Original Article By Meredith Woerner at io9.com
Last Tuesday io9 was a guest of Paramount, along with a few other reporters, on the set M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film,The Last Airbender. We headed over to Night’s favorite cinematic city Philadelphia, to see what the the director of The Sixth Sense would do with an expansive fantasy world. Night is, in a sense, building an entire world with only the cartoon and a specific, but loyal, following of fans to keep him in check (some of the biggest fans being his own daughters, who were the inspiration behind his tackling the project).
The article also touched on some of the sets…
While I’m still not sure how this film is going to be marketed to those over 20 and unaware of the Airbender franchise, Night’s new world certainly has a gorgeous backdrop going for it. Each set we walked on was more expansive and detailed than the last. The ice cave that holds the Moon Spirit was completely transformed into a strange and ethereal space, with a towering cherry tree looming over a reflecting pond. Every single blossom on the twisted branches was hand painted individually, with three different shades of pink. It truly felt like a mysterious oasis where brilliant green mold grows over ice.
But that wasn’t even the kicker. Night has constructed a life size representation of the Fire Nation battleships, that can unleash furious fire power and where Dev Patel told us he’d spar with his crew. Dusty crumbling temples were erected, with gold statues of past Avatars, and even those can’t compare to Airbender’s pièce de résistance world-building moment, which just so happens to be the largest set ever built on the East Coast… which we’re saving to tell you more about later.
And it seems they’re definitely going to make this a film the entire family can enjoy…
So how much did they diverge from the cartoon, to make a story about warring nations and it’s citizens who can bend the elements believable? Producer Frank Marshall explained that they have high hopes to stick to a PG rating. “I’m not even sure we want to get in the PG-13 realm,” he explained.
But the director did have to whittle some things away. While taking a break from filming in the dusty floors of the North Air Temple Night told us what had to be cut: “I took away a little bit of the slapsticky stuff that was there for the little little kids, the fart jokes and things like that. We weeded that stuff away and the other stuff came out. We grounded Katara’s brother, who’s the comic relief in the show. We grounded him, and that really did wonderful things for the whole theme of the movie.”
Read the full article at io9.com
Tags: airbender, m. night, Movie Sets, shyamalan
June 24, 2009 at 2:51 am |
AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! D: they are going to ‘ground sokka’??? NO MORE SOKKA JOKES?!?!?!?!?! I JUST CAN’T BELIEVE IT! WWWWWHHHHHYYYYY?!?!?!?!
well I’m still FREAKISHLY EXCITED!! <3 UUUGHGH WHY CAN'T THE DANG MOVIE COME OUT NOW!?!?!? i REALLY want to see NICOLA PELTZ IN KATARA COSTUM!! <:3 APPA!! YAY! and ofcourse momo too!!
June 24, 2009 at 3:12 am |
I’m happy with it and disappointed at the same time.
i really hope they didn’t take out all the humor.
besides that, this has me even more hyped.
(are they gonna have in Momo?)
June 24, 2009 at 3:17 am |
They grounded Sokka? They took away his silliness? Aw man
Sokka’s my favorite character, so they better not screw him up! I hope he is still at least the witty idea guy .
June 24, 2009 at 3:57 am |
“I took away a little bit of the slapsticky stuff that was there for the little little kids, the fart jokes and things like that.”
Night, you totally rock for this. I hate it when they ruin it with huge Iroh mouths singing ‘The Girls from Ba Sing Se, stupid running techniques for running from giant Koi fish, idiotic comments, and so on. They just kill it.
“We grounded Katara’s brother, who’s the comic relief in the show. We grounded him, and that really did wonderful things for the whole theme of the movie”
Someone define grounded for me. PLEASE. I’m scared…
June 24, 2009 at 7:13 am |
WHAT DID THEY DO TO SOKKA!? :O
I hope they won’t do anything to Toph in the second movie O.O
June 24, 2009 at 7:39 am |
Whaa… Sokka… without his jokes? I can understand it, for the sake of the “serious movie”, but I hope he still gets to be funny sometimes, movies need some comic relief too.
Can’t wait to see what movie-Appa will look like.
I was afraid they would cut out all the animals like in (don’t really want to write the name of the awful movie) Dragonball Evolution. And Momo, if they keep him, I love Momo. ^^ Keep Momo, pleeeease…?
July 6, 2010 at 2:28 am |
ya that kinda sucks. why cant they ever make a movie that is like the show. i watch Avatar the Last Airbender almost everyday, so that way i can watch the episodes that i haven’t seen. and Sokka without his jokes, is just wrong to me. I can’t wait to see the movie of course, and M. Night pronounced Aang’s name wrong. im not sure if he meant to or not. but its “Aang” as in boomerANG!!! thats how its pronounced
dragon ball z sucked horribly in every way. so if Momo and Appa wasn’t in the movie, then M. Night would lose alot of veiwers but people would still watch it cuz of the graphics. but he has to KEEP TO THE STORY!! in order to keep this viewer interested
June 24, 2009 at 3:40 pm |
THANK YOU M NIGHT!! One of the things I’ve always hated about avatar is all the childish jokes -the series premiere was full of them, especially episode 2- so it’s a relief to hear that all those will be cut out. They seriously made me cringe. I nearly stopped watching avatar because of them, until I saw the season 2 finale. Then I started watching it from the beginning.
