It was previously announced by Frank Marshall, a producer of the film, that the official trailer for The Last Airbender will be released in February. Now there is word that the trailer will likely premiere during this year’s Super Bowl, which airs February 7th on CBS.

The Super Bowl is known for it’s high profile advertising, and Advertising Age has announced that Paramount has purchased a spot for “The Last Airbender” that will air sometime during the first 2 quarters of the game.

Viacom’s Paramount Pictures
Buy: Three ads in the first and second quarters
Creative: Paramount will promote February’s “Shutter Island,” May’s “Iron Man 2″ and July’s “The Last Airbender,” a film from M. Night Shayamalan.
Agency: n/a

The planned trilogy of “The Last Airbender” won’t be filmed back-to-back and may take as long as six years to complete. Speaking up about the matter was producer Frank Marshall who told Starlog that the filmmakers will be working on the trilogy project one by one. “We’re shooting them one at a time, because they’re being written one at a time,” insisted the five-time Academy Award-nominated producer.

Ruling out the possibility for the three parts of “Airbender” shot like Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings”, Marshall noted that director/scribe M. Night Shyamalan is currently in the process of developing the second film. “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 explained. “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,” Marshall further elaborated. “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.”

As for the first film itself, Marshall has taken it into his Twitter account to confirm about the inclusion of living Sky Bison named Appa as well as Aang’s pet winged lemur, Momo, in the movie. “I can confirm the Aapa and Momo will be in THE LAST AIRBENDER,” he wrote on a message dated June 29.

Slated for July 2, 2010 U.S. release, “The Last Airbender” is a live-action film version of Nickelodeon’s animated series of the same name. To be differentiated from James Cameron’s “Avatar“, it has dropped “Avatar” from its title. The film follows Aang and is set in a world where human civilization is divided into four nations: Water, Earth, Air and Fire.

With the help of a protective teenage Waterbender named Katara and her bull-headed brother Sokka, Aang proceeds on a perilous journey to restore balance to their war-torn world. But, his goal will meet a tough challenge from exiled Fire Nation’s evil prince Zuko who is sent to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor and right to the throne. It stars Noah Ringer as Aang, Dev Patel as Zuko, Nicola Peltz as Katara and Jackson Rathbone as Sokka.

source:  aceshowbiz.com

Here is the complete first teaser trailer from Dev’s new film, The Last Airbender directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

Thanks so much to alex tyson for letting us post these images of Dev at the Last Airbender cast/crew party in May.

Gallery Update – The Last Airbender – Cast/Crew Party
(Thanks to alex tyson)

Night says he was very careful with the way he is handling the series plot points, not only out of respect for the source material but for also the respect of the fans, namely his daughter.

Lets be honest M. Night Shyamalan is not the first director who comes to mind when thinking about who should direct Avatar The Last Airbender. In fact he is almost the last director. It is well known that M. Night does not like to use action in his movies, he prefers to build on the anticipation of action and then at the end it kind of whimpers out. At least that’s how it was in Lady of The Lake and The Village. Well with Avatar the successful director has no choice but to incorporate action into this film or it will bomb worse then a fat kid in Math class.

“It felt like an important movie to make,” Shyamalan states. “The mythology of the series was so well thought out and has Buddhism and martial arts and… it has the deeper issues at its core. It’s going to be a really fun summer movie, but underneath it there is a seriousness that talks about genocide and balance in the world and all the things that interest me that you’ve seen in other movies I’ve made.”

I am glad he is taking this film seriously, but like I said M. Night you have to use action elements. This movie screams for some slow motion shots of Katara bending a drop pail of water and throwing it at the fire nation. Or Aang and Apa taking on a few of those Fire Nation ships that were introduced in the most recent trailer for the film.

Night says he was very careful with the way he is handling the series plot points, not only out of respect for the source material but for also the respect of the fans, namely his daughter. Nights daughter is rumored to be Avatar Obsessed. Which is good for us fans too. Night has also made the comment that he has put twice the work already into this film then he has had to do with his previous films. This statement gives me hope.

Noah Ringer (at 12, is already a bad ass black belt in Taekwondo) plays Aang the air bender, Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) and Jackson Rathbone (Jasper Cullen of Twilight fame) play friends Katara and Sokka, while Dev Patel in his first post Slumdog Millionaire role plays the evil Prince Zuko.

Patel goes on to say: “I wanted to do something as distant to Slumdog as possible,” What’s more different than playing a prince of a fairy tale nation who can control fire? I wanted to stretch myself as an actor. This guy in a nutshell, he’s a villain with a heart. He’s not evil for the sake of being evil.”

Patel underwent martial arts and fight training for his action sequences. “They whipped my butt into shape,” he states. Thank god.

Other cast include Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show) as the Fire Nation Commander Shao, and Shaun Toub (Iron Man) as Uncle Iroh.

So Comic Book Movie Fans, what say you? Does it sound like M. Night Shyamalan has his head screwed on right? Or do you think we will get another hyped up movie only to disapoint with a lackluster ending?

source:  comicbookmovie.com

On Monday, Slumdog Millionaire will be available to own on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK, but you can pre-order a copy now on Amazon.co.uk.

As a little treat, here is a video of Dev and Freida Pinto encouraging fans to buy a copy of the movie.

I stumbled across another new movie still from Dev’s upcoming film The Last Airbender. His character has a burn scar on the left side of his face.

The first film still of Dev in The Last Airbender has been released today and was posted along with an article on USAToday.com.

 

For years, Noah Ringer went by the nickname “Avatar” because he looked so much like the lead in the Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now he gets to act like the character, too.

Ringer, 12, makes his feature-film debut opposite Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, a live-action version of the show that opens July 2, 2010.

Ringer didn’t need to alter much to play Aang, who uses martial arts to manipulate the weather. Like Aang, Ringer keeps his head shaved and is an expert in martial arts. “It keeps me cool when I’m doing tae kwon do,” says Ringer, a Texas native with a black belt who landed the role after sending a homemade DVD of him practicing the sport. “It’s so cool to get the part.”

Patel, too, seems suited for the film, the first of a planned trilogy. He earned his black belt in tae kwon do before he turned to acting and discovered the television show while filming Millionaire. “I started watching it in my trailer in India,” says Patel, who plays the villain Zuko, a “firebender” (he manipulates flames). “I see why the fan base is so big. It’s got action but a lot of moral messages.”

Though they square off on the big screen, don’t expect any exhibition matches between the actors. Patel, seven years older and a foot taller, says it wouldn’t be close: “Noah would knock me flat on my back. “

Source

Producer Frank Marshall has informally announced via his Twitter feed that the first teaser trailer for The Last Airbender will arrive early this summer.The Last Airbender is the first in a planned trilogy of films based on the Avatar: The Last Airbender anime television show. Marshall also confirmed via Twitter that the largest portion of the trilogy’s planned $250 total budget will fall upon the first film to create the elaborate world.

M. Night Shyamalan will helm at least the first installment which stars Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel and a slew of other young actors. Production is ongoing in and around Shyamalan’s favored shooting haunt, Philadelphia.

The Last Airbender is aiming for a 2010 release.

source: thehdroom.com
Frank Marshall’s Twitter Page

I’ve added screencaptures of the bonus features from the newly released DVD of Slumdog Millionaire to the gallery.


Making of Slumdog Millionaire Featurette