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In creating the journey of Aang, Shyamalan not only provided an odyssey for the prospective audience member, but also a trek of a more personal nature. Says the filmmaker, “‘The Last Airbender’ is intended to be a fun and action-packed entertaining summer movie, but underneath, it does address some serious topics, like the domination of one race over another, and balance, and connection to the planet—and all those things that interest me that you have seen in my other films. This whole process has been such a great growing experience for me, not just as a director, but as a human being—because I am a complete control freak, and when you have as many layers on a movie as we did with this one, you have to surrender controlling every aspect of a scene. Doing that made me go back a little bit and become a student again. And anytime you can become a student again, that is the way to do it.”
Concludes Shyamalan, “This film is just the beginning, as this is really one long-form story. Aang has to master all four elements and, in the end, acquire serenity. He was born into one, Air, but he still has to master Water, Earth, and then Fire, and that will conclude our trilogy. All in all, I deeply felt this was an important movie to be made.”
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies Present A Blinding Edge Pictures / Kennedy/Marshall Company Production of An M. Night Shyamalan Film: “The Last Airbender,” starring Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub, Aasif Mandvi, and Cliff Curtis. The visual effects & animation are by Industrial Light & Magic. The music is by James Newton Howard. The co-producer is Jose L. Rodriguez. The costume designer is Judianna Makovsky. It is edited by Conrad Buff, A.C.E. The production designer is Philip Messina; the director of photography is Andrew Lesnie, ACS, ASC. The executive producers are Kathleen Kennedy, Scott Aversano, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. “The Last Airbender” is produced by Sam Mercer and Frank Marshall, and is based on the series “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The film is written, produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. TheLastAirbenderMovie.com

ABOUT THE CAST

Academy Award® and three-time Golden Globe winner ANGELINA JOLIE (Evelyn Salt) continues to be one of Hollywood’s most talented leading actresses. Most recently, Jolie starred in Clint Eastwood’s acclaimed film Changeling, for which she received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Actress, as well as nominations from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Broadcast Film Critics, London Film Critics and Chicago Film Critics.

Jolie also starred in the 2008 box-office hits Wanted, the fantasy-thriller directed by Timur Bekmambetov, and DreamWorks’ animated film Kung Fu Panda, opposite Jack Black. In 2007, she starred in Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf and Michael Winterbottom’s critically acclaimed A Mighty Heart, the dramatic true story of Mariane and Daniel Pearl. Jolie’s performance in A Mighty Heart earned her nominations from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Broadcast Film Critics and Film Independent’s Spirit Awards.

Her upcoming films include The Tourist, in which she co-stars opposite Johnny Depp for director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

Jolie’s previous films include The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro and co-starring Matt Damon; Mr. & Mrs. Smith, co-starring Brad Pitt; Alexander, directed by Oliver Stone and co-starring Colin Farrell and Anthony Hopkins; and the action-adventure Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, with Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. She lent her voice to the animated feature Shark Tale, directed by the creators of Shrek, which also featured the voices of Will Smith, Robert De Niro and Jack Black. Jolie also starred in the Warner Bros. thriller Taking Lives, with Ethan Hawke. In 2003, she played the lead role in the action-adventure Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, the sequel to director Simon West’s 2001 box-office smash Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and portrayed a relief worker for the United Nations in the provocative drama Beyond Borders.

In 2001, she starred in Original Sin, opposite Antonio Banderas for Gia writer/director Michael Cristofer. The previous year, she was seen with co-stars Nicolas Cage and Robert Duvall as car thieves committing their final heist in the smash hit Gone in Sixty Seconds, for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. She was also in the romantic comedy Life or Something Like It. Jolie’s portrayal of a mental patient in Girl, Interrupted garnered her an Academy Award®, her third Golden Globe Award, a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, ShoWest’s Supporting Actress of the Year Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. The film, based on the true story by Susanna Kaysen, was directed by James Mangold and co-starred Winona Ryder.

Prior to that, she played a rookie police officer opposite Denzel Washington’s veteran detective in the thriller The Bone Collector, directed by Phillip Noyce. She also co-starred in Mike Newell’s Pushing Tin with Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack. Playing by Heart earned her the National Board of Review’s award for Breakthrough Performance–Female; this character-driven drama, directed by Willard Carroll, featured an all-star ensemble cast, including Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands, Madeleine Stowe, Ellen Burstyn, Gillian Anderson and Dennis Quaid.

The HBO film Gia earned Jolie critical praise as well as a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of supermodel Gia Carangi, who died of AIDS. Jolie also received an Emmy nomination for her role opposite Gary Sinise in director John Frankenheimer’s George Wallace, a period epic for TNT about the controversial governor of Alabama. The film earned Jolie her first Golden Globe Award and a CableACE nomination for her portrayal of George Wallace’s second wife, Cornelia.

