Things Avatar can inspire people to do: start their own Na’vi tribes; consider suicide as a more-attractive alternative to a Pandora-free existence; make awesome Na’vi makeup tutorials; make even-more-awesome Na’vi makeup tutorial GIFs. Things Avatar cannot inspire people to do, apparently: make hugely ambitious big-budget movies utilizing all the technology James Cameron invented for Avatar. According to the Times, there are only a few projects moving forward with Cameron’s 3-D and motion-capture approach (which hinges on a 3-D “virtual†camera Cameron developed along with effects expert Vince Pace), including Tron: Legacy and Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. (Also, Bryan Singer is trying to convince New Line to do Jack the Giant Killer in 3-D, but for some crazy reason they haven’t yet agreed.) Otherwise, the next few years are going to be so boring. Upcoming tent poles that will be shown exclusively in crappy old 2-D include: The Hobbit, Jonah Hex, and sequels to Iron Man, Star Trek, and Transformers. Basically, you should probably just pick up all your movies on bootleg DVD on Canal Street until the release of Avatar 2.
For All Its Success, Will ‘Avatar’ Change the Industry? [NYT]