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Whether Avatar is racist is a matter for debate. Regardless of where you come down on that question, it's undeniable that the film - like alien apartheid flick District 9, released earlier this year - is emphatically a fantasy about race. Specifically, it's a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people. Avatar and scifi films like it give us the opportunity to answer the question: What do white people fantasize about when they fantasize about racial identity?

Avatar imaginatively revisits the crime scene of white America's foundational act of genocide, in which entire native tribes and civilizations were wiped out by European immigrants to the American continent. In the film, a group of soldiers and scientists have set up shop on the verdant moon Pandora, whose landscapes look like a cross between Northern California's redwood cathedrals and Brazil's tropical rainforest. The moon's inhabitants, the Na'vi, are blue, catlike versions of native people: They wear feathers in their hair, worship nature gods, paint their faces for war, use bows and arrows, and live in tribes. Watching the movie, there is really no mistake that these are alien versions of stereotypical native peoples that we've seen in Hollywood movies for decades.

And Pandora is clearly supposed to be the rich, beautiful land America could still be if white people hadn't paved it over with concrete and strip malls. In Avatar, our white hero Jake Sully (sully - get it?) explains that Earth is basically a war-torn wasteland with no greenery or natural resources left. The humans started to colonize Pandora in order to mine a mineral called unobtainium that can serve as a mega-energy source. But a few of these humans don't want to crush the natives with tanks and bombs, so they wire their brains into the bodies of Na'vi avatars and try to win the natives' trust. Jake is one of the team of avatar pilots, and he discovers to his surprise that he loves his life as a Na'vi warrior far more than he ever did his life as a human marine.

Jake is so enchanted that he gives up on carrying out his mission, which is to persuade the Na'vi to relocate from their "home tree," where the humans want to mine the unobtanium. Instead, he focuses on becoming a great warrior who rides giant birds and falls in love with the chief's daughter. When the inevitable happens and the marines arrive to burn down the Na'vi's home tree, Jake switches sides. With the help of a few human renegades, he maintains a link with his avatar body in order to lead the Na'vi against the human invaders. Not only has he been assimilated into the native people's culture, but he has become their leader.

This is a classic scenario you've seen in non-scifi epics from Dances With Wolves to The Last Samurai, where a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes its most awesome member. But it's also, as I indicated earlier, very similar in some ways to District 9. In that film, our (anti)hero Wikus is trying to relocate a shantytown of aliens to a region far outside Johannesburg. When he's accidentally squirted with fluid from an alien technology, he begins turning into one of the aliens against his will. Deformed and cast out of human society, Wikus reluctantly helps one of the aliens to launch their stalled ship and seek help from their home planet.

If we think of Avatar and its ilk as white fantasies about race, what kinds of patterns do we see emerging in these fantasies?

In both Avatar and District 9, humans are the cause of alien oppression and distress. Then, a white man who was one of the oppressors switches sides at the last minute, assimilating into the alien culture and becoming its savior. This is also the basic story of Dune, where a member of the white royalty flees his posh palace on the planet Dune to become leader of the worm-riding native Fremen (the worm-riding rite of passage has an analog in Avatar, where Jake proves his manhood by riding a giant bird). An interesting tweak on this story can be seen in 1980s flick Enemy Mine, where a white man (Dennis Quaid) and the alien he's been battling (Louis Gossett Jr.) are stranded on a hostile planet together for years. Eventually they become best friends, and when the alien dies, the human raises the alien's child as his own. When humans arrive on the planet and try to enslave the alien child, he lays down his life to rescue it. His loyalties to an alien have become stronger than to his own species.

These are movies about white guilt. Our main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color - their cultures, their habitats, and their populations. The whites realize this when they begin to assimilate into the "alien" cultures and see things from a new perspective. To purge their overwhelming sense of guilt, they switch sides, become "race traitors," and fight against their old comrades. But then they go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed. This is the essence of the white guilt fantasy, laid bare. It's not just a wish to be absolved of the crimes whites have committed against people of color; it's not just a wish to join the side of moral justice in battle. It's a wish to lead people of color from the inside rather than from the (oppressive, white) outside.

Think of it this way. Avatar is a fantasy about ceasing to be white, giving up the old human meatsack to join the blue people, but never losing white privilege. Jake never really knows what it's like to be a Na'vi because he always has the option to switch back into human mode. Interestingly, Wikus in District 9 learns a very different lesson. He's becoming alien and he can't go back. He has no other choice but to live in the slums and eat catfood. And guess what? He really hates it. He helps his alien buddy to escape Earth solely because he's hoping the guy will come back in a few years with a "cure" for his alienness. When whites fantasize about becoming other races, it's only fun if they can blithely ignore the fundamental experience of being an oppressed racial group. Which is that you are oppressed, and nobody will let you be a leader of anything.

This is not a message anybody wants to hear, least of all the white people who are creating and consuming these fantasies. Afro-Canadian scifi writer Nalo Hopkinson recently told the Boston Globe:

In the US, to talk about race is to be seen as racist. You become the problem because you bring up the problem. So you find people who are hesitant to talk about it.

She adds that the main mythic story you find in science fiction, generally written by whites, "is going to a foreign culture and colonizing it."

Sure, Avatar goes a little bit beyond the basic colonizing story. We are told in no uncertain terms that it's wrong to colonize the lands of native people. Our hero chooses to join the Na'vi rather than abide the racist culture of his own people. But it is nevertheless a story that revisits the same old tropes of colonization. Whites still get to be leaders of the natives - just in a kinder, gentler way than they would have in an old Flash Gordon flick or in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars novels.

When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?

First, we'll need to stop thinking that white people are the most "relatable" characters in stories. As one blogger put it:

By the end of the film you're left wondering why the film needed the Jake Sully character at all. The film could have done just as well by focusing on an actual Na'vi native who comes into contact with crazy humans who have no respect for the environment. I can just see the explanation: "Well, we need someone (an avatar) for the audience to connect with. A normal guy will work better than these tall blue people." However, this is the type of thinking that molds all leads as white male characters (blank slates for the audience to project themselves upon) unless your name is Will Smith.

But more than that, whites need to rethink their fantasies about race.

Whites need to stop remaking the white guilt story, which is a sneaky way of turning every story about people of color into a story about being white. Speaking as a white person, I don't need to hear more about my own racial experience. I'd like to watch some movies about people of color (ahem, aliens), from the perspective of that group, without injecting a random white (erm, human) character to explain everything to me. Science fiction is exciting because it promises to show the world and the universe from perspectives radically unlike what we've seen before. But until white people stop making movies like Avatar, I fear that I'm doomed to see the same old story again and again.

Dune image via leywad.

The article looks at a few of the key scientific aspects of Avatar and fact-checks them for plausibility, explaining the innovations we would need to make them a reality. The challenges of easy interstellar travel apply to tons of movies, but there is also a fascinating discussion on the possibility of habitable worlds in the Alpha Centauri system, where Pandora is supposedly located.

The least plausible scientific advance? The very Avatar technology that is central to the movie's plot. Although neuroscientists are working on brain-machine interfaces have allowed humans and other primates to control the movements of machines, Miguel Nicolelis, the Duke University neuroscientist Popular Mechanics consulted, notes that the transfer of one's consciousness into a biological body is several orders of magnitude beyond what is currently feasible.

But Hollywood can help inspire technological innovation, and the article identifies the RDA's AMP exosuit as an idea that's not yet feasible, but gets inventors' gears turning:

"Movies like Avatar are good to get us thinking about the possibilities," says David Audet, leader of the Soldier Mobility and Mission Enhancement Team at the Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center in Massachusetts that has a point role in developing XOS. And while there is "a lot of Hollywood going on" with the AMP suit, it suggests the immense logistical work that such devices could render and serves as, Audet says, "an example of a foundational platform that with very little modifications can perform a large suite of attacks."

