Opposing visions... both M Night Shyamalan (left) and James Cameron (photograph: David Levene) have films called Avatar in the works
Great minds, of course, think alike - as do, it would seem, those of James Cameron and M Night Shyamalan. Both have simultaneously announced plans for new movies called Avatar.
For Cameron, the project will be his first feature in a decade after the worldwide success of Titanic (itself 10 years long). His Avatar is, as one might expect from the maker of Aliens and The Terminator, a sci-fi action/adventure in which an ex-marine is sent to colonise a planet called Pandora - although, as always with Cameron, nuanced narrative may occasionally be trumped by sheer spectacle. "We're going to blow you to the back wall of the theatre," the director has promised, to a muffled chorus of cowed whimpers.
In the case of Shyamalan, his Avatar comes after a less triumphant aquatic venture, last year's Lady in the Water - an ill-fated project that infamously revolved in part around "scrunts", demonic pig-beasts made of what looked to be heavy vegetation. Yet, apparently undaunted, the writer/director is now set to return with what is promised to be a martial arts-influenced fantasy based on a popular animated kids' show.
Thus far, the clash of Avatars has yet to be resolved, with Cameron and Shyamalan each claiming to have registered theirs first. Cameron's people were quickest to comment, however, with a statement to Variety that: "We own the movie title Avatar. There won't be another film called Avatar coming from any place."
Personally, I just hope all of this doesn't result in an ugly, time-consuming battle in the courts. After all, that would deprive the world of my own favoured solution, a sumo contest between Cameron and Shyamalan in matching fat-suits, with the winner allowed to use the footage as a DVD extra, and the loser having to change their title to Lady in the Water 2: The Passion of the Scrunt.
