"Ubisoft didn't want to just put something flashy on the screen...they wanted a soul behind the videogame," Cameron said. "The world of the 'Avatar' game is, in some ways, considerably richer than what you are going to see in the film.""We are learning from the best," said Yannis Mallet, head of Ubisoft's Montreal studio. "The film and videogame industries are on lines that are not quite parallel, so let's anticipate that the talents are converging and build collaboration so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts."
Ubisoft was free to create its own characters, vehicles and weapons for the video game, as well as embellish settings on the fictional moon 'Pandora' where the film story takes place.
"Ubisoft challenged themselves to set the bar pretty darn high," said Cameron. "We are all pretty passionate about making 'Avatar' the coolest new game out there; I can stand here now and tell you the guys at Ubisoft have done it."
Inspired by author Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter Of Mars" fantasy book series, "Avatar" is set during the 22nd century on a small moon called 'Pandora', inhabited by the tribal 'Na'vi', ten foot blue humanoids that are peaceful unless attacked. Humans cannot breathe Pandoran air, so they genetically engineer human/Na'vi hybrids known as 'Avatars' that can be controlled via a mental link.Cameron said he wrote "Avatar" 14 years ago but the technology to realize his vision didn't exist until now.
In 2008, Ubisoft bought Montreal-based Canadian special effects firm Hybride, which worked on animated action films "300" and "Sin City."
"We started a year ago developing tools that will let us create games and movies at the same time," said Ubisoft chief executive Yves Guillemot.
In the film, a paralyzed Marine named 'Jake Sully' (Sam Worthington) volunteers to exist as an Avatar on Pandora, falling in love with a Na'vi princess and becoming caught up in the conflict between her people and the human military that is consuming their world.
According to Cameron, the film is composed of 60% computer-generated elements, 40% live action and traditional miniatures.
To create the human mining colony on Pandora, production designers surveyed the 'Noble Clyde Boudreaux' drilling rig in the Gulf Of Mexico, June 2007. They photographed, measured and filmed every aspect of the rig, which is replicated on-screen with photorealistic CGI.
Music score for "Avatar", is composed by James Horner, his third collaboration with Cameron after "Aliens" and "Titanic". Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the alien language 'Na'vi', March 2008. He is also working with Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist to create a music culture for the alien race...
Ubisoft also revealed that the company will also be working on projects with Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg on a new "Tintin" game, timed to the release of that upcoming feature in 2011...
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