James Cameron, Jon Landau Discuss Avatar Collector’s Edition Blu-ray
Posted November 4, 2010 05:26 AM by Juan Calonge
During the Blu-Con conference held earlier this week, Avatar director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau gave an extended and substantive keynote on the upcoming Blu-ray release of Avatar: Extended Collector's Edition. Film site Collider recorded the filmmakers' conversation in its entirety, and it is full of valuable information for all Avatar and Blu-ray enthusiasts.
Cameron opened his keynote by proclaiming: "Let's get this out of the way right up front - I Love Blu-ray. I think it's great. I wish all my movies could be seen by everyone at home in Blu-ray - especially Avatar." Landau added: "Movies are meant to be watched in the highest quality and Blu-ray affords that."
Cameron recalled that the BD will include three versions of the movie, using seamless branching: the original release, another version that is 9 minutes longer, and a third one, 16 minutes longer. He claimed that they didn't have to sacrifice bitrate, and the picture quality will be the same as on the "barebones" disc released in April.
Regarding supplemental material, Cameron said to his team that he didn't want to come back later "over and over again" and do further iterations; he wanted "everything to be in it, everything the fan could possibly want."
The filmmakers also discussed in detail the integration of the deleted scenes into the new Blu-ray and showed some of that additional footage.
They also presented an excerpt from Capturing Pandora including performance-capture footage, which for Cameron is the real breakthrough of the movie, not 3D.
During the Q&A, Cameron again criticized quick 3D conversions, and said that the only movies that should be converted are catalog titles, but new movies should be shot natively in 3D.
James Cameron and Producer Jon Landau talk about the AVATAR Special Edition at Blu-Con 2010 Part 1 from ColliderVideos on Vimeo.
James Cameron and Producer Jon Landau talk about the AVATAR Special Edition at Blu-Con 2010 Part 2 from ColliderVideos on Vimeo.