Jolie also co-starred with David Duchovny and Timothy Hutton in director Andy Wilson’s Playing God. Prior to that, she starred in Hallmark Hall of Fame’s four-hour miniseries presentation True Women; directed by Karen Arthur, it was based on Janice Woods Windle’s best-selling historical novel. Jolie also starred in Annette Haywood-Carter’s much-acclaimed Foxfire and Iain Softley’s Hackers.

A member of the famed MET Theatre Ensemble Workshop, Jolie trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and has also studied with Jan Tarrant in New York and Silvana Gallardo in Los Angeles.

Jolie has also received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. She was the first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award from the United Nations Correspondents Association, as well as the Global Humanitarian Action Award in 2005. In February 2007, Jolie was accepted by the bipartisan think tank Council on Foreign Relations for a special five-year term designed to nurture the next generation of foreign-policy makers.

Jolie is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She helped push through the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act and founded the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, an organization that provides free legal aid to asylum-seeking children.

Widely considered one of the finest actors of his generation, LIEV SCHREIBER’s (Ted Winter) repertoire of resonant, humanistic and oftentimes gritty portrayals has garnered the actor the strongest praise in film, theatre and television.

His most recent choices only continue this path. Schreiber recently starred opposite Daniel Craig and Jamie Bell in Defiance, a World War II-era drama directed by Edward Zwick. The three actors star as Jewish brothers who escape from Nazi-occupied Poland to the forests of Belarus to join the resistance and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and others in danger. Most recently Schreiber starred in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as Victor Creed, the beastly nemesis of Wolverine, a role revisited by Hugh Jackman. In this prequel to the hit X-Men trilogy, Jackman’s Wolverine is keen on seeking revenge against Creed (who is secretly the mutant Sabretooth) for killing his love. With a screenplay by David Benioff, Wolverine was directed by Gavin Hood.

Schreiber also recently starred in Taking Woodstock, Repo Men, and Every Day.

The Painted Veil, also starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, was released in December 2006. Schreiber has also starred alongside Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington in The Manchurian Candidate, Julia Stiles in The Omen, Ben Affleck in The Sum of All Fears, and Hugh Jackman in Kate & Leopold, and starred in Mike Newell’s Love in the Time of Cholera. Utilizing his theatre and Shakespearean background, Schreiber starred as Laertes in Hamlet, across from Ethan Hawke. Schreiber also starred in The Hurricane, the acclaimed biopic starring Denzel Washington, as well as opposite Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen in A Walk on the Moon.

Schreiber is also an accomplished stage actor. His portrayal of Ricky Roma in the 2005 Broadway revival of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” earned Schreiber a Tony Award. In the summer of 2006, Schreiber returned to the stage in the Public Theater’s production of “Macbeth” opposite Jennifer Ehle, directed by Moises Kaufman. Shakespeare in the Park’s “Macbeth” was staged at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. In early 2007, Schreiber returned to Broadway to star in Eric Bogosian’s “Talk Radio.” This first Broadway staging of “Talk Radio” opened at the Longacre Theater in March of that year, and Schreiber was nominated for his second Tony for his portrayal of radio host Barry Champlain. Earlier this year, Schreiber was nominated for a third Tony Award, for his performance in “A View from the Bridge” on Broadway.

Schreiber has also made use of his deft technique working in television. Truly making a name for himself with his portrayal of Orson Welles in HBO’s RKO 281, Schreiber again worked with the network for the emotional Lackawanna Blues. Schreiber’s expressive voice is also showcased in his voiceover and narration work, taking center stage for prominent pieces on HBO and PBS. One of America’s foremost narrators, Schreiber has lent his voice to sports documentaries such as Mantle, :03 Seconds to Gold, and A City on Fire: The Story of the ‘68 Detroit Tigers, as well as the PBS documentary series NOVA and Nature.

In 2005, Schreiber made his directorial debut with Everything is Illuminated, adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s bestselling novel of the same name. Prior to publication of the novel, Schreiber read an excerpt in The New Yorker, secured the rights himself, wrote the screenplay and subsequently brought the project to Warner. The film, starring Elijah Wood, was recognized by the 2006 National Film Board as one of the top ten films of the year.

