Zoe Saldana is no stranger to playing action heroes on the big screen, but this week she can add real hero to her extensive resume after some quick thinking, sharp instincts, a little elbow grease and a little bit of luck helped her save a real person’s life.

The 33-year-old actress rushed to the side of an elderly woman who had gotten into a car accident on Wednesday in Culver City, California.

“Zoe witnessed the car accident, and was very quick to help,” said one witness. She “immediately got on the phone with 911 and she seemed very concerned.”

Saldana was joined by another passerby, and they both pulled the woman from the wreck to a nearby curb. The woman was conscious, but injured. They called 911 and waited on the curb together for the police and paramedics to arrive. The witness added:

“While waiting for help to arrive, Zoe returned to the woman’s car and picked up the woman’s handbag and sweater. Zoe was very caring and sweet to the woman.”

Saldana’s representative had no comment regarding the incident.

Though getting her start in bit roles (Crossroads, Drumline, The Terminal) her breakout role came in 2000 with the film Center Stage. She has since appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Star Trek, and James Cameron’s box-office record-breaking hit Avatar as Neytiri, the female lead opposite Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully. She recently appeared as the lead in the film Colombiana, and is expected to reprise her roles in Star Trek and Avatar sequels.

What do you think of Saldana’s heroic actions?

Zoe Saldana Heroically Aids Elderly Woman in Car Accident is a post from: The Inquisitr

With James Cameron’s Avatar banking more than $2.78 billion worldwide we knew it was only a matter of time before writers began claiming he stole the idea and now a second lawsuit has been filed against the director and his production partners.

The newest lawsuit comes to us courtesy of Bryant Moore, a science fiction writer who says his screenplays for Aquatica and Descendants: The Pollination were used to create the world of Avatar and it’s major themes.

In the lawsuit, filed quite some time after the movie was released in theaters and on Blu-ray and DVD, the writer says similarities exist between the bioluminescent flora/plant life on the planet of Avatar along with a likeness to the following aspects of his screenplay:

Unbreathable atmospheres, matriarch support of hero vs. heroine, spiritual connections to environment and reincarnation, appearance of mist in scene, sunlight to moonlight, crackling from gargantuan foliage, blue skin/green skin and battle scene on limbs/branches.

Not only is he going after James Cameron he’s also filed suit against 20th Century Fox. Moore is asking for more than $1.5 billion in actual damages and $1 billion in punitive damages.

It should be noted that every single one of his claims have long been used as generally accepted possibilities in science fiction books, movies and even comics. To claim that he created the “matriarch support of hero vs. heroine” for example is ridiculous and we’ve seen plenty of movies and read plenty of books with “unbreathable atmospheres” (hardly a new concept outside of fiction storytelling).

When all is said and done this case will end up where the one before it did, nowhere.

James Cameron Sued For $2.5 Billion, Another Avatar Copyright Lawsuit Emerges is a post from: The Inquisitr

Actor Joel Moore has filed for divorce from wife Kineret Karen Ben Yishay Moore. Moore, best known for his role as Norm Spellman in Avatar and Colin Fisher on the Fox hit series Bones was wed on New Year’s Day 2009.

The couple separated in June of this year and TMZ is reporting that it was Joel who officially filed for divorce on Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

According to the filing the divorce was caused by the standard ”irreconcilable differences.”

The couple have no children together and there doesn’t appear to be any outward public animosity on the part of either partner at this time.

Avatar Actor Joel Moore Files For Divorce is a post from: The Inquisitr

Titanic is coming back to the big screen and its coming back in 3D. James Cameron’s massive Blockbuster will get a complete 3D makeover before it hits theaters in April, 2012.

Cameron said:

“This is a film that many people have seen, obviously, sometimes multiple times, but there is a whole generation of people who haven’t seen it in theaters.”

Cameron and producer Jon Landau showed 18 minutes of 3D film at the huge screening room at Paramount Studios.

Cameron said:

“I love the 3D, I think it’s spectacular. If I had had 3D cameras at the time, if there had been 3D theatres at the time, I would certainly have shot the film in 3D.”

According to Sky News, Titanic is the second highest grossing film of all-time (Avatar, another Cameron film, is number one). The movie, which stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet, won 11 Oscars in 1997, including Best Picture and a Best Director for Cameron.

Cameron hasn’t announced any plans yet, but the director did say that there are several classic films that could benefit from a 3D makeover. Could the Terminator get the 3D treatment?

