Massive AVATAR Spoilers
Herein, we have some details on the story and sets from the upcoming James Cameron epic, Avatar.
Now big props go to the people over at MarketSaw who have managed to get their hands on some massive spoilers. Their caveat though is that while at one point this information was correct, it may have changed during filming.
First of all, they had three behind the scenes spoilers to give away;
ON SHIPS:
There were hundreds of workers building the sets for Avatar - MDF was being thrown around like candy to make the sets as realistic as possible - and it was very successful. The transport ships for instance achieved a "matte steel appearance" that was undetectable. Those transport ships look pretty much like the new Battlestar Gallactica transports, but much bigger - like ten times bigger. These sets filled the interior of the set buildings in Wellington - to the rafters. All very real looking and NOT scaled down - it was all life size.
ON THE MESS HALL BUILDING:
This is mainly where the security forces interior scenes were shot. It was large (30 x 30 feet) made to look like steel construction with only a few windows to view the outside world. The feeling that was conveyed with this structure was that the soldiers were trying to bring their own home with them to this alien planet Pandora, and ignore what was happening outside - kind of like what happens when soldiers are deployed overseas today and they set up coffee shops, etc to keep from feeling terribly homesick. On the wall of the mess hall was a large US flag that takes up half the space - something like 10 x 15 feet) - this could indicate political overtones for the movie.
ON OTHER BUILDINGS:
There were other buildings being made that were for science related things. My source only saw these labs from the outside and they seemed very true to their nature. I spoke to some other workers and they said that they look like typical laboratories - one larger lab (about 30 x 30 feet) and one mobile lab (which was about 6 x 15 feet). Sigourney Weaver's character who plays Grace in "Avatar" spends a lot of time in a control room in the bigger one.
But they also had some story basics;
ON THE ANIMALS:
Apparently the animals can communicate with the plants of Pandora, but my source was kind of hazy on that. Not only that, but the native Na'vi inhabitants take their own hair and weave it into the hair of Pandora's animals and can communicate that way to them!
ON THE PLANTS:
Many workers were talking about how they are using LED lights to show how plants "talk" to other plants on the planet. They use these lights to show how electrons move back and forth between plants through their root system. Again - my source didn't know much more than that. However, if you examine the plants in the photo here - you can see the luminosity that is being spoken of that seems to be present not only in the plants but also in the Na'vi natives of Pandora.
ON THE AVATARS:
A lot of speculation was taking place on the set about how the Avatar chambers work. This is where humans link up with their native avatars to kind of take over their bodies. The chambers were really very cool and if you can picture the cryo chambers in the Alien movies, take those and put them upright with a darker appearance. I suspect that Sigourney Weaver's Grace plays a key role in discovering the crucial communication methods and applying them to humans.
This is going to be an epic movie, and after all the hype, we can only hope that it lives up to everything we’re hoping for it.