The Science Behind James Cameron's Avatar [Popular Mechanics]

Iron Man 2:

So you've noticed that press clippings about Tony Stark are a big part of this sequel — and three of them have been appearing on various sites. The clippings talk about Tony Stark "coming out" as Iron Man, but they each have a different word highlighted: Secret, Stark, and Confession. Is Tony going to confess something else besides being Iron Man in the next film? [MTV]

John Carter Of Mars:

Mark Strong plays the villain, Matai Shang, and he's not doing any motion-capture — although his character is a shape-shifter, so he's had to be photographed by a 360 degree camera, so he can shift into things. He mostly turns into other people, says Strong. [ComingSoon]

Avatar:

Here's a new clip of dragon-flying excitement. [MTV]

And Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver were talking the film up on The View:

Dangerous Species:

Apparently Eli Roth's Cloverfield-esque film is no longer called Endangered Species. Or else somebody misheard him. [Collider]

Daybreakers:

Wondering just how crazy it gets when the future vampire population starts to run out of blood? Behold for yourself, in a new clip:

Doctor Who:

Another new trailer includes a bit of new footage of John Simm's Master rocking the weird bottle-blond/hoodie/collar look. [Thanks again CJ!]

Lost:

Michael Emerson says:

I think next year, after the conclusion of the final season, when people see the strength and style of how we go out, I expect Lost to have more recognition.

And he says Terry O'Quinn is continuing to do staggering work in the final season, and Josh Holloway is also having a really strong final season, with a gripping, moving storyline. [TV Guide Magazine]

Says Carlton Cuse:

I think we're doing something new in this final season narratively, so we have that combination of fear and giddiness. The fear is, oh, what if people don't like it, what if the audience doesn't like what we're doing?

[TV Guide]

The show was filming a beach scene with Locke, Ben, four scientists... and Widmore? Is this on the Island, or just some random beach? [SpoilersLost]

Apparently clues in the latest Lost posters include a flaming ankh in Hurley's hand, and an upside-down Oceanic logo. [SpoilersLost]

Dollhouse:

Felicia Day says the final episode, which she co-stars in, "wrap[s] up the storyline in an amazing way and I'm blown away by the writing." But doesn't really go into specifics. [TV Guide Magazine]

Supernatural:

Rejoice! Ash, the mullet-sporting nerd, will be back soon, says actor Chad Lindberg via Twitter. [Twitter via SF Universe]

Chuck:

Chuck's new abilities may include speaking Thai and sky-diving, among other things. Someone else besides Awesome will learn Chuck's secret this season (my money's on Morgan). Robert Patrick is playing a soldier from Casey's past, and Stone Cold Steve Austin is a baddie that Chuck gets trapped on a plane with. [Sci Fi Wire]

And here is a sneak peek, plus some new promos!

Caprica:

Here are some new featurettes about this BSG prequel:

Heroes:

Remember this series? Well, it remembers you. And here's what's coming up when it returns:

As Claire becomes immersed in the world of the carnival, she becomes increasingly suspicious of Samuel's motives; Hiro goes on a mission to rescue one of his own; H.R.G. recruits Matt to help him take down Samuel.

[SpoilerTV]

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths:

William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) plays Batman, and here are some pictures of Bats from this new original animated film. [Warner Bros.]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

And here's your spoiler warning. Spoilers ahead!

So in Avatar, Jake Sully is a marine who's suffered a spinal injury (someone "blew a hole in my life," as he puts it) and his life is going nowhere. Until he gets a chance to go to the far-off Pandora and take his dead brother's place, piloting a genetically engineered "avatar." Built out of alien DNA, the avatar allows Sully to walk among the Na'Vi, the giant blue natives of Pandora, and look like one of them. Because Sully is a warrior, like the Na'Vi tribespeople, he finds acceptance in their ranks — even as he knows his fellow humans are preparing to relocate the Na'Vi by force, to get at a rich supply of a rare substance called Unobtanium.

As Jake learns to use his new alien body, leaping from treetops and clifftops, romancing the chief's sexy daughter (Zoe Saldana) and bonding with a flying dragon for life, you'll discover your new favorite escapist fantasy. Jake falls in love with the excitement and the nobility and yes, the biodiversity, of Pandora, and you're right there with him. Avatar's journey really does feel magical and transformative, for Jake and for the audience.

It's hard to imagine a movie where medium and story are so closely married. Even as Jake Sully climbs into a coffin and abandons his human body for a spry alien one, Cameron is hoping to pull you into his alien world to a much greater degree than the usual movie immersion. Cameron has spent untold millions of Fox's dollars to make you forget you're really in a movie theater, instead of on an alien planet. The whole exercise is a metaphor for the experience of watching any movie, with Cameron's camera lens represented by the beds that transfer people's minds into alien bodies.

And the film's 3-D, CG and motion-capture really are all they're cracked up to be. The scenes which look trifling on your little computer window become etched on your mind's eye, when you see them on the big screen in 3-D. The transition from live-action to animation feels like a costume change, and when live-action people are on the screen with CG characters, it's miles away from Roger Rabbit, or even from Andy Serkis' Gollum.

Cameron is clearly saying: Look what technology can do. It can tight-beam your consciousness into a totally foreign time and place. And just maybe, like Jake Sully, you'll find yourself going native.

There's only one problem with this notion, and it nearly wrecks an otherwise nearly perfect movie: The further we venture into Pandora's heart, the more unconvincing it is. At first, the forest moon is heart-breakingly beautiful and well-realized, and every weird creature on the planet stands out in its own way. When Jake gets chased by big dinosaur-like monsters, it's tons more thrilling than your standard Roland Emmerich/Michael Bay CG spectacle. But once Jake gets himself embedded among the alien Na'Vi people, the illusion starts to fall apart.

This is partly because once you're surrounded by Pandora's fantasy-land, it starts to get just a bit too pretty, and certainly too rich. About the time hundreds of glowing tree-spirits land on Jake's blue avatar body, the animation starts to feel a bit... cartoony.

But more than that, we never really see the Na'Vi as a convincing society — instead we see a ludicrous "noble savage" stereotype, that only gets cruder and more ridiculous the deeper into it we go. When Jake is only interacting with Saldana's character, Neytiri, their interaction feels natural enough. But once you're in the middle of a Na'Vi crowd scene, you have a harder time believing in these people. And that, in turn, may pull you right out of the movie.

Cameron has clearly thought endlessly about every aspect of this movie's worldbuilding, but it never seems to have occurred to him that populating his planet with Pocohontas/Tarzan ooga-booga people would be a mistake. The Na'Vi are animalistic and in tune with nature, and they're good-hearted in direct proportion to their simplicity. They worship a mystical world-mind and its messengers, magic happy tree spirits that connect them to their ancestors — through their magical native-people hair. (Their tree/ancestor religion turns out to have a scientific basis, to be fair.)

By the time the Na'Vi's matriarch is leading the whole tribe in a hippie ritual, with lots of swaying in front of the sacred tree, you'll be rolling your eyes so much, it may interfere with the 3-D stereoscopy.

(When I mentioned the term "forest moon" a little while ago, it may have created an association in your mind. That association was not entirely unintentional.)

In a way, Cameron's strengths work against him a little bit here. The humans' world feels completely lived-in. Pandora's soldiers could have stepped right out of the first reel of Aliens. Cameron is in love with all of the toys, from the Huey-helicopter-inspired flying machines to the "avatar" chambers. His human characters are mostly well-worn archetypes, from the weaselly evil corporate guy (Giovanni Ribisi, channeling Aliens' Paul Reiser) to Stephen Lang's brutal Col. Quaritch (bringing the George C. Scott) to Sigourney Weaver's tough scientist with a heart of gold. The human world isn't as original as Pandora, but it feels a lot more fully inhabited. The contrast doesn't do the dragon-riding, hissing, deeply spiritual tree people any favors.

It's likely that if the Na'Vi felt as real as the human society — if you could feel the dirt under your fingernails after a day's bow-hunting and chafe under the patriarchal tribal leadership — then the escapism of running off to join the clan might not seem as alluring. In his earlier movies, Cameron never had to try and make us fall in love with Skynet, or the Alien queen. So it's not surprising that he stumbles when he tries to create an "other" that's lovable rather than scary.

