Hey, it’s been awhile. After a brief hiatus, due in large part to family and professional obligations, and in small part to the lack of interesting news, we’re back in the saddle again. Time to catch up!
Shaun Toub spoke with Thomas Attila Lewis on the red carpet at the Emmy’s briefly about his experience working on the film. He believes it’s ‘an incredible film’ and ‘visually unbelievable.’ Toub went on to describe how the world is ‘full of mystique’ with a really complex protagonist.
Cliff Curtis (Fire Lord Ozai) spoke on The Last Airbender with CraveOnline.
Cliff Curtis: How was shooting The Last Airbender?
CraveOnline: It was wonderful. It was really great and it’s also great that I’m going to be able to work the two. I’m not giving up film. I’m just doing another job that happens to be on television.
Cliff Curtis: Are you playing a character from the animated series?
CraveOnline: Yes, I am. I’m playing fire lord Ozai.
Cliff Curtis: Did you take anything from the animated form?
CraveOnline: I’ve not watched it. I didn’t want to watch the animated form because I knew the director, M. Night, was going to depart from that.
Cliff Curtis: You must be dealing with a lot of pyrotechnics. How do you deal with that?
CraveOnline: Fire, well, that’s a good spin. Is there anything in particular about fire? Yeah, just don’t touch it. I don’t know, don’t touch it, you’ll get burned. In particular, I’m so in the world of making a movie. They have safety meetings before anything is done and all the safety people gather around, so I’m so protected from the fire, I don’t even get near it.
Cliff Curtis: Do you have a visceral feeling when the explosions go off?
CraveOnline: No, because both of my characters, whether it’s Rabbit or the fire lord, actually are very comfortable in those situations. So I pretty much just ignore it.
Cliff Curtis: Both this show and the Airbender movies, this will be the first time you’ve played the same character more than once. Is that a different approach?
CraveOnline: I’m yet to discover that. I don’t really know. You’re right, I haven’t done that so I’m about to figure out what that’s like. I think the big difference so far that I’ve discovered is that in a film, it’s very contained. So we know before going in to make the film what the film’s going to be, and then when the film is completed, we find out what it is. Whereas television, as far as I’m discovering, it evolves. As the show evolves, everything’s fluid. Characters can disappear tomorrow as you see in the pilot.
Cliff Curtis: What is M. Night like on the set?
CraveOnline: He’s very deliberate and predetermined, extremely. He’s planned everything. Storyboarded to the frame.
Cliff Curtis: So you’ve seen the movie already pretty much?
CraveOnline: No, he doesn’t show those to you unless he’s trying to explain what he wants in a scene, so I only get a portion of that, that’s relevant to what we’re shooting.
Finally, Entertainment Weekly brought us an exclusive look on the set of The Last Airbender, with four new photos of Noah Ringer, Shaun Toub, and Dev Patel. Click the images below to view in high resolution.
Tags: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dev Patel, Entertainment Tonight, entertainment weekly, Jackson Rathbone, m. night, Nicola Peltz, Noah Ringer, Shooting Locations, shyamalan
October 7, 2009 at 2:27 am |
I don’t know how I feel about knowing that they’re deviating from the cartoon… I love the cartoon…
October 7, 2009 at 2:33 am |
Cliff said that he’s playing two characters, which leads to my question. Who’s this Rabbit he speaks of?
October 8, 2009 at 4:31 pm |
I believe the “Rabbit” character is from another series he’ll be doing.
Not ‘The Last Airbender’ related.
October 8, 2009 at 8:14 pm |
Rabbit is the nickname of the character he plays on “Trauma”
October 8, 2009 at 11:20 pm |
Rabbit is the nickname of character from another series his in called “Trauma”
October 7, 2009 at 4:06 am |
Coolio
October 7, 2009 at 5:52 am |
Dialogue is messed up
October 7, 2009 at 8:50 am |
Will they stop calling Aang “The chosen one”! Blah.
October 7, 2009 at 2:25 pm |
“Cliff Curtis: Did you take anything from the animated form?
