Corona | Coming Attractions

Toy manufacturer Mattel will create and release a line of action figures, alien creatures and vehicles based on Avatar. The first wave of Avatar products is scheduled to arrive on store shelves in October, two months before the release of the movie.

"Avatar is one of the biggest and most anticipated films of 2009," said Elie Dekel, Mattel's executive vice president of Fox licensing and merchandising. "The new universe created in the film is everything one would expect coming from the mind of James Cameron, one of the most accomplished creators and filmmakers of our time. In bringing this fantastic new universe to life in toys, it was essential that we partner with the world's biggest and best, Mattel. Mattel's abilities to continually innovate and strategically grow a toy brand over many years will be core to our long-term strategies."

Each of the toys will come with what Mattel is describing as a "web tag". Using your computer's webcam you can scan in the toy's web tag and unlock special content through Mattel's Avatar website, for example, a character's bio and their skills or the abilities of an alien creature.

"I am a firm believer that a great toy program, done right and with the right creative collaboration can extend the movie experience," commented Jon Landau, one of the film's producers. "Jim and I have been working intimately with both Fox L&M and Mattel to ensure that this will be a top-notch innovative toy line-up. We have seen the products and can't wait for their release."

As part of Mattel's press release they also issued the following description of the film's premise: "Avatar is an epic adventure film where ex-marine Jake Sully is torn between duty and honor when he finds himself caught in a battle between the heavily armed forces of Earth's most powerful star-faring consortium and an exotic, noble alien race whose entire world is threatened by the human invaders."

MarketSaw claims that the latest so-called leaked photo is the final look of the alien Na'vi race we'll see in Avatar. The image comes from a new source but the site is standing behind the image, claiming that it is our "first authentic, FINAL rendition of what the Na'vi will look like."

The image can be viewed here -- assuming that it hasn't been removed yet.

When you're The New York Times it's easier to convince movie studios like 20th Century Fox to give you a never-before-seen photo from one of the year's big event movies. That's exactly what happened yesterday when the Times ran a still showing Avatar director James Cameron standing on the set of his film. Unlike earlier photos from the set which have shown Cameron and star Sam Worthington looking at neat things we can't see off-camera, this new snapshot shows off a little bit of the tech from the film: Cameron is hovering over a futuristic bed, standing amongst some other tech-y looking equipment with a green screen behind him. It may not be our first look at the Avatar aliens or their planet but it's a step in the right direction.

How big is the hype getting for Avatar even though it's just under a year away from our eyeballs seeing it? A good indicator is the never-before-seen photo showing director James Cameron and star Sam Worthington sitting on the Avatar set and just published today by the Los Angeles Times. The photo shows Cameron pointing to something off-screen. A Na'vi? Is he talking about one of the elaborate 3D cameras being used by the production? Or maybe the king of the world is just thinking out loud about where the line-up will start for advance ticket sales.

Jonay Bacallado has responded to the allegations that his art as possible designs for the Avatar aliens and the artist claims that the design isn't from the James Cameron film. In an email sent to Rope of Silicon, Bacallado wrote "They are part of my artwork, my personal artwork, and it has nothing to do with the actual concept art of the film." The artist went on to restate that the designs found online and seen in the video "have nothing to do with the real [Avatar movie] concepts and designs," and that "I spoke during the interview about my experience [working on the movie], images were taken from my website, and they assume they are real concept art but [they are] not." Bacallado went on to elaborate that "the design of characters have been done by another team, and we [sic] only get involved in costume.."

Market Saw was also contacted by Jonay Bacallado and informed the news but they see what happened in a different light. "I think the situation stinks quite frankly," writes site owner Jim Dorey. "I think Fox forced him to contact everyone under threat of a lawsuit to state that they are fake. In my opinion, they are not fake, but early representations of the Na'vi."

Has our first real look at one of the Na'vi finally arrived? In an video interview with plan.siete, Avatar concept artist Jonay Bacallado seems to show what appears to be conceptual artwork from Avatar, specifically for one of the blue-skinned Na'vi native to Pandora. The exciting imagery was first brought to our attention by Market Saw and they believe that the art is of an early design for the Na'vi race and may not be the way that they appear in the movie.

The art does fit with what is wildly assumed to be the general look of the Na'vi aliens: tall, thin, blue and wearing clothing that suggests their pre-industrial culture. But is it the real deal?

Real or not, we've added the five pieces of art to our Avatar galleries.

Could this be the first look at James Cameron's Avatar? According to the movie news website JoBlo, it likely is. One of their sources sent this image of a promotional poster that they claim is on display in a "mood room" at WETA Studios in New Zealand (WETA is the company supply the bulk of Avatar's photo-realistic CG effects.) JoBlo's informant also claimed that the poster itself had a kind of 3-D effect to it "that the logo and the earth pop out, and the light around it moves when you do." A bigger version exists here.