Disney, Cameron to create theme-park Avatar

September 21, 2011

LOS ANGELES, Sept 21 Moviegoers pining for a return to the lush moon of Pandora in James Camerons film Avatar will finally get their chance first-hand.

Walt Disney Co is teaming with the Oscar-winning director and News Corp unit Fox Filmed Entertainment to mimic the thriving green landscape depicted in the highest-grossing movie of all time in a section of its Orlando, Florida, theme park.

Avatar director Cameron, who is Lightstorm Entertainment chairman, does not lack imagination. Here he speaks on Renaissance now in imagination and technology during the Seoul Digital Forum 2010. Reuters pic
Under their agreement, Disney won exclusive global theme park rights to the Avatar franchise. It will begin building from 2013 and will eventually take Avatar lands beyond Orlandos Disney World.

Our goal is to go beyond current boundaries of technical innovation and experiential storytelling, and give park-goers the chance to see, hear and touch the world of Avatar with an unprecedented sense of reality, Cameron said in a statement.

At a news conference, Cameron said that when he began talks with Disney designers, he quickly realised their vision for this thing was far beyond what I imagined, and Ive got a pretty good imagination.

The estimated cost for the Orlando project was about US$400 million (RM1.2 billion), a source familiar with the matter said. Construction should take about five years.

Planning is in the early stages, and executives gave few details on how Disney would recreate the fantasy world of Avatar and the creatures that inhabit it. The section will be located within Disneys Animal Kingdom park.

Avatar, the 2009 film that chronicled the struggle of the alien Navi against marauding resource-ravenous humans, grossed almost US$3 billion worldwide and triggered the current renaissance in 3D-film ! making. Cameron is planning sequels to the blockbuster hit, which surpassed his own Titanic as the highest-grossing movie in history.

The first of the Avatar sequels was set for release around Christmas 2014, Cameron said.

Disney chief executive Bob Iger said the company planned to bring Avatar to other locations beyond the Florida park. We think we can clearly leverage the global interest in this property, Iger said.

The company is deep into several big theme park projects, including building a new park in Shanghai and adding a 12-acre section, set to open next year based on the animated Cars films, to its California resort.

Disney typically works with its own movies when developing themed sections and rides. It does have some attractions based on films from other studios, including the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Reuters


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