The movie's other big problem is somewhat related: It gets preachy about environmentalism, to an extent that may grate on your nerves. Early on, when Jake is learning about the nature-loving ways of the Na'Vi, he grumbles that he hopes this "tree-hugger crap" won't be on the final exam. And it totally is.

But like I said, Avatar is otherwise a nearly perfect movie. (It's up to you whether stereotypical native peoples or eco-lectures are a deal-breaker.) As an action-adventure movie, it's vastly superior to pretty much any you've seen in the past few years. As science fiction, it's thrilling, because it's pro-exploration and its most unambiguously heroic character is Weaver's character, Dr. Grace Augustine. It shouldn't feel so refreshing, to have a smart, heroic scientist whose scientific explanations are cool and important to the movie, but it is. Weaver has lost none of her fire, and is a joy to watch.

Sam Worthington, as Jake, does a great job of selling his slow transformation from cynical wise-ass human to a warrior of the Na'Vi people, without overplaying it. Worthington has that rare gift, of seeming totally down-to-Earth even when he's in the middle of a totally outlandish scene, and it keeps him completely relatable even as he's embracing a totally alien culture. He really does carry the movie, in both his human and alien bodies.

And you have to admire a movie whose central message is that only by becoming a wholly artificial life form can you touch something true and natural. This contradiction is at the heart of the movie — a luddite fable made with technology so advanced, Cameron had to create it from scratch.

Cameron deliberately avoids any of the usual cop-outs you'd see with this kind of story. The natives know from the first time they lay eyes on Jake that he's a "dream walker" (their word for alien meat-puppets operated by sleeping humans. And they call humans the "sky people.") When they come to accept Jake as one of them, it's with the knowledge that he's actually a tiny pink-skin in a tank somewhere. And the movie's arc isn't the standard one, of Jake realizing that he's "really" a human and should stop trying to pretend to be one of the aliens. Rather, becoming a genetically engineered, and hence synthetic, creature allows Jake to discover who he really is.

So, to sum up, everything you've heard or thought about Avatar is true. It's one of the most vivid, visceral movies you've ever seen. It's cheesy enough for ten Swiss villages. It's James Cameron delivering an action thrill ride, at the top of his game. It's a schlocky Dances With Wolves rip-off. It will transform the way you think about movies forever.

Cameron's early '90s "scriptment" is the kind of thing that shows that, while he may have loved the comics as a kid, he didn't necessarily understand them. For example, Peter's pre-Spider-Man awkwardness became defiance against modern culture in Cameron's hands:

PETER PARKER. Age 17. Peter is in the bathroom, popping a zit in the mirror. He puts on his glasses and checks his look in the mirror. Still the same. Nerdy. He doesn't care. Screw 'em... He thinks they are the real losers. They'll be flipping burgers while he's discovering the cure to cancer. We'll see who wins in the long run. He wears his isolation like a badge... with an air of superiority.

That's not the only essential change to the Spider-Man mythos: Uncle Ben doesn't give a "With great power comes great responsibility" speech - or, if he does, it's not mentioned in the scriptment - and Peter starts considering do-gooding before Ben's death (albeit with mixed results). J. Jonah Jameson is a television station owner, not Daily Bugle editor, and the Bugle doesn't appear in the film at all. The movie even ends with Peter winning Mary Jane's love by revealing that he's Spider-Man - the two of them, by that point, having shared a terrible love scene that hints at Cameron's Titanic script as well as shows that Peter's into bondage:

ON TOP OF THE BRIDGE TOWER. Hold a beat. We hear screams approaching. Spidey appears and sets her on terra firma. She clings to him, looking down and around in wonder. He has put the world at her feet. She can't believe this is happening to her.

In a dizzying down-angle we see how the suspension cables all meet radially at the top of the tower... like the treads of some vast spider web. Peter and MJ seem to sit at the very center of the web, surrounded by the lights of the city. It is a warm spring night. And the moment is pure magic.

She stands with her back against a girder, needing to feel something solid. Spider Man stands before her, a perfectly formed male silhouette with a soothing low voice.

SPIDER MAN
Courtship among the spiders is highly ritualized. It varies from species to species. The male spider may circle the female, or wave his front legs... to signal that he is not prey.

Spider Man moves in a hypnotic arc around her. He raises his hands in a dance-like movement. Lowers them.

SPIDER MAN
The female usually signals her willingness by an uncharacteristic passivity.

MJ takes a deep breath. Her lip trembles. Her knees are weak. Her eyes, though, are steady, gazing at the silhouette before her. She doesn't move or speak. He moves closer.

SPIDER MAN
In certain crab spiders, such as Xysticus, the male will attach strands of silk to the female... tying her limbs...

Spider Man moves his hand gracefully across her, and she sees the sheerest silk webbing glinting in the moonlight. First one wrist. Then the other. Hypnotic movement in the moonlight. Her arms are bound to the wall. Her breathing gets more rapid.

SPIDER MAN
Since the female can break free at any time, the bonds have only symbolic significance.

MARY JANE
The male must be very bold... to take such liberties with the predatory female.

SPIDER MAN
Yes. He is very bold. But he must also trust her.
(he moves very close)
Close your eyes.

He removes his mask and kisses her. Their mouths very slowly and very sensuously devour each other. Peter and MJ are locked together. He is mesmerizing, gentle, powerful. He pushes up her skirt. They make love, high above the world. She doesn't look.

Well, at least it's not as bad as this scene from earlier in the script:

THE NEXT DAY. Tight on Peter as he wakes up. He opens his eyes cautiously. Not knowing what to expect. PULL BACK to reveal that he is still in bed. All is normal. He breaths a sigh of relief. In fact... he feels pretty good. Lots of energy. He pulls back the covers and...

Something is causing the sheet to stick to him. He lifts it, revealing a sticky, white mass completely covering him, gluing him to his bedding.

OMG HIS WEBBING IS LIKE JIZZ I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE.

The villains of the piece are versions of Sandman and Electro, although they have different names for no immediately apparent reason (As does high school bully Flash Thompson, who becomes Nathan "Flash" McCreery. Maybe Cameron was working out some high school issues or something), and both end up dead during the climactic final battle (Sandman ends up turned into glass with the following, wonderful, description: "Sandman is a smoking lump of melted glass in the vague form of a man. Poised, cooling, in a position of agony. Like Michaelangelo's dying slave. His glass mouth is a shapeless pit of eternal pain. Bummer.").

You can read an illustrated version of Cameron's entire scriptment here, but we wouldn't blame you if you'd read enough already. While offering up enough visual thrills and surface spectacle that you know it would've made an exciting movie to watch, Cameron's Spider-Man shaves off so much of the weirdness of the character that it could be any generic teenage superhero saving his girlfriend and the The Day. We're happier this script stayed unmade and Sam Raimi got his chance to show off his superhero chops instead and, let's face it: Wouldn't the world rather have had Avatar than this, in the end?

Marcus Parcus spotted the similarity between James Cameron's lithe, catlike aliens and a character from the sixth issue of Timespirits, a short run comic by Steve Perry and Tom Yeates published in 1985. The long ears, the blue skin, the stripes, the lack of clothes all bear a striking resemblance to the Na'vi and Neytiri in particular. She even takes down her fair share of military men in the course of the issue. Parcus wonders, was Cameron a fan of the series?

You can see more pages from the issue, compared with shots of Neytiri at Marcus Parcus' Livejournal.

[via Super Punch]

Transformers 3:

That leaked script we mentioned yesterday, that we thought was probably a fake? It is, according to Nelson, an administrator at Michael Bay's Shoot For The Edit Forums. [Shoot For The Edit via TFW2005]

Avatar:

CCH Pounder reveals a bit more about her character, Moat:

Queen Moat is the queen of of the Na'Vi. She is married to Eytukan and has two children: Tsu'tey and Neytiri. Neytiri is her really valiant, extremely brave and very independent daughter. She tries to keep the peace between Neytiri and her father... [And] she in some way sort of creates the freedom for Neytiri to be with the protagonist.

