Readers of The Cable Game know that in TCG's humble opinion, at least, the world of news is about to be transformed by the next communications revolution. And the big revolutionary force is going
If, as noted here in recent days, communication is about to take a quantum jump, to be as much as 260 times faster, then that's just one more reason while it will be possible, indeed, inevitable, that avatars are moving beyond such avant-garde outlets as Second Life, to more cautious users such as the Centers for Disease Control. (The picture above comes from Sitepal, an avatar vendor.)
And now, the latest evidence comes legendary director James "Terminator," "Titanic" Cameron. He is making a movie entitled, simply, "Avatar," and here's how The New York Times' Sharon Waxman described the forthcoming film:
"Sam Worthington, a young Australian actor, has been named to play the lead, as a paralyzed former marine who undergoes an experiment to exist as an avatar, another version of himself. The avatar is not paralyzed, but is an alien — 10 feet tall and blue."
"10 feet tall and blue"? You might laugh, but of course, if I described the plot for "Terminator" to you, back in 1984, you might've have laughed then, too. And of course, if I had told you back then that the star of "Terminator," Arnold Schwarzenegger, would be the two-term governor of Caleefornia, well, we all would surely have had a good belly laugh at the ridulousness of that prospect. So, having been humbled by events, we'll have to wait and see on Cameron's movie, although we do know that Cameron, who directed "The Abyss" when CGI technology was absolutely at the cutting edge, has a way of cutting ahead of the line, both technologically and also financially.
Yet what's really interesting to TCG is that Cameron is back, once again, in the 20th Century Fox fold. Which tells me--and the TCG has good intuition sometimes!--that there's more corporate synergy on avatars, as well as "Avatars," to come.
Underneath the News Corporation umbrella, now, are "Avatar," Myspace.com, the single most creative and imaginative mind in media, Rupert Murdoch, and the most dynamic force in television news, Roger Ailes. We can expect all these streams of synergy to come together, one of these days--one day soon, in fact.
Update: By coincidence, or whatever-ence, movie director M. Night Shyamalan also has a movie in the works, with Paramount, called "Avatar." The prospect of litgation aside, TCG can only say, "When it rains, Zeitgeistially, it pours!"
