Academy Award® winner Joe Letteri and Weta Digital have signed on to create visual effects, creatures and digital environments for James Cameron's much-anticipated and innovative new motion picture, Avatar. "Weta has proven themselves a leader in visionary effects, especially in the area of performance capture based character animation, which is a big part of my new film," says writer/director James Cameron. Cameron continues "Along with their world-class capability comes a genuine passion to blaze new trails and to entertain a global audience with groundbreaking techniques. I'm really looking forward to the collaboration with Joe and his team." Academy Award® winning producer Jon Landau adds "Weta has an incredible depth of creative talent that has continually proven their ability to create technological innovations that allow filmmakers to tell stories which could not otherwise be told. They have the unique ability to seamlessly integrate these technologies into the movie in ways that the audience never questions the reality of the cinematic presentation. We look forward to pushing Joe and his team even further down the road of photorealistic visual effects." [More]

August 1, 2006 - On Friday, July 21, 2006, Universal Studios Home Entertainment offered a preview of the forthcoming King Kong (Deluxe Extended Edition) at the San Diego Comic-Con in southern California. The clip was introduced by none other than Peter Jackson himself, who spoke to fans via a pre-recorded message. Included below is a transcript of Jackson's comments: "Much as I would love to come over to California for the summer but unfortunately I've just got so many things to do out here that I can't do what I really want to be able to go shopping at Comic-Con one day - that's what I want to do, shopping, buying toys..." [More]

A ton of interesting new films are out on DVD this week. Take an early look on our 'DVD Tuesday' feature...every Monday! Check out 'V for Vendetta: Two-Disc Special Edition' starring Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving. Star Trek Fans voted online for their favorite Klingon episodes form the Star Trek television series, the result is 'Star Trek Fan Collective - Klingon' & 'Good Night and Good Luck' in HD DVD. [More]

LONDON, July 24 (IranMania) - Veteran dubber Jalal Maqami and co are making the acclaimed director Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” ready for the summertime airing of the blockbuster in Iran, MNA reported. King Kong is the 2005 Academy Award-winning remake of the original 1933 King Kong. The remake is about an overly ambitious movie producer who coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape. Produced by Jackson and Fran Walsh, written by Jackson, Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the film stars Naomi Watts in the role of Ann Darrow, Jack Black as Carl Denham, Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll, and through performance capture, Andy Serkis as Kong. [More]

It's been dubbed the jewel in the filming crown of Peter Jackson and partner Fran Walsh, and the key to the future of the Wellington film industry. Miramar film production facility Park Road Post spans 10,000 square metres and includes three apartments, a gym, cafe and cinema, and has 65 staff. But it is the equipment, including three "floating" sound cinemas cushioned on a compound of lead and rubber, that is its true asset, marketing and brand director Gareth Ruck says. "The reason for this is the city's airport (is so close) but you'll never hear a jet." No one is sure of its exact cost, but $50 million is seen as a conservative estimate. [More]

A ton of interesting new films are out on DVD this week. Take an early look on our 'DVD Tuesday' feature...every Monday! Check out 'Final Destination 3: Thrill Ride Edition', silly comdey 'The Benchwarmers', and a film called 'Scorpius Gigantus', this B-movie is about a giant scorpion on the rampage! [More]

Zach sends along a picture of the artwork for the Kong Deluxe Edition from Joblo.com. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

"King Kong" Barnette writes: I want to let all the King Kong fans know about Kong being nominated at SpikeTv's Scream Awards 2006! Please go to spiketv.com and vote for King Kong and Naomi Watts in the Scream Awards 2006 Poll! The Awards show will air in October. [More]

From Latino Review: We were treated to a video message from Peter Jackson, who was driving in his car toward Wellington. Peter gave us a little intro of what to expect on the DVD. The disc is prepared differently than the web diaries, which didn't show a whole lot of the production, to keep a lot of the aspects of the movie secret. But now that the movie is released, he's free to show us all the cool behind the scene technical stuff! He's also including extended cut scenes he wanted to put into the final movie, but wasnt able to for what ever reason. So, he went back and had WETA finish them up and now they are included in the extended DVD version. We were shown one of the cut scenes. [More]