[L.A. Times]

Iron Man 2:

Here's a new pic of Tony Stark, hard at work in his workshop on an alternative energy source or something. Cool glasses. [Cinemaspy]

Battle Angel Alita:

James Cameron indicates his adaptation of this manga classic would be in a similar 3-D blend of live-action and CG animation to Avatar. But so far, all he's got is some concept art and a good script. [MTV]

Lost:

Another filming report involves the alternate-universe versions of Sun, Jin and Sayid meeting with Keamy and Omar on the same golf course where Sayid originally met Keamy and Omar. And there's speculation, based on set reports, that Mikhail is involved with Keamy and Omar, and that Mikhail is the one calling the shots. Also, there's a suspicion that Mikhail, Keamy and Omar are the agents of the Man In Black in this alternate timeline. [SpoilersLost]

And here are a few more season six promo pics, featuring Hurley, Claire and Miles. [Lyly Ford]

And someone blonde and female who we thought was dead will turn out to be still alive, in the time period when we last saw her. And Sheila Kelly's new character interacts with more than one regular character, and Kelly says the role is "like a petal opening," and you slowly understand how her character intertwines with the existing storylines. [E! Online]

Dollhouse:

Here are some promo photos from this Friday's double dose of Dollhouse. [SpoilerTV]

True Blood:

A couple bits of casting news: Broadway veteran J. Smith-Cameron will play Melinda, Sam's estranged mother. And Tudors star James Frain will be starring as Franklin Mott, Tara's new overprotective vampire boyfriend. The two of them meet in the second episode, and have an "immediate and torrid" connection. [EW]

Supernatural:

Sam and Dean will find a town full of happy zombies — people's loved ones come back to life there, but they're friendly, non-brain-eating zombies. And they include Bobby's dead wife. Also, Sam will use his demonic powers at least once before the season ends, and Dean won't be happy about it. And Chuck will be back, but without his fangirl girlfriend. [E! Online]

Stargate Universe:

The second half of the first season will be more serialized and deal with tensions among the Destiny's crew, says producer Robert Cooper. We'll be spending less time on Earth (thank goodness), and meeting a new alien race.

The implications of leaving Rush on the planet, the real division that will cause amongst the crew, the judgment of those characters and their actions are going to have a big impact on the show. We have a lot of things planned for the second half of the season... There is a big story point coming up that does introduce an alien race. It's more along the line of a "District 9"-type alien. Our interaction is handled in a very "Universe" way; they're not the typical "Stargate" alien bad guys.

[Hollywood Reporter]

Chuck:

Ellie and Aweesome have moved out to an apartment across the way, so Chuck and Morgan share a bachelor pad now. [E! Online]

Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder.

This is, of course, just our opinion, and feel free to disagree in comments. We went back and forth about several of these films, and there were a few others that we almost included instead, so we're not claiming infallibility here. If you want to view this in non-gallery format, click here, and I promise it'll work.

Pitch Black. This is nearly the perfect movie — a gritty anti-hero with weird eyes that can see in the dark is on a prison ship, which crashes on an alien planet. The lurking monsters are ominous and alarming, but the film's real mystery is Riddick himself — the Furyan inspires loathing, hero-worship and a desperate longing for the anti-hero to become a hero by the movie's end. Like Riddick's own eyes, our view of him only really works when we see him through total darkness.

Avatar. I'm going to post my review of this film in a few days, closer to its actual release date. But this is definitely one of the decade's most significant science-fiction films, both in its startling new look and in its elaborate alien world. Sigourney Weaver is one of the few heroic scientists we've seen in movies lately, and she fearlessly spouts facts about the science of Pandora. Avatar is by no means a perfect movie — it's a frustrating mixture of brilliance and utter cheese — but it's clearly an important movie in science-fiction history.

Slither. This movie sort of slid (I'm tempted to say slithered) under the radar, but it's one of the great all-time alien possession movies, and a brilliant metaphor for being trapped in a bad marriage. An alien parasite lands in a small town and takes over a woman's awful husband — and then it starts infecting everyone else in town, so that they all speak with the husband's voice. Wherever the wife goes, she hears her husband talking to her. And then people start getting grotesquely pregnant with alien offspring — this sort of thing is really why body horror was invented.

Star Trek. A young hero reluctantly starts to claim his true destined greatness... only to find out that his whole life has been altered, and maybe wrecked, by time-traveling, tattooed maniacs from the future. It's a weird spin on a Star Trek movie, but considering how hard it was to imagine being thrilled by another Trek after Nemesis, this film is a marvel. Plot holes, frat-boy antics, "red matter" and all, it's still the film that recharged Star Trek and may have helped bring back space-opera as a genre. And Spock has never been so... fascinating.

Donnie Darko has garnered an enduring cult fan base, for good reason. Its blend of mysicism and weird physics has aged amazingly well, and we still get lost in its "tangent universes." We keep hoping Richard Kelly will make another film that's both as mind-blowing and as well-constructed as this one.

Robot Stories. Another great movie that didn't get enough props when it came out. Greg Pak, who went on to write the Planet Hulk storyline for Marvel Comics, creates an anthology of three stories about robots that show how much robots are connected to our emotional lives — and what will happen when robots get emotions. In one story, two office robots fall in love, only to find that robot love is forbidden. In another story, a mother becomes determined to help her dying son amass the perfect collection of robot action figures — at any cost, even stealing. You'll see robots in a whole new light after watching this film.

Spider-Man 2. There were a number of superhero films that managed to bring the greatness of comics' storylines to life in the first half of the decade, including two X-Men movies and two Spider-Man movies. For my money, though, this is the best of the bunch, particularly because of Alfred Molina's Doc Octopus. Peter Parker's superpowered angst collides with Doc Octopus' cyborg identity crisis, and both hero and villain seem to be clinging to their identities by a thread. Even though we wish Peter Parker could keep his damn mask on, it's still thrilling and maybe the most perfect straight-up superhero movie of all.

Sleep Dealer. Alex Rivera's look at the dark side of telecommuting is one of the most memorable and intense films we've seen lately. In the future, everything depends on the dollar — you can't even access water reservoirs in Mexico or speak to your family in another town without feeding dollars into a slot. And the only way to get dollars is to get cyber nodes all over your body, allowing your nervous system to pilot machines in the United States. That way the U.S. can import Mexican labor without bringing in actual Mexicans. It's beautifully filmed and harrowing look at the ultimate form of alienated labor.

The Incredibles. The other great straight-up superhero was one of several Pixar films that we wanted to pay tribute to from the past decade. If you were as disappointed as we were by the two Fantastic Four films, then rejoice that this film does the FF right. A surprisingly light-hearted look at super-mutants in a world that learns to fear them, this movie does a better job of portraying what makes superhero comics so awesome than almost any live-action film. And we love the Omnidroid.

The Host. Sorry, Cloverfield — this was the monster-rampage movie we loved from the past few years. Unlike Clovey, the Host actually has a decent if snarky origin story, including weird chemicals dropped in the water by a callous American, causing one of the local creatures to get a little too big (and rambunctious) for comfort. More than almost any other monster movie, this film sucks us into caring about its main characters, a hapless family who operate a failing fast-food stand on the beach — we laugh at their antics and then get hopelessly, tragically, wound up in their fate when they tangle with the monster. Rob and Hud just don't quite measure up.

28 Days Later. Purists may hate this film's "fast zombies," but they're not even really zombies — they're the victims of a "rage" virus that stupid animal-rights activists cause to be released onto an unsuspecting world. Of all the apocalyptic scenarios we've seen in the past decade, 28 Days provides the best dose of terror and the sheer horror of society unraveling. When Christopher Eccleston's vicious soldier says the words, "I promised them women," your gut sinks. And the idea that the rage-virus outbreak will cure itself because the quasi-zombies will starve is genuinely clever. We were tempted to include Danny Boyle's other great SF film of the decade, Sunshine, but 28 Days is clearly better.

Paprika. A parade of nonsense images stomps through a man's dreams, forcing him to jump out a window... and it's just the beginning of the mayhem as the dream world collides with reality, in Satoshi Kon's weird exploration of dreams and their potential to tear our world apart. A machine that allows you to enter someone's dreams therapeutically gets stolen, and soon reality itself is being torn apart. Trippy, insane and mind-expanding, this is a film you need to watch more than once.

