M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender

[sanjuro_ronin]

My boys feel that you would be hard-pressed to find another series as cool as Avatar

Yeah, I hear you !

My team has pitched a few new ideas to Nick and Disney but at the height of the recession no one was willing to green light any new projects. I hear things are getting better. Are they?

Kisu, up here in Canada things are well, not worse and there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel, the problem is that we are so dependant on the US that unless you guys wake up and smell the river, things just won't get better for a while.

[Lokhopkuen]

Yeah, I hear you !




Kisu, up here in Canada things are well, not worse and there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel, the problem is that we are so dependant on the US that unless you guys wake up and smell the river, things just won't get better for a while.

I'm so consciously ill-informed I didn't know there was a financial Crisis until most of my students disappeared I'm making a Canookian Exodus. Will you sponsor me and my refugee family and student???
You'll hardly know we're there

[sanjuro_ronin]

I'm so consciously ill-informed I didn't know there was a financial Crisis until most of my students disappeared I'm making a Canookian Exodus. Will you sponsor me and my refugee family and student???
You'll hardly know we're there

You are of the correct pigmentation for refugee status up here !
LOL !!

[GeneChing]

The new posters have been released - see 'The Last Airbender' Stills

M. Night Shyamalan had a sense about 'Airbender': 'This would make a killer movie'
January 27, 2010 | 5:19 pm

Rachel Abramowitz memorably wrote about M. Night Shyamalan in 2008 when he revealed quite a lot about the liberating power of, well, failure. Now she spoke with him again for this Hero Complex update on the filmmaker's upcoming film "The Last Airbender."

And now for that other "Avatar" movie...

For M. Night Shyamalan, it was his then 7-year old daughter who hooked him on the Nickelodeon series “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

“She made us watch as a family and all four of us were hooked, “ Shyamalan said. “I was like, 'This would make a killer movie. And my wife who really has been kind of in neutral about my career was insane about it. Insane about it: ‘You have to do it. This is it. This is the one.' ”

M Night Shyamalan by Jennifer S Altman Ever since he shot to stardom with his film “The Sixth Sense” in 1999, Hollywood has tempted Shyamalan with franchise offers including, he says, an overture about directing the first “Harry Potter” film. He turned down all the other offers, but “Airbender,” with its fusion of Eastern philosophies and martial arts grabbed him. The series is set in a world where the four ancient elements -- fire, earth, water and air -- can be manipulated by a select group of magical humans who are known as "benders."

The brutal firebenders, known as the Fire Nation, are intent on world domination and the only thing standing in their way is 12-year old Aang, the last of the airbenders, who also happens to be the Avatar -- the only one who can wield all four of the elemental groups.

Not unlike a pre-teen, martial-arts version of the Dalai Lama, the fun-loving Aang is charged with keeping peace in the universe. Now comes Shyamalan’s big-screen adaptation “The Last Airbender” (no surprise, the film will drop "Avatar" from the title because of the success of a certain recent film with a smiliar title), the first of a planned trilogy.

Airbender on Nick

The movie hits theaters on July 2 and stars Noah Ringer as Aang, Dev Patel (of “Slumdog Millionaire") as the evil Prince Zuko. Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone portray Aang’s trusty comrades-in-arms.

The 39-year old Shyamalan, once the boy wonder of Hollywood, is coming off a series of disappointing films, including “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening,” and this is the first time he’s directed a film based on pre-exististing source material. The filmmaker is taking on an adaptation for the first time because he found himself drawn to the Buddhist philosophy that underlies “Airbender.”

“Aang himself needs to find balance to be the Avatar and to master each of these elements," the director said. "We get to see the process of someone mastering themselves through the three seasons to get to peace.”

Shyamalan sees similar spiritual motiffs in “Star Wars” and “The Matrix."

“In the first 'Matrix,' you realize that what you’re seeing is all false," Shyamalan said. "Those are really ancient ideas. Basic old, old religion. This has that as well. So if you go on the journey and you’ll feel that epiphany on top of a great roller-coaster ride. It’s going to be something.“

-- Rachel Abramowitz

[Lucas]

im glad they switched it to just 'the last airbender' when everyone was talking about this avatar movie, i thought for the longest time they meant the airbender.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Still have my doubts about the casting...

