20th Century Fox In the interviews given to promote Avatar, which opens in theaters today, James Cameron has already given a few tips on the Blu-ray of his latest movie epic. The filmmaker said that the BD will include over ten minutes of deleted scenes, and also that the initial Blu-ray release of 'Avatar' "probably won't be in 3-D", and there will be another edition with 3-D support in late 2010.
Cameron told MTV that the discarded footage gave added background on the native Na'vi people of Pandora. "It's all wonderful stuff, but it was sort of bogging down the middle section of the movie," Cameron said. "So there's plenty for a value-added DVD experience on this film. Of course, we'll have to go punch it all up and get it all mixed and stuff like that." There is also a trial ritual where, to become one of the clan, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) must hunt a local beast.
With regard to whether the Blu-ray release would include 3-D or not, Cameron said: "Probably the initial Blu-ray release of Avatar won't be in 3-D and then a subsequent release will be in 3-D. That's my guess right now. So we will probably put out a disk, you know, in six or eight months, let's call it six months, and then after that we will have a 3-D disc when there are enough sets available."
Q: What plans to you have for an extended director's cut for the Blu-ray/DVD?
JC: It's in discussion. I haven't figured out exactly how I'm gonna approach it yet. We might do something where we create an interactive DVD that's got a pathway so you could watch the movie the way it was released or watch it with other scenes in it or maybe do your own version with more of this or less of that.
Q: And will it be in 3-D?
JC: Eventually, because the new Blu-ray players that are 3-D enabled to a 3-D TV screen actually produce a pretty spectacular image. They're not widely available yet, but I can imagine that we'll do a 3-D release, if not immediately, certainly within two years.