We are officially entering “Avatar” season.
With the long-awaited “Avatar: The Way of Water” finally debuting in theaters this Christmas, James Cameron and Disney have decided the way to get you properly amped for the sequel is to re-release the original film in theaters. And now a new trailer and poster have debuted for the release, which will be hitting theaters “in 3D and all formats” next month (September 23).
The poster is a close-up of Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri character, which is both striking and pretty impressive considering the movie came out (deep breath) 13 years ago and the visual effects still look that good. The same can be said of the trailer, which trumpets the movie’s 4K restoration in high dynamic range (hopefully signaling a 4K Blu-ray home video release is also on the way) and reminding us all what a wild ride “Avatar” really was.
“Avtar” stars Sam Worthington, Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver. Worthington plays Jake Sully, an injured Marine who undergoes a super secret and highly experimental procedure, bonding with an “avatar” of an indigenous species on a jungle moon called Pandora that is being colonized and mined by the evil Resources Development Administration. (The “avatar” was meant for his brother, who was killed.) Once there he falls in love (both literally and figuratively) with the people and by the end has fully become part of their culture. He also gets to ride a really cool dragon.
The sequel, co-written by Josh Friedman, takes place more than a decade after the first film. Jake and Neytiri have a family, evil Colonel Quaritch has been brought back to life using an even more experimental RDA program, and the plundering of Pandora continues. Also: we’re being introduced to a tribe that exists in the seas of Pandora, which should be very cool and speaks to Cameron’s continued love of and fascination with the ocean.
From now until the end of the year expect Disney to roll out an impressively aggressive array of new products and initiatives, with new action figures, LEGO sets, comic books and clothing to accompany the re-release of the original film and the release of the sequel. Even before buying Fox, Disney had invested heavily in the “Avatar” brand, building an impressive, elaborate land devoted to the property at their Animal Kingdom park at Florida’s Walt Disney World, complete with one of Disney’s very greatest attractions, Flight of Passage. Also there’s a place that sells cheeseburger bao buns. (This is what they’re eating in the future apparently.)
“Avatar” is re-released in theaters Sept. 23. “Avatar: The Way of Water” opens Dec. 16.