But Sokka without sarcasm won’t be Sokka. It’s his (and Toph’s) essential quality, so to speak. Cut out all his unfunny jokes…but keep the sarcasm!
June 24, 2009 at 9:20 pm |
LOL, we never catch a break. For once, we get a sweet teaser, some awesome articles about cool, huge sets and Appa…and then we get news about them grounding Sokka. Why can’t we get news that is ALL good for once?!
Seriously though, with Jackson Rathbone playing Sokka, I had no doubt that he would be a little less…animated (lol), since JR is older. In my opinion, which is based on gut instincts, they will make him a little more serious, a little more of the warrior Hakoda left behind to guard the village, but he will still be sarcastic and make stupid comments, but maybe be a little more mature about it. I’m fine with this.
I’m also glad they’re taking out the more immature bits of humor; I didn’t hate it in the series, but I didn’t love them either; for the movie, they should probably leave that stuff to Transformers.
June 24, 2009 at 9:48 pm |
they better have kept toph and all the blind jokes
July 30, 2009 at 6:07 pm |
“The stars sure are beautiful tonight. TOO BAD YOU CAN’T SEE THEM, TOPH!”
June 26, 2009 at 1:29 am |
I AM SOOOOO EXCITED. My sister and I went to go see Transformers and they showed the teaser for this movie, and I just about jumped out of my seat from excitement. I’m a bit scared though. I really hope that they don’t ruin it…….
*but im just sooooo excited!!!!!!!*
June 26, 2009 at 4:58 am |
I don’t think he’ll take Sokka’s humor completely away. The article did say M. Night had a “loyal following of avatar fans to keep him in check”, and Sokka’s sarcasm is a big part of the show.
Another good thing…Jackson Rathbone does have a good sense of humor! I checked some of his stuff out and he has played some funny characters in comedies. I was worried at first but now I think he’s okay to play Sokka.
Lol, hope I’m not being too optimistic!
Ahh, and a lack of immature jokes…that’s wonderful. A breath of fresh air. I feel I need it now after seeing Transformers!
June 28, 2009 at 1:20 am |
They can’t ground Sokka!
He makes everything funny.
Every movie needs some funny parts.
AUGH!
June 28, 2009 at 1:20 am |
“Fart jokes”
Ok, I’m so glad they took that away though…
July 1, 2009 at 1:21 am |
I CAN’T WAIT
July 3, 2009 at 8:53 pm |
Hopefully “Grounding Sokka” means taking away all his stupid jokes, but keeping the great ones! Sokka is sometimes serious, but he needs to be funny too! He is the “Meat and Sarcasm Guy!”
July 30, 2009 at 6:09 pm |
But he’d still be happy to be the “Veggies and Straight Talk Guy”
February 13, 2010 at 7:41 pm
actually he said “veggies and straiht talk fellow”…. just syaing lol
February 20, 2010 at 12:03 am |
omg snoooo sakka
February 22, 2010 at 1:17 am |
It will be cool to see movie clips with Appa and Momo. I love the sarcasm and even the corny jokes are funny…for anime. Not sure how it will relate to live action but it looks good and should revive M. Nights career. I’m a fan of his work but have heard the last several movies were suspect even though I have not seen them myself.
Guys remember Toph was not a character until the 3rd book or so. If they introduced her this early that will be kinda whack.
If M. Night is smart he will make it a 3 part movie and keep the checks coming long term.
One its a smart business move and two the story is a long series. Why condense it to 1 movie.
February 25, 2010 at 10:09 am |
i actually read that night plans for this to be a 3 movie series, so i think they plan on sticking to the source material for the most part
May 12, 2010 at 1:03 am |
i hope it doesnt turn out crap and ruin the show
May 12, 2010 at 1:03 am |
hopes it as good as the show
May 13, 2010 at 6:10 am |
dang!!!!!!!!! sokka no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 24, 2010 at 7:01 pm |
What in the world?! I LOVE the series BECAUSE of the funniness. I mean HELLO?! That’s why its a kid show. Without all of Sokka’s jokes and everything it will be a brainless, just plain action movie. I mean seriously, do you guys really think it will help to make it not funny? Most people I know only like it BECAUSE OF SOKKA. ugh. The movie still better be funny.
June 28, 2010 at 2:02 am |
without sokka jokes this isnt not kool !!!!!!!!!! he kept the show alive !!! tear tear sniff sniff r.i.p. sokkas jokes
whaaaaa! 
(