Primer. Speaking of films you need to watch more than once... few, if any, science-fiction movies talk down to their audiences less than this one. You don't even realize, for a good chunk of the movie, that the geeky characters are building a time machine. and it comes with very realistic and fascinating limitations, even as it allows the main characters to cross their own timelines over and over again, rewriting history in more and more psychotic ways. The walkman scene makes the whole thing worthwhile, just by itself.

Moon. It's interesting how many of the great science-fiction movies of the past decade are about loneliness, one way or the other — but none of them delve into isolation as hauntingly as Duncan Jones' debut feature. Sam Rockwell is amazing as the two versions of Sam Bell, who's tantalizingly close to finishing out his contract on a lunary mining station — until he finds out that things aren't ever what they seem. Add paranoia to the list of things this film does better than almost any other.

Iron Man. As we wrote when this film came out, it's actually more of a cyborg narrative than a superhero one. Jon Favreau and company wisely chose to focus on the heart of Tony Stark's origin — literally, the fusion reactor that keeps his heart from stopping, and turns him into a part-machine badass whose armor is just a shell that goes over his cybernetic body. Tony Stark's uneasy relationship with the military technology that he created parallels his unease with his new technological body — he's like the heroic flipside of Spider-Man 2's Doctor Octopus. And yes, any movie that talks about our dependence on, and unease with, technology automatically gets to leap over the pile of by-the-numbers superhero films.

The Dark Knight. See here for our argument as to why this film really is science fiction. Shorter version: Batman's fantastical technology is at the heart of the story. If Batman Begins showed how Bruce Wayne used technology to become Gotham's fearsome crime-fighter, then The Dark Knight is about how far he's willing to take that approach in the face of a mad bomber.

District 9. Most science-fiction movies, you come out of furiously debating the science or the finer points of the storyline... but this one, people walked out of speechless and shellshocked. Perhaps the ultimate "humans oppress aliens" movie, this film confronts us with a perfect allegory of our own inhumanity, through the story of a crashlanded group of aliens who are forced into shantytowns. Even before the main character, Wikus, starts turning into one of the aliens, our loyalties are getting more and more divided.

Wall-E. The other Pixar movie we couldn't help including on the list, this may have been the greatest blend of post-apocalyptic dystopia and cute robots. The love between Wall-E and Eve is both lovable and genuinely moving, and the trademark Pixar humor is in full effect with Wall-E's junkyard slapstick and spaceship antics. The funniest, and maybe the best, robot uprising we've ever seen.

Serenity. Just pretend for a second that this wasn't the continuation of a beloved TV series, and that Joss Whedon had created a whole new universe from scratch just for this film — it would still be one of the most audacious, most memorable, science-fiction films of all time. The story of the Alliance, which maintains a tenuous grip on a sprawling star system after a brutal civil war, and the lengths to which the Alliance will go to try and make people "better," Serenity is one of the great action-adventure films as well as one of the neatest SF concepts ever. When you discover the secrets of Miranda and see how River Tam becomes both the messenger and the avenger of Miranda's people, it's hard not to jump up and down in your seat.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. How far are you willing to go to get over a lost love? Are you willing to injure yourself — by erasing a huge chunk of your brief time on this planet from your own mind — just to get back at your former lover? This Charlie Kaufman/Michel Gondry joint does what all the best science fiction does: it creates a fictional technology that has the potential to change who we are as people, and then it uses it to tell a deeply personal story. The scenes where Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are wandering through Carrey's childhood memories are both unsettling and poignant, as Carrey tries to hold on to the love he was in the process of throwing away — by letting her into more of his mind.

Chances are, if you've looked at a weirdshistic record cover by Yes, Asia or other bands, you've admired Roger Dean's paintings of surreal landscapes. If you've ever seen all good people turn their heads each day, then you're already a Dean fan.

Connor Freff Cochran, founder of Conlan Press (which is busy putting out a bunch of Peter S. Beagle books, hosting Beagle's 52/50 poetry subscription service, and putting out art books) contacted us and suggested that Avatar's lush moon might have gained some inspiration from Dean. And when you look at Dean's artwork and compare it to the concept art we posted the other day, it's hard not to see the resemblance.

All of this makes me want to rent Avatar (when it's released on DVD) and see if I can sync it up with YesSongs.

Ghostbusters 3:

So you might have heard that Sigourney Weaver says that Venkman (Bill Murray) will be a ghost in the new movie? And that her character's son, Oscar, will have grown up to be a Ghostbuster? People who've been paying attention to the rumors and chatter around this film are pretty sure she's just repeating old rumors — like Bill Murray reportedly told someone four years ago that he would only be in the movie if he played a ghost. And Weaver probably hasn't actually seen a script, since nobody else has yet, either. On the other hand, Murray playing a ghost could be sort of fun. [Screen Rant]

Transformers 3:

People have been circulating a draft script for this upcoming masterpiece. I don't for a scond believe that this movie has a script yet, and even the people who are reposting the script thinks it might be a fake. On the other hand, apparently a similarly rough draft script of Revenge Of The Fallen popped up online long before it came out, and was viewed as similarly wild — but turned out to be real. Plus, it's always entertaining to read these things, and it's probably better than the real script will be.

So apparently this draft script includes the Aerialbots, the Combaticons, Perceptor, Wheeljack, Ultra Magnus, and Shockwave, and is a big love letter to fans of the 1984 animated series. As it begins, hostilities between the Autobots and the Decepticons have gotten worse, and calls for the Autobots to leave Earth have gotten more shrill. Sam (who's now an intern at the Large Hadron Collider) finds another fragment of the Allspark, which could give off enough energon to power all the Transformers forever, if bombarded with the right kind of particles. Optimus sends for the Ark, and Sam invites Mikaela to come join him there for a romantic evening, or something, and then proposes to her. Sam and Optimus Prime are all set to examine the Allspark fragment aboard the Ark, when Megatron attacks, but then Starscream betrays him. And somehow this leads to everyone traveling back in time to 1982, where Starscream steals the Allspark and kills Megatron "twice in one day," has he puts it.

This means that all of the Autobots have to disguise themselves as period cars (would GM even allow this?) meaning Optimus becomes a Peterbilt Semi, and Mirage becomes a Pontiac Trans Am, but also sometimes a Formula 1 race car. And Sam meets his own grandfather, and realizes that he can erase the Autobot/Decepticon war from history by getting rid of the Cube. But yeah, it's almost certainly a fake. Click here to read the whole thing. [Comic Book Movie and Allspark]

Iron Man 2:

Robert Downey Jr. says the thing that made the first movie work was that it was grounded in reality, and the high tech looked like something out of Popular Mechanics rather than a galaxy-spanning saga. And with the Marvel Universe as crazy as it is, it would be easy for the next movie to be too wild, but he and Jon Favreau want to keep it grounded. And he explains how they'll avoid sequel-itis:

My take - Jon [Favreau] was in agreement, and Marvel supported us - was that once you tell an [origin] story pretty well, that's usually where things start to get dull, and one or two or three things start to happen over and over again," Downey explained during an interview with Rotten Tomatoes. "So, we made Tony Stark's challenges very much outside the usual realm of activity. As much as anything else, it's much more of a side job for him the second time around.

[Rotten Tomatoes]

Remember how we reported the first movie was totally improv, with almost no script to speak of? Olivia Munn (who's admittedly not one of the film's main actors) says it was much the same this time around. "There's a bunch of improv, over and over." And apparently Munn improv-ed so well, Downey Jr. stopped the filming to give her a round of applause.