On Location: Going Greenland
Despite its pastoral name, most of the continent of Greenland is an icy landscape. With the commencement of principal photography, production traveled to the tiny, already scouted coastal town of Ilulissat, Greenland (the town’s literal name means “iceberg”). There, all scenes of Katara, Sokka and the village of the Southern Water Tribe would be filmed.
Going all the way to Greenland for filming definitely shows the filmmakers’ commitment to authenticity. The site is accessible only by a small plane, and the temperatures during shooting sometimes dipped well below zero. Yet, to capture the stunning views of snow-covered hills against clear blue skies and a sea riddled with icebergs, all of the effort was certainly worth it.
Says producer Sam Mercer, “We felt strongly that the beginning of the movie should feel like a very real beginning to a journey. We came to Greenland because there is nowhere in the world like it; it is a one-of-a-kind landscape with icebergs, water and glaciers, all in the same place.”
Producer Frank Marshall (who had previously shot there) says, “One of the great things about this location for the actors is that they are among the real elements, so their performances are genuine. They are able to respond to being in the record cold temperatures in a natural and normal way. When we needed a location that called for ice, icebergs and no trees, we knew exactly where to go.”
As nothing could be left to chance, all details were gone over repeatedly. Continues Mercer, “After the challenge of transporting our equipment by ship in enormous containers from the U.S., we then had a huge checklist for every department, covering everything, from how you keep people warm while they are working, to how you keep the cameras from freezing.”
So the filmmakers, cast and crew—who were asked to “pack a little patience” in their suitcases—ventured to Ilulissat for the first nine days of filming “The Last Airbender.” All cast, crew and gear were then transported to remote locations just outside of Ilulissat via helicopter. To use the location to its fullest, scenes were filmed in multiple locations, from atop a frozen lake, to teetering on the edge of an ice cap. The main location while shooting in western Greenland was the Southern Water Tribe Village, constructed against the stark backdrop of icebergs floating in Disco Bay. Building began two months prior to principal photography, and production designer Messina remembers, “None of us had ever built anything like this in an extreme environment before. We had paintbrushes freezing over before the first paint stroke was applied.” In all, the crew numbered some 150, and was comprised of workers from the U.S., Greenland and Denmark.
The village featured 11 full-sized igloo structures, which had been molded out of fiberglass in Philadelphia, transported piecemeal and reassembled on location. The set was dressed with animal hides, pottery, handmade drums, fish and netting borrowed from the locals. Antique wooden canoes were provided, courtesy of the local Ilulissat museum. Ironically, in between takes, the snow-covered igloos served as warming rooms for the cast, thanks to the presence of portable heaters inside.
The set was constructed upon government land protected by UNESCO World Heritage, which dictated that certain rules and regulations had to be obeyed. For one, the art department was not allowed to touch the ground with any of their building materials—so, all structures were bolted to the thick icy surface that rested on top of the soil.
In addition to the village where Katara and Sokka live, filming also took place in front of the strange frozen orb where the pair discover Aang. That set was built using mostly snow reinforced with Styrofoam.
One might expect a lag in technology in such a remote place, but that is not the case. Just prior to the arrival of the film company in Ilulissat, Tele-Post Greenland installed a high-speed Internet cable that ran thousands of miles under the sea. This technology was able to transport shot footage (that was then processed in Copenhagen) back through the Internet cable to the filmmakers’ computers. Dailies could then be viewed in the comfort of the production office rooms at the Hotel Arctic.
Necessity is the mother of invention, and all departments had to adapt their customary work habits to fit in the extreme climate. Ivana Primorac adopted the local practice of drying in the out of doors, despite temperatures well below zero—wet wigs soon froze, and when the ice was chipped away, a dry wig was revealed underneath. Extra care had to be taken when applying hair pieces (which would often go damp from contact with the skin)—all had to be completely dry before attaching, to prevent the piece from freezing to the performer’s head. Molds of the performers’ hands were taken, and latex castings were worn as gloves for added warmth. A skin-colored cap was created and stenciled for Noah Ringer, to protect his shaved head during wide shots. Actors were underdressed with extra layers of silk underwear, and costumes were reinforced with high performance polar material. Shoes were built on padded and insulated platforms, to keep actors’ feet from coming in close contact with the ice.
Despite the challenges of filming in such a foreboding place, Pablo Helman’s VFX team also discovered opportunities for adventure. The courageous crew spent several days on a large fishing boat, filming background plates of the towering icebergs. Per Helman: “The icebergs can tip over with no warning. The VFX department loved every minute of the adventure.” There was also an aerial unit that filmed the endless vistas from a helicopter’s overhead point-of-view.
Concludes Shyamalan, “The Greenland landscape won’t ever be the same. It is constantly moving and changing. Hopefully, we captured some of that uniqueness on film.”
It is precisely that landscape—along with the countless man hours of labor spent in building the world of “The Last Airbender”—that will prove magical to the audiences. Explains Dev Patel, “This film has that real aspect of escapism, where you can just go to the movies and be escorted into a different world for a couple of hours. We’ve created this fairy tale land with all these different nations, with all these fantastical creatures, and people manipulating these elements. To me, that’s a great thrill ride.”