“I do believe that there is an array of 10 or 20 movies – think of the best movies of all times – that should be converted in 3D, but it has to be done right. I firmly believe that 3D is an enhancement even for just normal, narrative scenes, not necessarily the action scenes. That feeling that you’re right there, actually with characters, enhances the emotional interaction between the audience and the film.”

Do you think Titanic will be better in 3D?

Titanic 3D: James Cameron Unveils First 3D Scenes From Titanic is a post from: The Inquisitr

In the digital age, people are going to steal. It’s going to happen and there’s no stopping it. According to James Cameron, the director of the most pirated movie of all time, the movie industry needs to enrich the movie going experience so people will want to go to the theater instead of pirating a movie.

Cameron said during the CTIA wireless tradeshow:

“In film we have definitely felt threatened by piracy. We saw the music industry crash and burn in its efforts to stop it. But with 4G and Moore’s Law, you can’t fight it…. People are discriminating about the experience. They want to own it, have it on a iPhone when they want it, and they want the social experience of going to the cinema. These are really different experiences. And I think they can all co-exist in the same eco-system.”

Judging by the numbers, it’s hard to tell if Cameron’s theory is right or wrong. His movie, Avatar, is the most pirated movie of all time. It also had the biggest box office take in movie history. So did people pirate the movie first and then decide that they had to see it on the big screen? Or did they go to theaters, and then decide that they wanted to watch it again at home?

Either way, it doesn’t look like illegal downloads are hurting the movie business. Every movie on this list (with the exception of Kick-Ass) grossed more than $200 million worldwide.

Here are the top 10 most pirated movies of all-time, according to Torrent Freak.

Avatar – 21 million downloads (Made $2,782,275,172)

The Dark Knight – 19 million downloads (Made $1,001,921,825)

Transformers – 19 million downloads (Made $709,709,780)

Inception – 18 million downloads (Made $825,408,570)

The Hangover – 17 million (Made $467,483,912)

Star Trek – 16 million downloads (Made $385,680,446)

Kick-Ass – 15 million downloads (Made $96,188,903)

The Departed – 14 million downloads (Made $289,847,354)

The Incredible Hulk (2008) – 14 million downloads (Made $263,427,551)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Made $963,420,425)

Do you pirate movies? What about music? Are illegal downloads good or bad for business?

The 10 Most Pirated Movies of All Time [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’re a fan of James Cameron’s box-office smash hit Avatar you’ll soon be able to take a ride on themed attractions from the movie at various Walt Disney Resort locations.

The Hollywood Reporter says the rides will arrive by 2013 and will be launched at Disney Parks around the world.

The move comes after Disney had launched a popular Back to the Future theme in the 80′s and 90′s (now defunct) and follows the highly successful launch of the “Wonderful Wizarding World of Harry Potter” at Universal Orlando.

There’s even better news for Cameron fans, he’ll be consulting Disney on the project, ensuring the experience is as true as possible. According to THR:

“The first themed ‘land’ will be built at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with construction expected to start by 2013. The first Avatar attraction will be inside the Animal Kingdom park. Disney said this was chosen because “with its emphasis on living in harmony with nature, Animal Kingdom is a natural fit for the Avatar stories, which share the same philosophy.”

Two years later (2015) Cameron will release two new editions to the Avatar movie series, just in time for fans of the movie to take in the park and beg for more Avatar in theaters.

Will you be attending the Avatar supporting parks to get a closer look into the imagination of James Cameron? I might not make a long trip but I’ll definitely be heading to my local theater when the movies debut.

Disney To Launch “Avatar” Themed Rides At Parks Around The World is a post from: The Inquisitr

When you first sign up at Facebook you get a default avatar of a white portrait figure on a pale blue background but have you ever wondered who modeled for each of the two avatars, male and female, and what they might look like?

Well now you get to peek behind the avatar and see the person.

via John’s Graphisme

A peek at the human model behind the Facebook avatar is a post from: The Inquisitr

Developer Crytek says Hollywood director and occasional grump James Cameron has seen Crysis 2‘s 3D visuals, and “loved what he saw.”

Crytek president Cevat Yerli tells this anecdote in the latest issue of Edge magazine, before going on to make a big claim – that Crysis 2 boasts 3D visuals as impressive as those seen in Avatar:

“I’ll even claim it’s the same as Avatar’s status in 3D. James Cameron has seen Crysis 2, and he loved what he saw because his eyes are trained for 3D more than anyone else’s, and that makes me confident that we have a super-high-end 3D experience on all formats.”