Thor:

Ray Stevenson, who plays Volstagg, says he wears a fatsuit, but he's got muscles and isn't the "weeble-shaped" figure from the comics. And he says the character has a ton of "Falstaffian vigor," which makes sense given that Branagh is directing. [Superhero Hype]

The Sorcerer's Apprentice:

Apparently we first meet the apprentice as a young boy (Jake Cherry) and then later as a young adult (Jay Baruchel). And producer Jerry Bruckheimer explains why we should be excited:

"He's more like a rock star," producer Jerry Bruckheimer tells PEOPLE about the film, due in theaters July 10. Like the animated version, this Sorcerer's Apprentice will also feature those dancing brooms. "We did it in a realistic way," Bruckheimer says. "The [brooms] are really dancing and doing their thing."

How could it be bad? [People]

Daybreakers:

Here's an international trailer, which I don't think we've shown you before — it includes a bit more footage from this vampire-dominated future dystopia. [Reelz Channel]

The Wolfman:

A new international poster shows that the wolfman's powers include causing people's heads to float randomly and to be eaten by unnatural shadows. [ShockTillYou Drop]

Spider-Man 4:

Some have speculated that Bryce Dallas Howard could be back as Gwen Stacy, but she hasn't been contacted yet, which makes it seem less likely. Meanwhile, don't hold your breath for her to return as Kate Connor in Terminator 5 or 6 — she's not signed up for any further installments. (But she would defininitely consider it.) [Coming Soon]

Avatar:

The New York Daily News review has a pretty good summary of the film:

Sam Worthington is Jake Scully [sic], a paraplegic Marine in 2154 assigned to a deep-space moon called Pandora, where his consciousness controls an avatar, a clone of Pandora's indigenous, humanoid Na'vi people. As Jake lies in a high-tech tanning bed, his mind is in his blue Na'vi, which is 10 feet tall with pointy ears, cat eyes and a tail.

A scientist (a tough Sigourney Weaver) created the process to aid diplomatic relations with the Na'vi, since the air is poisonous to humans and space suits, apparently, get in the way. It's the last chance for the peaceful aliens - who know what the avatars really are - since a corporate goon (entertainingly weaselly Giovanni Ribisi) wants a valuable element buried deep under the "hometree," the Na'vi's spiritual center. And if diplomacy fails, a gung-ho sergeant (Stephen Lang, overdoing it) will get it at any cost.

Cameron counts too much on the connection we'll have to his goofy-looking blue man group, or with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the Na'vi warrior princess who helps Jake's heart go on. Saldana - Uhura in last summer's "Star Trek" - delivers a remarkably full-bodied motion-capture performance, but the mystic-tribal clichés around her suggest every Netflix queue on Pandora includes "Dances with Wolves" and "The Last of the Mohicans."

[NY Daily News]

And there's a new Czech TV spot, plus a big Panasonic tie-in commercial that you may actually have seen.

Harry Potter:

Tom Felton says Deathly Hallows will be truer to the book than any of the previous films. [Movies-Spoilers]

Doctor Who:

So Alexandra Moen, who plays the Master's wife Lucy Saxon, says she wasn't the one who picked up the Master's ring at the end of "Last Of The Time Lords." Since we last saw her, Lucy has been locked up in a big ominous castle-like prison, and it just got a new governor. And it sounds like she breaks out of there. She's decided to try and go straight, but she's not at peace — she's full of anger. And her scenes are mostly with the Master and a few other actors. [Digital Spy]

Lost:

Some more filming details: episode nine is definitely Alpert-centric, and the Black Rock is definitely a prison ship. Also, we see an Ilana scene taking place at an old hospital in Russia, suggesting that Ilana is tied in with Alpert's backstory somehow. Separately, there's a scene with Jin working in a hotel, and Sun was there too. Also filming in the same location was a Keamy/Omar scene, and Mikhail was there and spoke Korean. There was also a Jin scene involving the same community college where Hurley's asylum was filmed. And a scene at a nice house with Hurley and Alpert. [The Transmission via SpoilersLost]

Also, Sayid was filming a scene with a large group of the "temple Others," including Zoey, and probably Cindy and Zack. Also present: seven to 10 scientists, for some reason. [SpoilersLost]

The show is casting an E.R. doctor making rounds, an MRI tech, and an African American female lawyer who won't be pushed around, for its eleventh episode. [SpoilersLost]

And there's an extended version of the season six promo:

Fringe:

I really like these new wallpapers, which emphasize the "passing between universes" theme as well as more of Walter's oddness. [SpoilerTV]

Remember that set video we showed you last week that included Anna Torv getting blown around? Now it's her, plus a bunch of extras:

Supernatural:

I know we mentioned that Cupid would be showing up (along with Famine, one of the Four Horsemen) in the Valentine's Day episode "My Bloody Valentine." Apparently, he'll be doughy, out of shape and naked, and constantly giving everybody bear hugs. [TV Guide Magazine]

And we'll be meeting a holy man in episode 5x16, "Dark Side Of The Moon":

[JOSHUA] This benevolent — dignified, very Zen man in his 50's-70's is inflappable, simple, but not insincere. A Morgan Freemen type vibe. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES. GUEST STAR.

Could that actually be God? [SpoilerTV]

And after the rerun of "The End" the other day, they showed a new trailer for the next episode, coming January 21.

And here's a set video for 5x15, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid", in which all you can basically see is Sam and Dean walking inside a house:

True Blood:

The show is looking for someone to play Alcide, who's described as "rough looking but articulate and basically decent," and he takes a liking to Sookie and may even have some mutual attraction with her. It sounds like he takes her out, given that we meet a giant nightclub bouncer who knows Alcide but is suspicious of his guest, Sookie. Also, an old-school Ob/Gyn examines Arlene with an ultrasound, and a pastor officiates at Eggs' funeral service. [EW and SpoilerTV]

Chuck:

As you've probably heard, we're done with Chuck's "reluctant spy" act. He's now a fully gung-ho spy, but he's also aware of how much his career puts his family at risk. And Awesome will get drawn into Chuck's espionage world to a much greater extent — and we'll get to see how awesome Awesome really is. As season three starts, we'll realize something awful has happened between Chuck and Sarah in the mean time, and eventually we'll learn just what that is. We'll also learn how crucial Sarah is to whether Chuck makes a good spy. Carina, Sarah's old partner from season one, will be back. And Jeffster will perform again in a very special episode. [TV Guide]

Also, Casey is going to have a lot to deal with this season — a secret from his past is going to come to light, and it'll make his life complicated. Also, he'll get more responsibilities at the Buy More, and will start to discover that Buy More may actually be his future. Meanwhile, Lester has a "Fight Club" episode where he goes nuts. And we'll get to see Lester's bedroom and his pajamas. [ChuckTV]

FlashForward:

Episode 13 will be called "Better Angels." [SpoilerTV]

Smallville:

Here's a new trailer for the next batch of episodes, starting January 22:

Heroes:

It's the death that sticks — for now, anyway. Tim Kring says we definitely won't be seeing Nathan again for the rest of season four. [Fancast News]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

Additional video editing by Julia Carusillo and Mike Byhoff. Thank you to all the people that allowed me to pester them in NYC's Times Square.

Granted, I make this assertion not as one of those folks who saw the movie in the last day, just as someone who has seen the early footage from Comic Con and Avatar Day and the other clips released so far.

An interesting thing about seeing the footage at Comic Con: hours before the audience's first trip to Pandora, we got to see another 3D motion capture preview, scenes from Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol. You can almost see the gears turning in Zemeckis' head when he introduces a new movie, the tweaks he made to try to improve his particular brand of mo-cap aided animation. Casting Jim Carrey, a man famous for being able to act beneath five pounds of makeup, in multiple roles was an inspired attempt to remedy the notorious flatness of his animated characters. But it proved impossible to forget that these characters were simply sophisticated digital puppets, with Ebenezer Scrooge nearly as ethereal as the ghosts he's scheduled to encounter.

While watching the Avatar footage, by contrast, it was so easy I was watching an animated movie. Certainly it's jarring to see a giant blue person standing next to humans when Sully is first connected to his Avatar body. But when the Na'vi step into their animated native habitat, it's easy to suspend that disbelief that so stubbornly hangs over Zemeckis' animation. Pandora and the Na'vi may be shy of photorealistic (although there are some incredible moments, especially during the Thanator chase and when Jake engages with his Banshee for the first time), but they do feel alive, the way their facial muscles move, the sometimes distracting way their ears twitch to convey emotion, the play of light in their eyes. At times, it almost looks like we're seeing actors in blue makeup rather than the motion capture mask. Cameron has very nearly crossed the uncanny valley and that's an achievement in itself.