CraveOnline: I’ve not watched it. I didn’t want to watch the animated form because I knew the director, M. Night, was going to depart from that.”
Sooo, basically M.Night is going to deviate from the original series so much that any background research into any character you are playing is useless…It’s getting harder and harder to stay positive about this movie. I’m still trying to keep an open mind until I actually see it. But, gosh darnit it’s getting difficult!!! >:(
October 8, 2009 at 4:42 am |
Im With Him, i was really enthusiastic about the movie, espessialy from seeing the interviews between the creators of the series and M.Night but given what i know now
“I’ve not watched it. I didn’t want to watch the animated form because I knew the director, M. Night, was going to depart from that.”
i mean uv got to be kidding… and that doesnt look anything like Iroh! what is going on???? its going to be ruined, i wana give it the chance but hell its getting VERY difficult!
October 9, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I know. I’m trying to be all open-minded, but I really love the cartoon series!
December 7, 2009 at 9:12 am
Slow down.
It’s an adaptation. Things will be different.
And no level of Awesome can describe my feelings about Uncle Iroh… WITH DREDLOCKS!
October 7, 2009 at 9:07 pm |
Ok I think my excitement for this movie just went up about five times….
“I didn’t want to watch the animated form because I knew the director, M. Night, was going to depart from that.”
I can already tell people are going to freak out about that, but before you do I think everyone should take into consideration that this is an adaptation of the show, and as an adaptation, M. Night reserves the right to some creative freedom… I’m pretty optmistic, considering that Shaun Toub and Cliff Curtis both said it’s a good movie.
November 14, 2009 at 8:30 pm |
Shayamalan is known for his twists.
Wonder what it will be?
Katara is actually scared of Water?
Or perhaps take the opposite route.
Zuko is scared of Fire.
You’ll take the word of two actors employed for the film? I think the guy they hired for Dragonball Evolution was also supportive of the film.
December 11, 2009 at 8:45 pm |
I agree with you.
If everything was the same as the show, to the dot, there would be no point in watching the movie in the first place.
Think about it before bashing me with comments.
October 7, 2009 at 9:17 pm |
Firstttt!!! Lol
u can jus see katara’s head sitting next to aang
October 7, 2009 at 10:07 pm |
Uncle doesn’t look much like uncle, but he still looks badass!
October 10, 2009 at 6:34 pm |
I’m really liking how they are making Iroh look. In the cartoon, he looks so old in comparison to Ozai even though there can’t be that big of a difference in their age. I think this way they will look more like brothers.
November 6, 2009 at 4:17 pm
“In the cartoon, he looks so old in comparison to Ozai even though there can’t be that big of a difference in their age. ”
You made a very good point here. The age differences between certain characters are quite bizzare: it’s most evident in Zuko’s family. According to official sources, Ozai is supposed to be 40-something while Iroh is in his sixties. So when Ozai was born, Iroh must’ve been in his mid-twenties. But it’s not as weird as in case of their father Azulon. When he was born (the time when the great war began), his father was nearly 100 years old. LOL! XD
October 8, 2009 at 4:01 pm |
I have my doubts about Iroh. I hope they will prove me wrong.
October 8, 2009 at 10:15 pm |
ok, I know they said that M. Night is going to deviate a bit, but that is necessary obviously. If they followed the story perfectly, then it would get old since we’d already know everything that’s going to happen!
Personally I’m excited about this film– they are deviating enough to make it suitable for a wider audience, but they’re keeping the avatar fans in mind with each step they take.
It’s nice to know that Avatar is going to get the publicity it deserves, and after seeing this, people might be interested in seeing the cartoon too! 
October 9, 2009 at 1:18 pm |
Oh wow, I never thought of it that way…
You changed my perspective a lot!
I’m just glad that M. Night likes that actual series and Brian and Mike are a part of the adaption so it can’t be too awful right?
November 14, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Mike and Bryan are not part of the adaptation.
They are credited as creators only, but hold no rights.
They cannot complain due to a non-disclosure agreement.
M.Night is listed as the sole writer of this film.
He also claimed to love the Harry Potter series due to his daughter loving the books…..sound familiar?
