Director James Cameron has made a lot of big-time films with big-time special effects: “Aliens,” “The Terminator” and that little movie called “Titanic,” but he told Reuters Television in an interview for “Avatar” day that nothing compares to the upcoming space adventure that will land in theaters December 18. 

In promotional material, the 20th Century Fox film studio that is backing the movie describes it by saying: “Avatar takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization.”

Cameron says: “This was my chance to rage, to do big-time design, to design creatures, to design plants, floating mountains, all these incredible landscapes. So this is something that I’ve wanted to do for ages and ages.”

As we told you a few days ago on the Fan Fare blog, (click here) Fox is pulling out all the stops to promote the expensive new film. Today — “Avatar” day – Fox is debuting the movie’s promotional trailer’s in theaters around the world, and in some Imax and other venues equipped for 3D Fox will show select scenes from the film in three dimensions.  The trailer can be seen online, too. 

Cameron told Reuters the 3D effects are a big part of the movie, and something he’d been wanting to explore since making “Titanic.” “I spent a number of years after ‘Titanic’ doing deep ocean expeditions around the world and I was really waiting for the technology to catch up so I could do a film like ‘Avatar’. We were working with 3D camera systems and I wanted to shoot a movie in 3D.

“With ‘Avatar,” Cameron continued, ”we’ve gone beyond not only what I had known previously, but I think what Hollywood in general has been able to do up until now … This is fundamentally different and I think you sense it at a very deep level that it’s fundamentally different.”

It is fitting for director James Cameron that 20th Century Fox is pulling out all the stops to promote his new 3-D, effects-filled spectacle of a movie, “Avatar,” which will land in theaters on December 18. After all, Fox released Cameron’s “Titanic,” and 12 years after its release it continues to be the highest-grossing movie of all time with $1.8 billion in global ticket sales. Nothing else even comes close.

But Cameron hasn’t made a big-budget Hollywood flick since “Titanic,” so “Avatar” comes with some risk. To mitigate the possibilty of a big ol’ box office dud, Fox is promoting the heck out of “Avatar.” It was featured at the recent Comic-Con event in San Diego and on Monday, Fox said it is holding a worldwide “first look” day for “Avatar” anticipators on Friday, Aug. 21. That’s this coming Friday.

Fox will debut the movie’s promotional trailer’s in theaters around the world, and in some Imax and other venues equipped for 3D, Fox will show select scenes from the film in three dimensions.  The trailer will be in all formats and can be seen online. An upcoming video game and toy action figures will be unveiled, too. It’s an “Avatar” extravaganza – Fox style.

The studio describes the film by saying: “Avatar takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization.”

Fans can reserve tickets to the big day at http:www.avatarmovie.com. And if you’re lucky enough to get one, tell us what you think of the film clips. We’re dying to know what Cameron has cooked up, too.

It’s not easy making love in Hollywood — at least not in front of movie cameras.
    
Actors Leonardo DiCaprio, 33, and Kate Winslet, 32, had a lovemaking scene in the upcoming drama “Revolutionary Road,” which was directed by Winslet’s husband, Sam Mendes. Winslet said filming the scene took some adjustment.
    
“I just kept saying, ‘This is too … weird,’” Winslet told Entertainment Weekly magazine. 
    
“And Leo was like, ‘Oh get over it.’ And I’m going, ‘Yeah, a little reminder: You’re my best friend. He’s my husband. This is a bit weird,” Winslet told the magazine.
    
For DiCaprio and Winslet, the sex scene was a reprise of sorts, because they had some steamy on screen lovemaking together in the 1997 blockbuster hit “Titanic.”
    
Actress Rachel McAdams, 31, the Canadian-born star of “The Notebook” and “Mean Girls,” took a similar position on love scenes in an interview with the New York Times publication T Magazine.
    
“A kiss with anyone, on or off camera, can be intimidating,” McAdams said in the interview, which was featured on the magazine’s Web site on Friday.
    
“I’ve been kissing for nearly two decades now and I’m always convinced I’m not doing it right. Chemistry is so important in a great kiss. You can act your way through anything, but it’s hard with a kiss.” 

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)