Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ To Be Released In Two Versions?

I stumbled upon an interesting article about James Cameron’s latest project Avatar, to be released this December. Apparently the highly anticipated next-gen film endeavor will not just break new grounds the way it is shot, but also the way it is released.

Thanks to an audio recording by the folks over at Marketsaw of James Cameron’s recent appearance at the Santa Monica Aero Theater we are now privy to some interesting info concerning the director’s new baby. To sum it up quickly, the film will be released in two different aspect ratios depending on whether you view it in 2D or 3D.

“For Avatar we’re shooting in a 16:9 ratio, we’re extracting a cinemascope ratio from that for 2D theatrical exhibition, and for 3D theatrical exhibition we will do, in the theaters that can, we’ll be in the 16:9 format and the theaters that can’t we’ll be in the scope format. Because I actually think that the extra screen height really works well in 3D. It really pulls you through the screen. So I’m actually going back on years of kind of eschewing the kind of 1.85 format, now saying 1.85 – or actually, it’s 1.78:1 – actually works really well in 3D. But only in 3D. I still like the scope ratio compositionally for flat projection.”

It will be interesting to see how differently the director’s vision translates with the film’s 2D and 3D versions. You can listen to the whole audio recording here.