Truly glad he was not given one of the Harry Potter films to destroy.
November 15, 2009 at 2:34 am
Somehow, I strongly DOUBT that Mike and Bryan have ANYTHING TO DO with this ‘adaption’.
Seriously, this is their BABY. You REALLY THINK that they would allow THIS many clear changes to the movie if they had any semblance of control?
December 7, 2009 at 9:19 am
@ nemogbr
Wrong in one. Mike and Brian are credited as Executive Producers of the film in the teaser. Not sure if anything has changed since then, but somehow I doubt it
Also, Iroh in Dreds is the most epic thing since Deathchin. You know the one.
October 9, 2009 at 2:50 am |
hmmm… re-imagined movies based on a series or originals always give me that feeling, like “hey, so that’s how that character looks like in another dimension” type of thing. I’m hoping/crossing fingers that this will be great/not bad, even though I prefer the cartoon to live-action translations are more parallel. For example, Captain Hook from the movie “Hook” (1991) was a great translation of his looks. So far, at least I could see at least a tiny bit of the spirit of the cartoon’s visual looks, a homage.I just gotta see this for myself to see if i’ll like it or not.
October 9, 2009 at 12:28 pm |
How hard is it to watch at least one episode of the cartoon? I would much prefer that dude to see one episode than to try an interpret that character from someones interpretation. Are the original creators even involved in this? What the hell is going on?
October 10, 2009 at 9:08 am |
The Creators of the Cartoon were meant to be co-directing as well or at least leaning over Nights Shoulder to give him a nudge in the right direction, at least thats what i heard when i watched some of the interviews…
November 15, 2009 at 2:36 am
Uh, no.
Mike and Bryan may be the creators, but M. Night BOUGHT THE RIGHTS and he AND Paramount can do whatever they wish WITHOUT Mike or Bryan’s input.
October 10, 2009 at 4:24 pm |
And hey, Zuko’s scar looks gooood!
October 13, 2009 at 8:29 am |
You kinda have craveonline and cliff curtis switched around.
October 25, 2009 at 10:07 am |
This news is just pathetic.
Why is every cast White?
Katara and Sokka look like Indians or Egyptians…
why are they WHITE…
M. Night should not be the director…
November 8, 2009 at 4:06 am |
If I hear “Aang’s the Choosen One” one more time, I’ll scream.
lol
November 15, 2009 at 2:48 am |
Few little things you folks should know about ‘adaptions’.
An adaption is when you take an existing story and transform it into something original, while keeping the basis of the story present. This is found in mostly old fairy tales. Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast have all been adapted many times over while keeping the basic themes.
However, adaptions can be VERY risky. If you change the story TOO much, then you risk alienating the fans of the source material. This is ESPECIALLY TRUE with NEWER stories, like ‘Lord of the Rings’ or ‘Harry Potter’. If these stories were ‘adapted’ and turned into something totally different than from their original intent (say, ‘Lord of the Rings’ took place in modern times or ‘Harry Potter’ without magic) what do you think the fan bases reaction would be?
‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ is a NEW story, but ‘adapting’ it in such a manner takes away what made the animated series so unique and fantastic IN THE FIRST PLACE.
November 16, 2009 at 2:35 am |
I’m trying to keep a optimisic attitude for this movie but what’s up with Iroh’s hair?! he doesn’t have dreds! and for the white washing debate i agree that katara and sokka should’ve been indian not white but i think zuko should be white not indian
February 28, 2010 at 6:20 am |
hahah….it’s funny to think dev patel playing as zuko
March 29, 2010 at 6:58 pm |
Red I totally agree with you! They’re also cutting out a lot of the Asian cultural implications in the show to support a false claim of “diversity” in the casting. The calligraphy is gone. In addition, Sifu Kisu was not hired to direct the martial arts for this film, but instead they used stunt doubles and flashy CGI to compensate. What’s this claim that there was no discrimination on the set – Then openly stating that Toph will be Asian? How come he didn’t openly state that the main cast including Zuko initially was to be cast Caucasian? Are you guys trying to put some kind of tokenism to quell the supporters?