As you’ve probably heard, August 21 was officially declared “Avatar” Day by Fox a few weeks ago. As you’ve probably also heard, that is the day that “Inglorious Basterds” opens. This led to much speculation that there was some kind of beef between the Fox/James Cameron camp and The Weinstein Company. Even we thought they were having a tiff. The Weinsteins then countered by adding a sneak peak of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” prior to ‘Basterds.’ Just when you think you can’t take anymore of this back and forth feud between two Hollywood powerhouses…they kiss and make up [ed. and or we all made a fuss out of nothing, which is entirely possible].
It was announced today that tickets for the 16-minute trailer for “Avatar” will start distributing online on Monday. 101 Imax theaters in the U.S. and Canada will be showing the extended trailer which includes an on screen intro by Cameron. Also on Aug. 21, normal 2D and 3D trailers will begin showing in theaters worldwide. Greg Foste, the Imax Filmed Entertainment chief, pretty much summed it up, “I think it’s going to be a bit of a stampede.”
The extended trailer will be playing before “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “Post Grad,” and (drum roll please) “Inglourious Basterds,” among others. So it looks like all the hoopla about “Avatar” vs. “Basterds” was nothing more than gossip and hearsay (and or phone calls were made that said, “wtf!?” and then friendly compromises were made). What a shame, we were really hoping to see James Cameron and Harvey Weinstein face-off in a duel. There can be only one. [THR]