“His eyes are trained for 3D more than anyone else’s”? Utter tosh there, but still, Crysis 2 is looking beautiful enough in 2D, as you can see by looking here. Sadly, I won’t be able to judge Yerli’s claim as I’m yet to see Avatar in 3D, and possess a PC that chugs when tackling games from six years ago.

[Via Edge]

Crytek: 3D visuals in Crysis 2 on same level as Avatar is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you didn’t already know, I regard buying virtual clothes and props for your little Xbox Avatar is silly pointless the death-knell for all humanity.

But look, I’m not here to judge. If you choose to buy one of the five Halo: Reach armor outfits now available for your Avatar on Xbox Live Marketplace, that’s fine. What’s that? They’re $5 each? Ahahahahaha. Scrap everything I just said, you need your head checking.

Seriously though, this is a pretty cunning move by Microsoft. You can already unlock a bonus Avatar helmet in Halo: Reach – I know because half my damn friends list is wearing it – so quite a few peeps will be tempted to get the matching armor. Clever girl.

Anyway, here’s a list of the different types of armor on sale – they’re 400 Microsoft Points each, and you can see/read more about them here:

- Carter SPARTAN 259 Armor
- Emile SPARTAN 239 Armor
- Jorge SPARTAN 052 Armor
- Jun SPARTAN 266 Armor
- Kat SPARTAN 320 Armor

[Xbox Live Marketplace, via Joystiq]

Virtual Halo: Reach armor now on sale, $5 a pop is a post from: The Inquisitr

Avatar was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama this evening, and heads into the Academy Awards as a short priced favorite for Best Picture.

The award for Avatar followed director James Cameron picking up the best director award earlier in the evening.

Even if Avatar isn’t successful at the Academy Awards, the picture is heading for new records, and is currently set to become the highest grossing film of all time.

Director James Cameron took the opportunity to say that those in the room had the best jobs in the world, and said that he believed that Avatar represented the best of cinema.

Avatar Wins Golden Globe For Best Motion Picture Drama is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a positive sign for Avatar going into the Academy Awards, James Cameron was tonight awarded the Golden Globe for Best Director.

In a clear and concise speech (vs some of the others earlier in the night) Cameron thanked the crew and the actors who made Avatar possible.

Notably he also gave a quote in Navi, the language of the aliens from the film.

At the end of the speech, Cameron thanked the spouses for the four and a half years it took to make the film, then concluded in thanking his wife.

Cameron will likely head into the Academy Awards as the favorite to when the directing Oscar.

James Cameron Takes Best Director At The Golden Globes is a post from: The Inquisitr

Avatar director and thin-skinned man James Cameron had a few words to say about “fanboys” who dared to suggest that his blockbuster Avatar has borrowed the visual style used in Microsoft and Bungie’s series of Halo games. Speaking to G4 about the comparisons between the two, Cameron muttered:

“The funniest thing is when some of the so-called fanboys get up trashing Avatar for looking too much like Halo. Pay attention. If I’m referencing anything, I’m referencing the source work for Halo, which is my own stuff. So I get to do that. Nobody else gets to do that, but I get to do that. My rule, anyway.”

Calm down, JC! Mind you, as arsey as Cameron is getting about this, I do actually agree with the narcissistic old sod here – in fact, sci-fi games as a genre owe a hell of a lot to Alien and its ilk. As resplendent as the first Halo game was (before the series began going slightly downhill), it probably owes Cameron a pint or three.

In other James-Cameron-talks-gaming news, the Canadian director says he could see Avatar having a life of its own as a game series, even if a film sequel was never made. Of course, there already is James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, though apparently it’s, er, a bit rubbish.

[Via G4]

James Cameron gets pissy over Avatar/Halo comparisons is a post from: The Inquisitr

How original is the storyline in Avatar? As we said in our Avatar review, the storyline is tried and tested, and as the image above shows, it’s really just Pocahontas in space.

(via TheNextWeb)

We Told You So: Avatar = Pocahontas is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’ve completely missed the hype around James Cameron’s Avatar so far, give yourself a prize…well, if you can afford one because you’re probably living in the cave.

As Avatar sails past a staggering $1 billion at the box office, I relented and sat down at my local cinema to see what the fuss is all about.