But it's Pandora itself that's truly thrilling, thanks to a combination of multilayered 3D technology and Cameron's obsessive nature. Cameron has talked a great deal about how he and his army of concept artists and biologists designed every plant and creature on Pandora. It's an impressive feat (and I can't wait to see that bioluminescence again), but it's only a small component of what makes the planet seem real. Early viewers are describing Avatar as akin to a nature documentary on an alien world, and it goes far beyond glowing flora. When a Banshee lands on a tree or a Thanator runs through the forest, leaves fall. If a creature pounces on a stalk or branch, it splinters. These aren't small details Cameron and his team have inserted for the sake of realism; they're present throughout the early clips. More than that, in 3D, these components exist on different planes, each obeying the laws of physics independent of the others. When Sully first encounters Neytiri, the air is simply stuffed with bugs, embers, and bits of dust, and their depth is such that you imagine you could stick your hand in it and swirl it around. I've been fairly 3D-agnostic until this point; I enjoy the novelty of movies where the 3D reaches out and grabs you, but I've never found it adds much to the experience. Avatar's 3D, which pulls you in instead of reaching out, does create a special experience, that sense that you are actually present, looking inside an entirely invented world.

However, the technology, as amazing as it is, leaves us with a lot of questions. Is there a point to all this spectacle? Is this good filmmaking? Avatar is antithetical to the Hitchcockian mode of filmmaking, where the director carefully controls the audience's gaze. In Avatar, Cameron gleefully surrenders that kind of control, inviting us instead to look all over the screen and try to drink in as much as humanly possible as we go along. In fact, I imagine that a good deal of Avatar's repeat business will come from a sense that viewers missed a lot the first time around. I haven't seen the film in its entirety yet, but I can't help but wonder if all that spectacle distracts from other aspects of the movie. And, if it works well with Cameron's particular brand of filmmaking, will it work equally well with others'?

As for its purpose, Cameron has set it to worldbuilding — and the idea that you can create a global, digital set that you can return to any time. And you can extrapolate big things from that — incredibly detailed video games, franchises set and filmed on many worlds by many filmmakers. But it's important to remember that Cameron and his team built this technology as they went along. Early reviews indicate that Avatar stands up as a movie on its own, but it's also a proof of concept. I can't imagine that Cameron has found the exhaustive — or even the best — uses for his remarkable motion capture and animation technologies. I would love to see what happens when this technology lands in the hands of someone whose craft is animation. Avatar itself might not change all movies forever, but I'll wager that the technology that birthed it will give rise to something wonderful — and stranger than we could have imagined before.

Talking to the LA Times during a promotional Avatar interview, Sigourney Weaver was asked about the possibility of making an appearance in the third Ghostbusters movie:

As far as I know, I think Bill [Murray] is actually the only one in it.... That may be wrong — the last time I talked to Ivan was a couple of months ago. It's not meant at this point to be a reunion of our particular group of ‘Ghostbusters' at this point, it's a younger group. My only wish is that Oscar, my [on-screen] baby in ‘Ghostbusters II,' has grown up to be a Ghostbuster, too.

On the one hand, let's face it: Peter Venkman was the best character in the original movies, so if you're only bringing one back for the new one, it's the right choice. But on the other, no Dan Ackroyd, Ernie Hudson or Harold Ramis? Not even in cameos? That just seems wrong somehow. Here's hoping they changed their minds since Sigourney's last update.

'Avatar' star Sigourney Weaver as queen of sci-fi: 'Outer space has been good to me' [Hero Complex/LA Times]

Avatar

The first (generally positive) reviews are utterly brimming with spoilers. The Hollywood Reporter lays out the basic plot most clearly, and includes some more details about the Na'vi. Apparently, one of the reasons that the Na'vi are so reluctant to relocate is that the unobtainium deposit sits beneath a holy tree that happens to be the center of Na'vi life. The tree holds tribal memories and ancestral wisdom, and apparently the Na'vi can access this as they possess an innate ability to tap into a Force-like ability that ripples through Pandora's plant life.

And from Empire's review, it sounds like the holy tree might not fare well, as there's "a human attack on a Na'vi landmark that recalls 9/11 in its devastating imagery."

We already know the humans set up schools to teach the Na'vi English, and Variety clarifies that they learned English from Grace.

James Cameron added more details about Pandora and what we'll find there. He himself designed the monstrous Thanator which features flexible bone shields and sensor quills. It also has a single nostril called an operculum, which is based on the flapper valve on top of a stingray's head. He also says that his goal with the animated characters was to cross the uncanny valley, and while he believes that some of the shots are an eight out of ten, there are some that go right up to eleven. He calls the Na'vi's central tree the Tree of Souls, and says it's the input-output station for the Pandora biological communications network — and where Neytiri's clan has lived for 10,000 years. There are apparently two scales of trees on Pandora, normal jungle canopy trees and gigantic Great Trees. Getting into human technology, the same magnetic fields that cause Pandora's mountains to float also mess with the instrumentation on the Samson gunship, forcing it into "Second World War-style combat mode." [Times Online]

Splice

We get more images from Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley's genetic experiment, including another peek at the transgenic fruit of their labor. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Sherlock Holmes

Can't wait to watch Robert Downey Jr. solve possibly occult crimes? Here's a cornucopia of stills to tide you over.

Book of Eli

A trio of character posters to keep you company at the end of the world. [CinemaBlend]

Dark Shadows

Shooting is scheduled to begin on the supernatural soap adaptation in October 2010, but producer Graham King says it's still waiting on a script. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy describes the final showdown between the forces of good and the forces of evil as akin to a Western shoot-out. [MTV]

Lost

Yet another filming report places Hurley and Alpert near a big tree in the middle of a jungle. Hurley was wearing his red shirt and Alpert was in dark clothing. Apparently, the crew said they did a lightning scene with pyrotechnics in the area and are planning to do a similar scene on the beach location. The camp had recently been rebuilt with green palms, and Ben, Kate, Jack, Hurley, Sun, Miles, and Ilana were all filming on the beach, sitting around a campfire. [DarkUFO]

True Blood

Rutina Wesley says that Sookie will be helping Tara deal with her grief and the fallout from last season, as well as the handsome vamp ready to sweep her off her feet. Alexanger Skarsgard adds that we'll get another Eric flashback; he won't say what era we'll see, but Eric and another person wil act as a tag team. [TV Guide]

Dollhouse

Five clips from tonight's episode show Echo contemplating whether she's really Caroline, a Dollhouse interrogation, and a tease of Alpha's return:

Fringe

Here's a neat detail from the alternate universe. An eagle-eyed viewer noticed that in Peter's childhood dream in the alternate universe, there's a poster celebrating the Challenger's 11th mission in June 1984. In our universe, the Challenger exploded during its tenth mission on January 28th, 1986. How advanced is the other universe's technology? Check out the photo evidence at the link. [Tallisen LJ]

Anna Torv doesn't know precisely how Peter will react to the news that he was kidnapped from the other universe, but like everyone else, she has her speculations:

"And I think its going to be heartbreaking… heartbreaking for Walter, but particularly for Peter too because this year seeing him take an active interest in his father and an active interest in the investigations and he's really taken it on. For that to explode, or implode, is going to be devastating," she explained. "But that's what you want isn't it?"

[MTV]

Peter-Olivia shippers don't have an ally in Joshua Jackson:

"This is only my opinion, but I don't think that's the direction that the story is going in," Jackson said. "In my head, what you have between these three people is a family dynamic rather than a romantic dynamic. She would be a very tolerant woman if she were willing to start dating a man who lives with his father."

