Movie Moron informants Ben and Jason Helms suffered monstrous lines only to be blocked out of the Avatar screening by an enormous crowd of Twilight fans.
For those of you what don't know, Avatar is the upcoming 3D live-action film from the director of Aliens, Terminator, and The Abyss.
While they couldn't see any of the footage they were able to snag this awesome bit of news:
On August 21st, James Cameron will screen 15 minutes of footage at select IMAX theaters for free. Apparently this will be a special free screening, not tagged on to the beginning of another film like such previews in the past.
Whether the footage will be the 2D or 3D version is unclear. But either way, it's a brilliant marketing strategy that suggests the producers feel the product is strong enough to sell itself.
Here is the entire misadventure from the man who lived it, Jason Helms:
"Avatar: A new thriller from the king of blockbusters, James Cameron, and possibly the most anticipated film of this year's Comic-Con ... and this is as close as we got:
We left Los Angeles at 7am, plenty of time to get to the 3pm showing in San Diego. The blogosphere had been shivering with excitement over the purported twenty-minute sneak preview. My brother and I couldn't wait ... well, maybe we could. Turns out we could wait for two and a half hours before even getting to the freeway because of a semi-truck accident!
We didn't get to Comic-Con until 1pm. Still plenty of time, right?
For those of you who've never been to Comic-Con, the wait for the big stuff can sometimes be over an hour long. We figured our two hour head start was plenty. However, we neglected to account for the Twilight tweens.
Twilight had a sneak preview just before Avatar, meaning there were roughly five thousand 12-year-old vampires camped outsite Hall H. This left only fifteen hundred open seats. Fortunately, the Twighlighters left just before our event. Unfortunately, nobody at Comic-Con noticed. We were held at the door with just a few people between us and the goundbreaking 3D footage. The doors shut and the event coordinators said the hall needed to be dark for the clip.
The twenty minute clip.
The exclusive, twenty minute clip of the most anticipated movie this year.
The scene outside began to grow ugly. Teeth gnashed, babies wailed, mothers offered their children to the mercies of the event staff ... to no avail. I believe I actually heard a seven-year-old dressed like Yugio call a security guard a "f**king c********.
I waved my press badge like a crucifix, trying to part the sea. Alas, it was too late. We had been passed over. Thumping explosions and distorted dialogue let us know that the movie had, um, explosions and dialogue. Other than that I can't tell you much. There's going to be a free sneak preview at select Imax world wide on August 21, which we unanimously declared International Avatar Day. So there's that.
Did I mention it's in 3-D?"Stay logged on to Movie-Moron all weekend for Comic-Con updates. Later tonight we should have write-ups about KICK-ASS and THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS!
July 24, 2009, 03:32:44 PM