Al Maunah: The Malaysian Arms Heist
Premieres 22 August 2010, Sunday at 9pm
Available in Bahasa Malaysia & Chinese subtitles

It was Malaysia’s largest military weapon heist that turned into a hostage crisis and a 5-day standoff with the police and army.

On July 2nd 2000, 15 men disguised as high-ranking army officers stole over 100 military-grade weapons and thousands of ammunition rounds from two Malaysian army camps. Police suspected the weapons were for regional terrorist groups. But not far from the crime scenes, Sauk villagers reported gunfire behind their school.

Two Special Branch police officers were sent to investigate but ended up as hostages instead. In the unfolding crisis, more hostages were taken, two of them tortured and murdered.

Malaysian police and army intelligence revealed that Al-Ma’unah, an Islamic deviationist cult, were responsible for the heist and hostages. Over an arduous 5-days, psychological warfare was used to try to persuade the cult to surrender peacefully. But an ultimatum from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to end the hostage crisis by Day 5, leads to a police-army confrontation with Mohamad Amin, leader of Al-Ma’unah.

With two hostages already dead, it was up to police commando Abdul Razak bin Mohd Yusof and Army Field Commander Zaini Mohamad Said to complete their rescue and recovery mission with no further casualties.

ABOUT THE STUNTS

With Angelina Jolie in the lead role, the filmmakers were limited only by their imaginations when it came to the action and stunt sequences in the film. “Angelina is very much into doing all the action herself,” says Simon Crane, who directed the second unit and coordinated the stunts. Crane had collaborated with Jolie on many films prior to Salt, including Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Mr.& Mrs. Smith. “She’s really game for anything.”

“I think it’s great when a movie star is willing to put themselves out there because it makes you stay in the moment even more as an audience member,” says producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. “She’s pretty fearless.”

“I love doing action movies,” explains the actress. “I’ve always loved to run and jump around and be physical.”

Jolie felt particularly safe working with Crane not only because of their longstanding professional relationship but because Crane is simply one of the best in the business. “He started out as one of the great stuntmen,” says Noyce. “In Cliffhanger, there’s an amazing midair transfer – that was Simon. The greatest, most exciting war sequence I’ve ever seen – the D-Day sequence in Saving Private Ryan – that was coordinated by Simon. The greatest fight sequence I’ve ever seen – in Braveheart – choreographed by Simon. The greatest swordfight, in Troy – Simon. The guy is a living legend. He’s seen it all and done it all. He takes the audience by the seat of their pants and plunges them into the scene.”

Crane says he was gratified by the opportunity to re-team with Jolie. “She was always trying to find or come up with new ways of doing action,” he says.

In one major action sequence, Salt, cornered by her pursuers, makes a bold leap off a freeway overpass and lands on top of a moving truck on the highway below. Salt’s pursuers follow her in an SUV, and arrange a roadblock, forcing Salt to take some dramatic evasive actions in the middle of a six-lane thoroughfare.

Working from an animatronic storyboard designed over the previous months by Phillip Noyce, Crane and his team spent several weeks on the highways of Albany, New York, planning, rehearsing, and shooting this complex sequence. The Route 787 and Route 20 interchange next to downtown Albany matched DC’s highways, and caused little traffic disruption when exit and entrance ramps had to be closed for filming.

Crane, working closely with stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood and Jolie’s stunt double Eunice Huthart, planned the shot. “That’s really Angelina on top of the vehicles,” says Crane.

“I trust them so much with their rigs and harnesses,” says Jolie. “Instead of feeling scared, it’s like working with the circus for the day, and you get to play. They know me and they know what I can do, and what I’m not very good at.” Citing another sequence, in which the actress walks a ledge twelve stories up in her bare feet, she says, “I happen to like heights, so we’ve found these moments where I can use that.”

Jolie also worked with Crane and his team to develop the fight style that her character would employ. “Because I’m a girl and I’m light on my feet, we naturally went to styles like Muay Thai, which is very long and beautiful,” Jolie says. Muay Thai employs the “Art of Eight Limbs,” in which not only fists are used to make strikes, but also elbows, shins, and knees. “But then we realized it wasn’t as practical a fight if you have face-to-face combat, and it didn’t look as aggressive,” says the actress.

So Jolie and Crane and his team added Krav Maga, a more brutal form of fighting developed in Israel and used by the FBI and American special operations forces, to Salt’s fighting technique. “She fights secret service guards in the film,” notes Crane. “You can’t have her take those guys out too easily, or it would soften the whole film. Salt is very efficient – she doesn’t really want to kill anyone.”

“There’s a tremendous amount of running in this film, more than I care to mention,” jokes Schreiber. “Running in dress shoes and a suit – Harrison Ford always made that look so easy, but it is not easy. I spent the first two weeks of this film with shin splints, icing my legs every day.”