Jim Cameron's 'Avatar': Still no trailer?

According to a post from the AceShowbiz blog, James Cameron -- whose face surely appears in the dictionary, right next to the definition of "prickly perfectionist" -- has now refused to approve eight different trailers for "Avatar," his much-anticipated sci-fi epic that's due out this December from 20th Century Fox. The post says Cameron is now at work on his own trailer, and the tireless wonderers, who run the online rumor mills, are wondering about it surfacing in some form at ShoWest later this month.

My sources at Fox aren't so hot right now. And marketing chief Tony Sella never returns any of my calls. But it would hardly be a shock if Cameron is being especially prickly about how to best present the images from "Avatar." If the response to "Watchmen" over the past year is any indicator, the blogosphere tends to wildly overreact to every action -- or perceived action -- involving any hotly anticipated fanboy film.

As it turns out, the original post about Cameron's trailer displeasure, which came from the 3D blog MarketSaw, isn't exactly the kind of story you'd take to the bank. It's essentially a rumor-mill item, concluding with the disclaimer: "Strength of rumor: 8 out of 10 (trusted source)." (A disclaimer other bloggers somehow forget to pass along.) Rival studio marketers say its a little early to be worried about a trailer delay, since Cameron could easily wait until a big early-summer film, like Fox's own "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," to premiere the "Avatar" trailer.

Anyway, is rejecting eight different trailers really such a big deal? I doubt that the studios keep statistics on this sort of thing, but I'm guessing that if there's a record for most rejected trailers, David Fincher still has Cameron beat by a mile.   

Photo of James Cameron by Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press

Comments

[Alex Downs]

I think the most interesting aspect to this supposed delay in trailer by Prickly is that it is damn near impossible and surely difficult to present the wonders and inner-GPS experience of a ground breaking 3D film in pesky 2D trailer format. That is probably the biggest challenge facing the breaking of this flick. If it's good and even approaches the ecstatic experience that the writer in Time mag wrote about, word of mouth may carry it like a shot fired from Manny's canon, over the bleachers and outta the park.

But how do you market this magic and not make it crash and die, in a 2D trailer world.

Dig deeper into the reasons for 8 trailers and you may find more than the concerns of ordered images and sound.