Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Record Breaking Avatar to Return to our Screens



James Cameron is planning to bring his record breaking film Avatar back to the big screens. Cameron also revealed his intention to make a sequel to his hit sci-fi epic, which broke world records for box office revenue earlier this year.


Speaking to American newspaper the L.A Times, the man behind Titanic, claimed that the release of other 3-D films such as Alice In Wonderland and Clash of the Titans meant Avatar could not get a good enough run because there were simply not enough cinemas to show his film, “We were sold out of our Imax performances right up to the moment until they were contractually obligated to switch to Alice in Wonderland. So we know we left money on the table there,"


It seems likely that people will be interested in seeing Avatar this year especially given that it will be shown with an extra 6 minutes of footage but also for the fact that plenty of cinemas were still sold out right up until when it was taken from our screens. John Briggs, a citizen from Canterbury said ‘Me and my family tried to see it twice and both times we were turned away, I think it’s a great idea to bring it back’


In the interview Cameron also revealed that the sequel to Avatar would be centred on the ocean of the fictional planet of Pandora, promising that it would be “equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative” but other than that he was giving nothing away as it seems people are still hungry to see the first instalment again.


For more information on this this record breaking film click the link below


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/maindetails

Thursday, 29 April 2010

The Future of Cinema- In Your Living Room



Recently, during one of those cold, miserable and rainy afternoons where you can think of nothing to do but stare blankly into the television, a thought suddenly came to my head: when was the last time I actually went to a cinema? I came to the conclusion that it must have been about two years ago. At first I was quite shocked at this revelation and had a sudden urge to march down to the nearest cinema and watch the first film I laid my eyes upon but then I realised I didn’t need to because I realised that to have a good night with a film I didn’t have to leave my front room.


Maybe it’s just me becoming increasingly out of touch with modern trends but I really doubt that anyone goes to the cinema half as much as they people used to, when going to the cinema was as popular as iPods and Facebook is today. But don’t get me wrong, I’m all for society embracing new technologies like we did with cinema 20 years ago because I can enjoy everything a film has to offer in the comfort of my own home because of the huge advancements in technologies during recent times.Thanks to the DVD I can now view any film I like, from any era I like, within seconds. Unlike the tedious rewinding and fast fowarding of the old VHS I can just skip happily to any given scene in the film. I can even explore the exiting world of DVD extras where I can indulge in a host of documentries, deleted scenes, outakes and even directors commentary. It’s these additions that make film exhibition that much more of an exiting and interactive experience.


The attractions don’t stop there either; watching films on my brand new 40 inch, high definition, surround sound television makes the cinemas we were so amazed by twenty years ago seem primitive and low quality. I still haven’t got to grips with how good the picture quality is on this television, I mean the huge level of detail you get adds a whole different dimension to watching films because at times you feel as if you are really there as Luke Skywalker fighting Darth Vader.


Digital television now means I can Sky+ a film and watch it when ever I want, And even if I chose to watch a film live on the T.V I can now rewind and pause a film at my own free will which is fantastic if you fancy a quick cup of tea just before Rocky begins his final fight in between the ropes.

I must confess that despite my apparent bias towards these new technologies, there is nothing that home cinema can do to compare to the real thing. Nothing can compare to that moment when the lights are dimmed and everyone escapes reality for two hours. Now I’m sure we’ve all at some point been dragged to the cinema, without caring about the film you are seeing and still ending up having a really good time. Yes it is true that less and less people are going to the cinema, after all it was only recently when Carlton Screen Advertising announced that the amount of people attending cinemas had dropped from 162 million to 151 million viewers in 2008, in spite of this statistic cinema will always promise a great experience despite the overpriced food and noisy popcorn eaters. Cinema itself is revolutionising itself; we are now seeing the introduction of 3-D cinema with epic sci-fi film 'Avatar' , cinemas are now becoming a lot like your front room because now certain cinemas are installing sofa areas which I think is for increasing that good-night-out vibe which cinema has. Yes cinema is slowly being dwarfed by the growing lure of home cinema but believe me, it’s still well worth the admission ticket.



Friday, 19 March 2010

Hurt Locker is the pick of the bunch at the OSCARS





Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq war drama ‘The Hurt Locker’ was the pick of the bunch at this years Oscars beating off strong competition from the likes of ‘Avatar’ and ‘Inglorious Basterds’ to win awards for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Screenplay’.


So in spite of the fact that this years glittering awards ceremony pretty much followed the script their was one moment of history: Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman is OSCAR history to win best director, she described winning as ‘the moment of a lifetime’.


Many people had predicting that the coveted award for ‘Best Picture’ would be between ‘The Hurt Locker’ and James Cameron’s sci-fi epic ‘Avatar’ which is now the highest grossing movie of all time but despite this, it had to settle for just three awards: ‘Best Visual Effects’, ‘Best Cinematography’ and ‘Best Art Direction’.


Meanwhile the honours for Best Actor went to Jeff Bridges for his role as aging country singer in ‘Crazy Heart’. Bridges, who beat off stiff competition from Morgan Freeman, George Clooney and Colin Firth, said ‘ Thank you mum and dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession, this is honouring them as much as me’. The award for ‘Best Actress’ went to Sandra Bullock who, ironically, had won a ‘Razzie’ for Worst Actress.


In the animation category Pixars 3D film ‘UP’ scooped the award for ‘Best Animated Feature Film’, director Pete Docter said ‘It was an incredible adventure making this movie’. With another record breaking year of film just passing everybody will be hoping to improve for the next batch of films that will be hitting our screens soon.


Now watch the trailer for 'The Hurt Locker'