Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

The Last Airbender

5/26/09 – USA Today reported that 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.”

3/13/09 - Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub and Cliff Curtis have joined the cast of M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, the studio announced.  Shyamalan, Sam Mercer and Frank Marshall are producing, with principal photography to begin mid-March.  The three join a cast headed by Noah Ringer, who plays the title role; Nicola Peltz, who plays the Waterbender Katara; Jackson Rathbone, in the role of Katara's brother, Sokka; and Dev Patel, who plays Prince Zuko, prince of the Fire Nation.  Mandvi is set to play the role of Commander Zhao, an ambitious and hot-tempered Fire Nation commander.  Toub is cast as Uncle Iroh, the retired Fire Nation general and devoted surrogate parent to Dev Patel's character Zuko.  Curtis is set to play the ruthless ruler Fire Lord Ozai.  In addition, Keong Sim has been cast in the role of Earthbending Father.

2/2/09 - Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel has joined the cast of M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, the Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Films live-action movie based on the Nickelodeon animated TV series, Variety reported.  Patel will be featured alongside newcomer Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone and Jessica Jade Andres.  Ringer will play Aang, the film's lead, who is the last of a race of people who can manipulate the elements of air. Ringer, a 12-year-old from Texas, landed the part after demonstrating his martial-arts skills in an Internet video that he posted to a Web site Shyamalan set up for open virtual auditions.  Patel will play Zuko, a member of the Fire Nation. Peltz plays the Water Tribe rep Katara, while Andres is the Earth Kingdom's representative, Suki. Paramount is set to release Airbender on July 2, 2010. Shyamalan said he is planning a three-picture story arc.

12/11/08 - Entertainment Weekly reported that director M. Night Shyamalan has found the cast for The Last Airbender, his upcoming live-action film based on the popular anime-inspired Nickelodeon series.  The youthful group is mostly filled with unknowns who are likely to be household names by the time Paramount opens the first in its potential three-film franchise on July 2, 2010.  After an open casting call in Texas, Shyamalan discovered karate star Noah Ringer and offered him the part of Airbender's 12-year-old hero, Aang, an Avatar with superpowers who must stop the Fire Nation from destroying the world.  Twilight's Jackson Rathbone has been asked to play Aang's pal, Sokka, while Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) will star as his sister, Katara. Singer Jesse McCartney, meanwhile, is negotiating to play the Fire Nation's evil prince, Zuko.

12/9/08 – SCI FI Wire reported that Frank Marshall, who is producing M. Night Shyamalan's next film Airbender, said casting will take place early next year. Once preproduction ends in Shyamalan's hometown of Philadelphia, the crew will go abroad to film.  "We're starting in March in Philadelphia," Marshall said. "We haven't cast it yet. We're in that process and going to shoot in Greenland."  Shyamalan is known for setting all of his movies in and around Philadelphia, or at least rural Pennsylvania. "It's his first picture where he goes out of town to shoot," Marshall said.  The Last Airbender is due in 2010.

10/7/08 - SCIFI Wire reported that director M. Night Shyamalan is on track for a July 2010 release of his live-action version of The Last Airbender.  "It's going to be really cool," the director said about the Paramount picture on which he is now working. "I'm at the stage where we have [pre-visualized] about the last act of the movie. And because my normal approach to filmmaking is almost like I'm making an animated movie, to some extent--I think out every shot and analyze everything--it kind of lays out really nicely for a big CGI movie."  Expect a lot more colors, the director of The Happening said. "This fantasy movie may seem as if it's coming out of nowhere, but it's not," he said. "You'll see the seeds of it in Unbreakable and in Lady [in the Water] and in Signs, all of them a little piece of this and that, and the formality of The Village and the things in it should all go, 'Oh, I get it, these are all the colors of his personality.' As opposed to 'I don't get these other ones, how they relate.' Do you know what I mean? It should be more of an honest palette."  Shyamalan said that Airbender, which is based on the animated TV series, is very spiritual. "And sometimes in my movies, like Signs, they're more overt, but sometimes--like in The Happening--they're more about faith, and not necessarily religious faith. So when he steps outside, it's really just a holy moment."

06/12/08 - Director M. Night Shyamalan said recently that he's excited to be directing The Last Airbender, a live-action fantasy-adventure movie based on Nickelodeon's animated SF/action/martial-arts series Avatar: The Last Airbender.  "It has martial arts and spirituality and the supernatural, and it has Buddhist philosophy and Hindu philosophy--really, everything I talk about--all in one movie," Shyamalan said.  "It has a mythology," Shyamalan added. "It's Shakespearean. It's all this incredible stuff, and it has a balance. All these movies are plays on magic, whether it's Lord of the Rings or The Matrix or Star Wars even, and each one of them relates to me in a different way, in its belief system."

04/16/08 - Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies will release M. Night Shyamalan's live-action big-screen adaptation of the popular animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender on July 2, 2010.  The creators of the Nick TV series were heavily influenced by Japanese anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. The storyline revolves around a young hero who has the ability to manipulate the elements and stop a ruthless nation from destroying the three other nations.

AlienAlmanac.com    2009