'The Avengers', Now Third Highest Grossing Film of All Time

We may be nearing the halfway point of the summer movie season already, but Marvel’s The Avengers is still looming over the 2012 “blockbusters” that have come and gone like the slightly older yet much more successful brother of the bunch.  We’ve seen moderate box office successes from films like Men in Black 3, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Madagascar 3, but nothing has come close to the behemoth box office giant that was Marvel’s mother of all superhero movies.

The film shattered the opening weekend record with over $200 million in three days, and now Disney has announced that The Avengers is expected to cross the $600 million domestic mark today, making it only the third film in history to reach that number.  Hit the jump for more, including a rundown of what the all-time box office chart looks like now.

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'Titanic II' Trailer Hits; Yep, It's a Real Movie

The idea of a sequel to James Cameron's Titanic has been a Hollywood punchline for years; the epitome of zero creativity, sequelitis and cash-in motivations. Sadly, a studio did actually make a Titanic II. It's no longer a joke. Titanic II is very much so a real movie and it has a real trailer (unlike the dozens of fake, fan-made trailers that have emerged over the years).

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Behind-the-Scenes Photo from Tintin

Just like James Cameron's Avatar, the powers that be have tricked us yet again with the very first photo from The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. Revealed on Empire yesterday, the photo is another simple behind-the-scenes shot of Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis in their motion capture outfits with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson standing by. As a reminder (and if you couldn't tell by reading the names on their outfits), Bell plays Tintin, Serkis plays Captain Haddock, and they're joined by Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Tony Curran, and a few others.

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Avatar Expensive Movie of All Time?

Update: Time has added the following to its article: “The original version of this story misstated the cost of the film Avatar as being in excess of $300 million. The correct figure is in excess of $200 million.”

When James Cameron’s Avatar was announced a couple years back, we wondered if it would be the most expensive movie of all time. There have been a few films since the initial announcement that topped Fox’s proposed $200 million budget. Spider-Man 3 producers insisted that the film’s budget didn’t exceed $270 million, but some reports claimed a number closer to $350 million. But like most films, and especially films made on the cutting edge, the initial budget and the budget after all is said and done, are vastly different.

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Cameron talks Avatar on CBC

James Cameron made an appearance on the Canadian talk show "The Hour" for a brief interview (you can watch the video below) and obviously talks about how challenging the post-production work is on the film. By the time we get to the December 18th release date next year, he'll have been working in post-production for over two years on Avatar. Not only is that an impressive feat on its own, but Cameron compares it to "trench warfare."

"We finished with the actors…. We're just in this kind of CG hell - trying to create a world from scratch," Cameron explains. "It's like trench warfare. We're working with computer-generated characters that we want to be photorealistic. Its been tough. We've set the bar high. We're just now getting the confidence that it's really going to work." Like Kevin Smith, I really love hearing Cameron talk about almost anything, because he's an absolute genius. Not only is he a great filmmaker, but he's brilliant with cinematic technology, too. While this is obviously grueling work that has "consumed all [his] life," Cameron admits that "its been simultaneously the hardest and the most rewarding film project" he's even worked on.

For the sake of comparison, Cameron throws out this statistic. In Terminator 2, there were 42 CG shots with characters, while in Avatar there are over 1700. They're "of creatures, and characters, and this whole world, an entire alien rainforest and ecosystem." I'm personally very excited for Avatar. But I'm also worried that those who aren't necessarily die-hard James Cameron fans are getting a bit tired of hearing about all this CG content in Avatar over and over. Not only are they concerned that this much CGI might hurt the film, but it's hard to get excited without actually seeing any photos or imagery at all.

Watch the complete interview with James Cameron on "The Hour" below. It's great to watch if you're a Cameron fan, otherwise stick with the quotes we've provided above.

James Cameron on 3-D, Avatar & New Project

Variety has published a fascinating and technical interview with Titanic director James Cameron talking about filming in 3-D, his highly-anticipated Avatar, and a smaller movie he will shoot in 3-D as well. Here's several clips;

I plan to shoot a small dramatic film in 3-D, just to prove this point, after "Avatar." In "Avatar," there are a number of scenes that are straight dramatic scenes, no action, no effects. They play very well, and in fact seem to be enhanced by the stereo viewing experience. So I think this can work for the full length of a dramatic feature. However, filmmakers and studios will have to weigh the added cost of shooting in 3-D against the increased marketing value for that type of film.

In the future world shown in "Avatar," all display devices, including handheld devices and even photos, are all in 3-D.You can read the full interview here!

Avatar, due out December 18, 2009, tells the story of an ex-Marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival.

Source: Variety