scar hes just a guy the scar makes zuko
I dont know about those actors they casted. Zuko doesnt have his scar! and whats the guy from twilight doing in there. I'm hoping they dont mess this up. I love Avatar, but M.Shyamalan ususally makes his movies weird and twisted. I dont want him to mess this up
erin ur racist.having an allll white is not usully good especially when katara and sokka are brown.and zuko and aang look dumb.aang is reeelllly chubby.
they bter make it like the cartoon!
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!