Greetings my fellow Hotmen. While it will be a few more days before the video of the roundtable discussion will be released to us, our friends at Paramount have agreed to let us give our loyal readers & Last Airbender fans a little preview of the events that transpired on March 11 in New York City.
Three Last Airbender fan sites were invited to participate in the discussion with M. Night Shyamalan: Jordan from AvatartheLastAirbenderOnline.com, Teddy from LastAirbenderFans.com, and myself. Joining us at the discussion were entertainment journalists from IGN, io9, MTV, Jordan Hoffman from UGO whom was particularly fond of the blueberry muffins, and many others. After a brief breakfast at The W Hotel in Times Square, where the aformentioned blueberry muffins were served, we sat down for what turned out to be an hour long discussion with M. Night.
While each writer was only able to ask one question on film due to time, I was able to squeeze in three. M. Night spoke on the film with what can only be described as child-like enthusiasm, and would often deviate into other topics related to a question. After the discussion he was even kind enough to sign our choice of either an Aang or Zuko theatrical one-sheet. While we cannot go into too much detail until the full videotapped discussion is released, here are some juicy tidbits to whet your appetite.
The world of The Last Airbender is inspired by Asian culture, much the same way The Lord of the Rings is inspired by Midieval Europe. The story of this film does not take place in our world, hence the absense of East Asian caligraphy that was prevalent in the animated series.
M. Night was just as mystified by the lack of resolution in the Zuko’s Mother story arc in Book 3, and declared he will make it a priority to do so in the films.
Sillier moments and characters from the show, such as the Cabbage Man, will not be a part of the film.
He met with Mike & Bryan during the production of Book 3 to be sure that they had no plans to extend the story into a possible Book 4, before he moved forward with the production of The Last Airbender. Night wanted to be sure it would end in Book 3.
Casting the lead characters was done without bias. Any actor of any race had a shot at the roles. Once the lead characters were cast, the people of their respective nations were cast as the same or similar race.
Toph will be Asian in the sequel.
The full video discussion will be available in a few days time. Keep an eye out for it!
Frank Marshall has announced via Twitter that there will be a new The Last Airbender trailer attached to Iron Man 2 which comes out on May 2nd.
For those of you interested in being a part of The Last Airbender a new casting call has been announced.
An open casting call for the movie will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Independence Visitor Center at Sixth and Market Streets.
Producers are repeating their call for physically fit boys and girls ages 6 to 16 and men and women 18 to 65 – especially those with martial-arts skills.
Shyamalan’s crew issued a notice Friday, reading in part: “Wear your karate gi, dress casually, or come in the traditional costume of your family’s ethnic background.”
For those interested you can e-mail CastingAirbender@gmail.com or call 215-552-8554. Those chosen must be available for two months starting March 22nd. Good Luck! Source
We have gotten a ton of M. Night questions from you the fans. We’re still accepting them up to March 10th. Remember you can email askmnight@gmail.com or use the FORMSPRING.
We are very pleased to announce that Last Airbender Film has been invited by our friends at Paramount Pictures to participate in a filmed round table discussion with director M. Night Shyamalan, in which your questions about the film will be answered! The event will be held next week in New York City on March 11.
To submit your question for consideration, all you have to do is send us an e-mail with your name and question to askmnight@lastairbenderfilm.com. Questions must be submitted no later than 12 PM EST on March 10.
Many of you may have noticed during the Winter Olympics a new TV spot for TLA. Paramount has been kind enough to share an HD version which can be viewed below.
Be sure to visit the LastAirbenderFilm.com YouTube account and watch this and other TLA trailers in 1080p.
The latest issue of Empire Magazine featuring Matt Damon in Green Zone on the cover contains an in-depth article on The Last Airbender, as well as a few shot from the set. /Film posted the following shots from the article courtesy of Craig G via Last Airbender Fans seen below.
Variety released an article today featuring Noah Ringer showing his Avatar smile for the first time. The article recounts M. Night Shyamalan’s past triumphs in casting child actors and provides more information about his crucial casting decision in choosing Noah to play the role of Aang.
Noah Ringer aka Aang
Touting a first-degree black belt and a proficiency with various Eastern weapons, Ringer not only bore an uncanny resemblance to Aang (complete with shaved head) but also impressed Shyamalan with his sincere gentleness — a characteristic the director felt was essential to play a monk who brings balance to a warring world.
You can read the rest of the article on Variety’s website.
We’ve got a new article featuring another set visit, this time focusing more attention to the CGI and movie magic of the The Last Airbender.
On a private tour with other select journos, VFXWorld initially spoke to Marshall, who explained the scope of the ambitious film.
“We are creating a completely fantastical, make-believe world,” Marshall said referencing the cavernous converted sound stage that was home to more than five huge sets representing key sites within the four nations. All of them were impressively practical while also including the telltale green-screen drapes and vfx set extension markers that portend the vast amount of CG work to come.
Marshall continued, “A couple of firsts on this film for Night: One is shooting all this green-screen. He’s never really done much of that before…at all. He’s expanding his talent and range and that’s what I find exciting about it. He’s taking his filmmaking style and applying it to this fantasy world, which he hasn’t done before.
“And for me it’s been really exciting because I haven’t worked on a movie, that I can remember, that has a totally made up world. We get into a little bit of fantasy in Jurassic Park and Back to the Future, but they are still in the real world. But this is like our Star Wars.
You can read the rest of the article at VFXworld.com
More interesting news from a set visit, this time from Starlog.com. During the visit Frank Marshall provided information on the status of the scripts for movies 2 and 3, and gave information on just how much time it will take to complete this epic trilogy.
“We’re shooting them one at a time, because they’re being written one at a time,” says veteran producer… Frank Marshall. “Night is now working on the script for the second movie, but he hasn’t had time to write the second or third ones. He’s looking at the arc of all three. One of the things we’ll be doing is using the sets, ships and elements for each different nation in this film and incorporating them into movies two and three. We’re not waiting. There just isn’t enough time. Night will finish this movie, then the script and then we’ll prepare for the next one. I think it’ll probably happen over six years.”
The set visit also included some talk time with Shyamalan himself, who emphasized just how important he felt the film was.
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).
PHILADELPHIA — The lavish ice palace had gone silent. The Fire and Water nations were no longer waging acrobatic battle between its frosty walls, and from the snow covered steps to the blown-glass chandeliers hanging above the balconies, a beautiful tranquility had descended. Meanwhile, the production was in full, hectic swing across town, where another massive hangar housed another set for M. Night Shyamalan’s gargantuan, fantastical adventure story, “The Last Airbender.” Packs of extras wearing Samurai-like battle gear wandered here and there. Workers drilled and sawed and hammered. And Shyamalan and his star, Dev Patel of “Slumdog Millionaire” fame, were in the middle of it all, filming a pivotal fight scene.