This is one movie that is best seen on the big screen in 3D vs a pirated copy. The hype about the visuals is well deserved, with the CGI seamlessly blending into a believable yet alien landscape of flying natives on dragon like creatures. It is visually stunning, although as some sites have reported, the massive overdose of 3D can make you a little queasy; at one stage I nearly felt sick, although the box of Maltesers I’d eaten at that stage probably wasn’t helpful.

Where Avatar falls down and doesn’t deserve 100% praise is the Dances with Pocahontas story line, or as others have suggested, yet another white man colonial guilt film. Some spoilers ahead.

The premise of the movie is simple: white men with trinkets try to win over natives, natives (who are in “touch” with nature) resist, white man comes hunting. The Dances with Pocahontas part comes when the star of the movie changes side, appreciating the natives and helping them fight the nasty white men who have come to destroy their lives.

I don’t use the term white man lightly either: there may have been some African American or Asian bit players in the movie, but the main characters are all white (and within white I include Latinos.)

From about 15 minutes into the movie you work out what’s coming next because it’s not only predictable, it’s a tired old story line that we’ve seen time and time again in movies. The obvious difference is the 3D alien world, but replace the Navi with Indians and bingo, you have a dozen movies that have already been made. Io9 has a good write up on the story line here.

Overall

I’m happy to recommend the movie only on the basis that the visuals are something quite amazing, but don’t go and see Avatar if you’re expecting something original or interesting when it comes to story telling. They say this is the beginning of Cameron’s own Star Wars like trilogy, and although elements of Star Wars were borrowed, Star Wars was truly a monumental movie that in the whole bought something new to the screen in both visuals and story telling. Avatar is just CGI porn in 3D, but it can be appreciated on those grounds alone.

3/5 stars.

Avatar Review: Damn Pretty, Shame About The Dances With Pocahontas Story Line is a post from: The Inquisitr

I was reading Zee’s post over at The Next Web about the massive about of data created and stored in the making of the blockbuster movie everyone knows as Avatar.

It turns out that the entire rendering of the movie required over 1 Petabyte of storage space which according to Clickbits is the equivalent of 500 hard drives of 2TB each.

The movie was shot and rendered in Miramar, New Zealand, (population 8,334) in one of the most powerful purpose-built data centers in the world (same place they created King Kong and Lord of the Rings). According to Information Management, the computing core – 34 racks, each with four chassis of 32 machines each – adds up to some 40,000 processors and 104 terabytes of RAM. The blades read and write against 3 petabytes of fast fiber channel disk network area storage from BluArc and NetApp.

All the gear sits tightly packed and connected by multiple 10-gigabit network links. “We need to stack the gear closely to get the bandwidth we need for our visual effects, and, because the data flows are so great, the storage has to be local,” says Paul Gunn, Weta’s data center systems administrator.

Now this is totally not going to happen but could imagine the immense amount of creative energies from around the world that would be able to do incredibly creative things is all that data being stored was made available under some sort of Creative Commons copyright.

The idea of artists, filmmakers and other talented people being able to create new and potentially incredible derivative is mind-boggling.

Unfortunately the chances of something this radical ever happening is next t o nil, but one can always hope.

Imagine if all that Petabyte of Avatar data was available for mashing up is a post from: The Inquisitr

I understand that the movie industry is trying to find whatever they can to both increasing the number of people going to the movies as well as a way to try and stop movie piracy but this idea of counting on 3D movies to save their asses is not going to be their holy grail.

It’s not so much that movies currently in production are getting a 3D make-over or that any new movie in the pipeline is being rewritten to become a 3D movie but apparently movie companies are going back to the vault to re-release 3D versions of old movies.

I get that Avatar has prompted everyone to rethink their opinions about 3D movies but that doesn’t mean that the same process will work for future, current or past movies. As Alex Billington wrote in a post over at FirstShowing.com about this threatening trend

What would James Cameron think about all of this? We know that he doesn’t like converting live-action movies shot on regular cameras to 3D. Late last year, he publicly criticized Tim Burton for doing this with Alice on Wonderland, saying that it “doesn’t make any sense to shoot in 2D and convert to 3D.” So although it’s his beautiful movie Avatar that is causing Hollywood to go 3D crazy, I have a feeling that he wouldn’t be happy with everything they’re doing now. The studio execs are all hungry for 3D and are going to convert almost everything they can (including summer tentpoles). But will the 3D even look good? Probably not.

