James Cameron on 'The Hobbit' and 3-D 'Hurt Locker'

I'm not sure James Cameron is taking credit for it, but he tells The Herald Sun that he had been talking to Guillermo del Toro about leaving The Hobbit, which is exactly what eventually happened.

"I was telling him for a long time to get out of that thing because there is only room for one captain on the ship. Instinctively I knew that Peter was going to take over and do the movie. Guillermo, to his credit, didn't listen to me and wanted to continue and had some great designs - and I have seen all the designs. Of course he would have done a spectacular job, but don't we want to see Peter do it? He should do it and Guillermo should do his thing. That's what I told both of them - you should just stay in your corners."

I tend to agree with him; del Toro would have been constantly and perpetually compared to his own producer and co-writer, no matter how good The Hobbit would have turned out to be under his stewardship. Of course, if you look at what Jackson's done since Lord of the Rings, he needs the return to Middle Earth as much as it needs him.

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MTV Movie Awards Promo: Bieber vs. 'Hurt Locker'

Here's hoping this is the last time I mention Justin Bieber here at The Big Picture. (Actually, he's supposed to land a role in New Year's Eve, that follow-up to Valentine's Day, so I've killed two Biebers with one stone.)

The teen sensation plays a major role in this new promo for the MTV Movie Awards, which also features host Aziz Ansari and The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner. Oh, and 4-D technology. You heard me. I don't expect the Movie Awards show to live up to the promos; it hasn't in years. But Ansari's funny and this year's crop of commercials is pretty solid. The show airs next Sunday, and Twilight will win everything.

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Piracy E-Mailer Incurs 'Hurt Locker' Producer's Wrath

We wrote last week about the mission Voltage Pictures is on to prosecute Bit Torrent users who have illegally downloaded The Hurt Locker. Now there's a strange update to the story.

A reader of BoingBoing named Nicholas sent Hurt Locker producer Nicolas Chartier an e-mail denouncing his company's practice of trying to sue those who downloaded the film. Earlier this year, Chartier's e-mails negatively campaigning against Avatar for the Academy Awards got him barred from the event. While the reader's e-mail is not confrontational, really, he's still on the wrong side of the issue. Contrast that with Chartier, who's in the right, but is astonishingly brash. He's not doing himself or his cause any favors. Here's the exchange:

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'Hurt Locker' Producers Going After Movie Pirates

The Hurt Locker made the least amount of money at the box office of any Best Picture winner in 50 years, and even then, relatively speaking, The Apartment did much better than its $18 million in the US would indicate. But could some of that revenue have been siphoned by online piracy?

That's what producers of the film are charging, and they're coming after P2P users who downloaded the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Voltage Pictures is partnering with the US Copyright Group, a company that sniffs out "tens of thousands" of BitTorrent users and will be going after them one by one. It's an interesting case study for a couple of reasons. First, as a multiple Oscar winner, it's by far the highest-profile movie yet that USCG has represented. Second, because Hurt Locker was leaked online almost half a year before it arrived in theaters last summer, a by-product of having premiered at film festivals back in 2008 and then showing up in international theaters shortly thereafter.

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Oscar Rewind: Interview with Jeremy Renner

We blitzed through a bunch of stuff last week because the Academy Awards were coming up, but there was only so much we could fit into Oscar Week. One item we neglected to get to, which may actually be more timely now that The Hurt Locker won Best Picture and should see its home video sales and rentals skyrocket, is an interview we did last summer with Jeremy Renner.

I still think Renner would have ultimately been the heavy favorite in the Best Actor race, minus the late arrival of Jeff Bridges (he was only given the push because it was perceived to be a wide open category; the film wasn't initially scheduled for a 2009 release). And when you see now how quickly Up in the Air and Invictus faded from Oscar memory, that seems to be about right. In any case, Renner was the strongest representatitve in that field before November. So here's our rather lengthy chat with the Best Actor nominee, from the year's Best Picture winner. It took place in July and there are a couple minor spoilers, just for the purposes of adding context to questions and answers, but nothing that would kill your enjoyment of the film.

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