[Inside TV]

Smallville

Sometime before the Justice Society two-episode movie, Chloe will get a non-Watchtower job offer. In "Society," the first part of the movie, some Justice Society member will know who Watchtower really is before it's revealed to them, and there's a supervillain that we haven't learned about so far. [KryptonSite]

Chuck

By law, all science fiction television series must feature Mark Sheppard at some point, and Chuck is not exempt; Sheppard tweets that he's starting an arc this week. [via Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder and Charlie Jane Anders.

Cameron has promised us that Avatar represents a huge technological advancement, a blending of real-world performances and imagination that will transport us to the foreign world of Pandora in an immersive, visceral way. But developers of medical technologies are looking to achieve the same sort of experience with the world we have, and the entertainment industry's advances in image capture and graphics processing are paving the way.

Certainly medicine is no stranger to computer animation, something they have long used to explain concepts and train personnel. And motion capture has been used for years in gait analysis. Physiotherapists often film patients wearing reflective motion capture markers to analyze their gait, in much the way that filmmakers use motion capture markers on their actors.

But the demand for improved computer graphics technology graphics from the entertainment industry means more sophisticated applications in medicine as well. Just this fall, Nvidia, which develops graphics processing technology for, among other things, gaming systems, demonstrated how the technology used to create immersive 3D experiences for games can also create immersive experiences of the human body. Along with Siemens Healthcare, Nvidia has developed an ultrasound viewing experience that sounds like it was scripted by Cameron: parents and healthcare workers can put on a pair of stereoscopic glasses and examine a fetus as if they were looking directly inside the womb. The demonstration comes just months after Nvida released its GeForce 3D Vision system, with a pair of stereoscopic glasses to improve the immersive experience of playing video games and watching 3D movies.

For filmmakers like Cameron, the goal is to capture the detail of the human experience, down to the most minute muscle movements and to create worlds that are so detailed as to appear real. If he's successful in creating an experience with Avatar that gives audiences both a fully immersive experience of a world that's completely invented and manages to translate the twitches of the human face onto an animated alien, imagine what his technology could accomplish when simply reflecting a world that actually exists. Perhaps the legacy of Cameron, Zemeckis, and other filmmakers working in these fields will include advances in virtual surgery, diagnosis, and other innovations in the medical field.

We interviewed creature designers Wayne Barlowe and Neville Page, plus concept artists James Clyne, Ryan Church and Daphne Yap, about creating a whole new universe from scratch. Plus we've got some stunning concept art, from the new book The Art Of Avatar. In a year that's seen some amazing books of movie concept art, The Art Of Avatar features 106 pages of lush full-color paintings, interspersed with the industry's greatest design minds geeking out about every little aspect of Avatar's creation.

So here are a few things you didn't know about the design of James Cameron's Avatar:

Avatar Started As A Four-Month, Late-Night Jam Session At James Cameron's House

"[We'd be] working late at Jim's house, and having him come back after a three week spell of being down at the freaking Titanic, and having him tell us a story [about being on the ocean floor]." Read the rest of the story.

Pandora's creatures were partly based on cars

Early on in the process, James Cameron "mentioned the core idea" of having Pandora's creatures be "superslick and aerodynamic, and be like a race car with racing stripes," says creature designer Neville Page. Read the rest of the story.

Those crazy color schemes are from the ocean floor — and Art Nouveau

"In the real world, we didn't invent these colors. They exist on animals today. We didn't invent a whole new palette. I think the problem is — the challenge is — you don't often see large creatures with this much color on them." Read the rest of the story.

The human hardware, including those crazy battlesuits, is all based on real stuff

"One thing I worked on big interior for the mech suits, and the whole interior had to have a reason and function for why the suits were lined up the way they were, and how they could work on them like a pit-stop at an F1 race. It had to have that functionality." Read the rest of the story.

Avatar concept art from The Art Of Avatar (Abrams 2009)

Thor

Stan Lee has been tweeting about his cameo:

Due to Thor, I must start rehearsing my thee's and thou's. So, if thou objecteth not, I wish thee well! 'Nuff saideth.

He could be yanking our chains, but perhaps Lee won't be walking amongst the modern mortals. [Twitter]

John Carter of Mars

We get a casting call for several human characters and one Martian:

Synopsis: A damaged civil war veteran finds himself mysteriously transported to Mars where his involvements with warring races of the dying planet force him to rediscover his humanity.

[STABLE BOY] 9 yrs old, Mestizo – a mixture of European and Native American or Mexican decent, no lines, 1 scene

[DIX] The storekeeper, 40's – 50's, built like a lumberjack/longshoreman, strong & husky, 5 lines, 1 scene

[1ST ROWDY] Late 20's – early 30's, rough and dirty, worn looking, 1 line, 1 scene

[2ND ROWDY] Late 20's – early 30's, rough and dirty, worn looking, 1 line, 1 scene

[CAVALRYMAN/SERGEANT] Early 30's, clean cut, 2 lines, 1 scene

[US STOCKADE PRISON GUARD] Mid 20's – early 30's, clean cut, 4 lines, 2 scenes

[APACHE LEADER] 40's - 60s, Native American, must speak Apache, wise and experienced with a weathered face. Multiple lines, 1 scene

[TWITCHY CORPORAL] 20's - 30s, a shifty bad guy, not to be trusted. 1 line, 1 scene.

[YOUNG THARK WARRIOR] 20'S, tall (6' PLUS), athletic, experience working on stilts, MOTION PICTURE CAPTURE ROLE

[SpoilerTV-Movies]

Deadpool

Rumor has it that Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick will pen the Deadpool script. [Cinematical]

Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds wants to quell fears that he'll play the Green Lantern too close to Deadpool:

"I think there was some concern that I would make Green Lantern some kind of wise-cracking Wade Wilson-type, and that's not the case at all," he explained. "If that's what they wanted, why would I have screen-tested for the movie?"

[MTV]

Avatar

The final poster gives us more floating heads. [/Film]

Lesbian Vampire Killers

New images give us some busty bloodsuckers. [ShockTillYouDrop]

The Wolfman

The werewolf movie has earned itself an R rating from the MPAA "for bloody horror, violence and gore." [ShockTillYouDrop]

True Blood

We'll be seeing more of vampire Pam next season. Kirstin Bauer is being upgraded to series regular, and Pam is getting a "meaty" storyline — and maybe a girlfriend. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Lost

Jin and Sun have been filming scenes set in the alternate reality at the Turtle Bay Hilton. In those scenes, we'll also see Keamy, Omar, and Russian Other Mikial. [DarkUFO]

Striptease workout entrepreneur Sheila Kelley will be in at least four episodes this season, but won't be playing corporate spy Kendall. As for whether her stripping skills will coming into play:

"Once you see what I'm doing on Lost, you'll get the humor in that. I guess you can say I'm bringing some of the skills onto Lost, but not as obviously as you might think."

She also says she (Kelley, not her character) is "obsessed" with Sayid, leading to speculation that she'll have some scenes with Naveen Andrews. [E!]

And a set spy grabbed a photo of the new submarine. Larger image at the link. [DarkUFO]

Fringe

Walter's wife and Peter's mother has been cast at last. Irish actress Orla Brady will play the smart and likable third member of the Bishop family. [EW]

Better Off Ted

Creator Victor Fresco says that we'll see some progress in Linda and Ted's relationship by the end of the season, and the relationship between Linda and Veronica will begin to thaw. The two women will have a few adventures together and will develop a grudging, but mutual, respect. Ted's wilder brother comes to town, played by Eddie McClintock. Ted's brother hasn't had a lot of luck with Jobs, so Ted gets him a job at Veridian Dynamics. But his brother screws up one too many times, so Ted lands him a job selling lab equipment. Phil and Lem end up being his best customers, buying all sorts of stuff they don't need, including a cadaver supply membership. Key line: "Every day we get a new dead body whether we're finished with the old one or not." The show also gets a new cast member in Merrin Dungey. She appears in three or four episodes, including one episode where Linda tries to comfort her and ends up accused of sexual harassment. But Veridian deals with its sexual harassment problem by having it reclassified as a disease so that no one can sue for it. [E!]

Heroes

This season's 19th episode is titled "Brave New World." [Spoiler TV]

Additional reporting by Josh Snyder.