[doug maverick]

they didnt really switch it to the last airbender...it was always the last airbender.

[Lucas]

they didnt really switch it to the last airbender...it was always the last airbender.

well i mean dropping the avatar. its always been the last airbender but that was, from what ive seen like this; AVATAR: The last airbender

now its just The Last Airbender. unfortunate imo because he is an avatar....

[Zenshiite]

^They've been referring to the movie as "The Last Airbender" for quite some time. Years, in fact, because they knew there was the concurrently developing Avatar by Cameron, and I think there was some discussion about some legal complications even. Since I heard the movie was really moving forward it's just been called "The Last Airbender" sans the "Avatar."

Also, I'm still not happy with the casting... especially because of the whole white messiah thing going on here yet again. I could probably have squared myself with the white washing of Katara and Sokka despite them being obviously non-white in the show had they not white-washed Aang. To me it's even more important and insulting that yet again a world full of non-white people is being saved by a white messiah. That just really really ****es me off. That's no slight on the kid playing Aang, it's a slight on Hollywood and even the ingrained biases of Shyamalan that he's comfortable repeating that motif and furthermore... making the nemeses of the white messiah Indian and Persian.

[iron_silk]

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3013707776/tt0938283

so I don't have a real stake in this whole changing the racial skin colours (which is simply wrong in so many ways ... same thing happen to a wondeful book which was turned into a mini-series- "Earthsea")

I just hate the linked pic...to me the stance and pose is all wrong.

[Lucas]

oh i see what you mean Zenshiite. I guess I havnt seen much in regards to the movie, I've only Netflixed the series, so thats the extent of my knowledge on the airbender.

That picture is....silly looking to say the least.

Someone Tibetan would have been awesome for that role.

[Tao Of The Fist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtUhz0SRc-I

Showing some Vegas love for homeboy Perris Aquino... a very talented kid. He needed acting lessons, but other than that he would've made a great Aang.

Someone said something about the supporting actors from Forbidden Kingdom being in Avatar, that would've been a great idea... M. Night, you disappoint me so.

*CORRECTION: THE LAST AIRBENDER, MY APOLOGIES TO JAMES CAMERON FANS...*

[iron_silk]

Dragon Ball - live action movie was another sorry excuse.

Yeah I know some people feel that for Goku being "white" is only right, but why make some asian and not others...especially when we have viable asian main characters whom have starred in American movies already.

And this is merely on top of the fact it's just simply a terrible movie.

At least M. Night has done have decent movies before...whatever I'm just rambling on and on

[Lucas]

The Dragon Ball thing bothered me too. Its all just excuses to avoid casting an Asian lead.

Look at the cartoon. He has black hair and black eyes just like the 'asian' characters. He married an asian woman. his name is very asian sounding to me. The cartoon was developed in Japan. I wonder what the original artists saw in his head when he first was drawing the young Goku. Did he see a little white boy who just happened to have black hair and eyes who landed with an arguably asian master. or a small asian looking boy with a tail who landed with an arguably asian master and learned martial arts.


i know common sense has been failing humanity these past several years, but CMON!

[iron_silk]

The Dragon Ball thing bothered me too. Its all just excuses to avoid casting an Asian lead.

Look at the cartoon. He has black hair and black eyes just like the 'asian' characters. He married an asian woman. his name is very asian sounding to me. The cartoon was developed in Japan. I wonder what the original artists saw in his head when he first was drawing the young Goku. Did he see a little white boy who just happened to have black hair and eyes who landed with an arguably asian master. or a small asian looking boy with a tail who landed with an arguably asian master and learned martial arts.


i know common sense has been failing humanity these past several years, but CMON!

I know some people would make the case that since Goku is an "alien" (keep in mind it was only introduced in Dragon Ball Z and NOT the original Dragon Ball)

but there have been characters in the comic book that was clearly not asian but more white....like people he met when fighting the Red Army or one of the 3 robots #15 I think was clearly red or yellow hair and the facial structure is definitely not asian.

That's right facial structure....I mean ...you see the difference

just to be fair....it's equally wrong to Asian dude...slap blonde hair on them (you know what I'm talking about...it's just not right)