“You wouldn’t want to remake Star Wars, or Close Encounters, just because you can do it in 3D. It’s bad. Then you’re just back into terrible remakes of good movies,” producer Gavin Polone told The Wrap. Polone is developing the sequel to Zombieland, which as we already know will be in 3D as well. “Zombieland makes a lot of sense — it’s an action movie, there’s stuff coming at the camera. We’ll write to it. You don’t want to make a heavy drama that way.” Of course he’s right, but I don’t think that’s the concern. My concern is that Hollywood is going to convert every damn action movie to 3D just because Avatar made over $100 million.

This is another fine example of “just because we can do it doesn’t mean we should”.

Movies to go 3D in 2010 – gawd I hope not. is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well Avatar is a hit with just about everyone you ask raving about how good the movie is and how it is going to change how we watch them. The only problem is that there is a nasty side-effect to these 3D type movies.

Some people get really nasty headaches when they watch Avatar. Not just minor ones but the real down and dirty nasty types of headaches.

Mark Anderson at the ShadowLocked blog has a great explanation of why it happens for those that are curious but more important he also has a suggestion that will help alleviate or do away with the headaches that can come from watching 3D movies like Avatar. It all has to do with avoiding what is referred to as  the “circle of confusion” which is the ‘Don’t Look At This’ part in the image at the top of this post.

Checking out the ‘circle of confusion’ in Avatar is literally quite a headache, and counterintuitive to our enjoyment of the ‘baked and locked’ 3D planes that we are being presented with. Knowing that depth-of-field is all he has to play with if he’s not going to shoot rocks directly at us, Cameron doesn’t hold back – he relentlessly racks focus in scene after scene.

So the trick to avoiding a headache when watching this movie is to be obedient, and concentrate on the parts of the shot that the focus tells you are ‘important’. Once I understood this at the preview screenings last week, my headache began to clear up, but I was conscious too of the effort of having to ‘zip over’ to the next point of rapid-focus in order to keep up and preserve the 3D illusion.

image courtesy of ShadowLocked.com

How to avoid James Cameron’s 3D Avatar headache is a post from: The Inquisitr

Up until now, I have deliberately avoided buying clothes, costumes, or props for my Xbox 360 Avatar. My reasoning for this is simple: spending actual Earth money on not-actual clothing for an on-screen avatar is a money trap designed to catch fools.

I’m plainly in a minority, because Microsoft mouthpiece Major Nelson has now announced that pets will be available on the Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace from tomorrow, priced at 240 Microsoft Points each. You can choose from:

- Large Dog
- Pug Dog
- Dog in Bag
- Cat
- Siamese Cat
- Long Haired Cat
- Goldfish
- Guinea Pig
- Bird
- Snake
- Pony
- Monkey

Until I read “Monkey,” I was doing my usual sneering at idiots who buy virtual items for some crappy avatar. But now, my ridiculous desire for a little polygonal monkey means I’m going to look like a huge damn hypocrite. Gah. You can check out other animals at Major Nelson’s Flickr.

Of course, this will also allow us to answer a question that has troubled mankind for millennia: who would survive in a fight between a pug and a monkey? You can make them fight to a bloody death, right, Microsoft? Because that’s going to be a dealbreaker.

[Via Major Nelson]

Buy your Xbox Avatar a pet from tomorrow is a post from: The Inquisitr

Avatar, the much anticipated 3D sci-fi flick directed by James Cameron, is getting a game. Best of all, developer Ubisoft will be using the same technology as the film, so that the game is displayed in 3D (though only on Xbox 360 and PS3); it’ll probably be a lot more convincing than the Virtua Boy ever was. Cameron’s involvement is said to be “significant,” while several actors from the film will be lending their voices.

Announced over two years ago, barely a peep has been heard or seen of the game project, but here it is! It, uh, doesn’t appear very 3D, yet it’s undoubtedly lovely – these first screens aren’t too far from how the film looks. Eurogamer has a whole gallery of these available, so head here!

[Via Eurogamer]

Avatar the movie is getting a game adaptation – in 3D is a post from: The Inquisitr

Can’t find it on YouTube?

Fans and the internet hype generator have been getting all excited over the release of the new Avatar teaser trailer. It’s available on the Apple site, and we found it on Trailer Addict.

What do you think? Full of win or not worth getting excited over?

VIDEO: Everyone wants to see the Avatar teaser trailer is a post from: The Inquisitr