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At a press junket earlier this summer for 2012, Roland Emmerich told reporters he's not doing any more blow-'em-up flicks. "I would not know how to top this... It's just one of these things, you know. I had a hard time deciding to do another disaster movie, but... you cannot make a disaster movie if there's not something --- an idea in this disaster which elevates it to something more than a disaster. And so it was this idea, you know, that there will be a global flood and it's a retelling of Noah's Arc."

Later he added, "It's not my last film, it's my last disaster film. And that's because I wouldn't know what else to do. It's just, you know what, I really didn't want to do this movie at first... But when I decided that the idea was too good to not do it for the reason I had done before, I said, okay, if I do it, I will do it in such a spectacular manner that nobody can top it for a long time. I have that pride in my work."

I don't know how many moons orbit Cameron's fantasy planet Pandora, but I'm just going to assume they're currently all heading for alignment. Screen Daily tells us that Avatar's two-months away release in China has caused no less than four of its own would-be blockbusters to hide from the giant shadow the blue cat-people will inevitably cast when they debut there January 1st. Zhang Yimou's remake of the Coen Brother's 1984 directorial debut Blood Simple has now decided to bow closer towards the beginning of December. Same goes for the road movie Wu Ren Qu, The Pang brother's fantasy/action sequel The Storm Warriors, and the sci-fi western Treasure Hunter (starring Jay Chou, who America will soon know as Kato in The Green Hornet).

Now I understand that few people who read Cinematical are going to be affected by the release date shift of those four films, but what makes this news worth paying attention to is the fact that these changes slot Avatar into a position in which it could conceivably earn its budget back from Chinese cinemas alone. The biggest time of the year for the Chinese box office is the three month window that covers Christmas, New Year, and the Chinese Lunar New Year and now that these four domestic films have made way for an international usurper, it means Avatar will be taking over a whopping 80% of China's screens during its most crucial box office season.

It's no secret that James Cameron's Avatar has been fighting an up-hill battle for years. Film geeks, particularly those who spend most of their time online, are a tough crowd to uniformly please, so early buzz on the film was as much an excitement accelerator as it was a dare to dislike. When the first trailer for the film was at long last unveiled back in August, it was met with incredulous, befuddled cries of "Is that it?"

If, like myself, you were disappointed with that first teaser, and if, like myself, you avoided Avatar Day and any subsequent new marketing tactics outside of the normal trailer build up, then maybe this new, full trailer for Cameron's return to science fiction will be the first time you set aside your cynicism and think "Alright, I get what all the fuss is about now." This second trailer is nearly identical to the international trailer that has been making the online rounds lately, except there's one huge difference: this isn't a blurry hint of things to come. Yahoo has the debut, and we all know that means a crystal-clear, HD if-you-want-it look at the alien world of Pandora.

Unlike the first trailer, there's no teasing going on here; this is an exposition-heavy tour of the film's plot, characters, and, most importantly, alien Na'vi. Not only do we have more than one line of dialog now, but we're given context-relevant glimpses at what will, I no longer doubt, be the must-see spectacle film of 2009.

Click on over to Yahoo and check it out. If this expanded foray into jungle battles doesn't get you pumped for December 18th, I don't think anything will.

Feelings are mixed about The A-Team movie, and Entertainment Tonight's on-set visit doesn't shed a whole lot of light on the plot. Naturally, one of the team members (Bradley Cooper as the old Faceman) and the one lady in the movie (Jessica Biel as Amy Allen) used to date, and there's some undercurrent of drama between them. Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, who is taking over Mr. T's star-making role as Bosco Baracus, does sport the Mr. T hairdo (I pity the fool who calls it a hairdon't) but claims there will be "more muscle, less gold." And Bradley Cooper gives us some diet tips.

"No salt or sugar. That's been greeaaat. I just eat what they put in front of me, but it's a lot of, like, boiled chicken and brown rice and broccoli."

I'm going to go eat a hamburger in his honor.

Two stand-out people they didn't talk to include Liam Neeson and District 9's breakout star Sharlto Copley. I'm very curious to see if Copley can parlay his first role in a big-budget US movie into stardom. I hope so, because I thought he rocked in District 9, as anyone who has ever heard me screech "PRAWNS!!!" in a restaurant can attest.

Did this video make you any more or less excited about the movie? Personally, I'm going with no.

Watch ET's set visit after the jump along with an inspirational YouTube video of Mr. T's song "Treat Your Mother Right." Just because.

The wonderful people at Empire have landed a big interview with Lauren Shuler Donner where she foretells the future of all the X-Men spinoffs. Not surprisingly, the majority of their energy is being focused on Wolverine's adventures in Japan, and he'll be seeing production long before Deadpool, X-Men: First Class, and Magneto. While it's heartening to hear they don't plan on straying from the Chris Claremont / Frank Miller story, I'll need an amnesia bullet to forget at all the continuity errors in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so I'm not going to hold my breath.

The best news belongs to the Deadpool spinoff. According to Donner, you can forget all about the abomination called Deadpool in Wolverine. "I want to ignore the version of Deadpool that we saw in Wolverine and just start over again. Reboot it. Because this guy talks, obviously, and to muzzle him would be insane." Don't look for Hal Jordan to jeopardize the future of Wade Wilson, either. "I don't see it as a problem that Ryan [Reynolds] is also playing Green Lantern. I mean, look at Harrison Ford - he was in Stars Wars and Indiana Jones at the same time and everyone was fine with that. Green Lantern could not be more different to Wade Wilson." Donner promises it will be a "dark, snarky, very funny movie," echoes Reynolds' fourth wall promises, and stresses it may be one of the hardest stories Fox has handled thus far.

Donner also made X-Men: First Class sound a lot more promising than previous stories did, but maybe I'm just softening on the idea. As you may remember, First Class will be loosely based on the comic series and will follow the early adventures and schooling of the X-Men we already know and love.

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Before our generation comes to a close, all of ancient history and mythology will have been filmed through a Zack Snyder / Frank Miller lens. Variety reports that the next ancient text to get the green-screened sepia treatment is the tale of Moses. Yes, Ten Commandments Moses.

20th Century Fox and its new big dog, Peter Chernin, have snapped up a pitch to retell "Let my people go!" in 300 fashion, and put Adam Cooper and Bill Collage to work penning a script. You might not remember their names now, but they're also pairing up with Timur Bekmambetov to remake the story of Moby Dick in a 300 "graphic novel style." Variety notes that all the elements you know and love from the story of Moses will be there (the Red Sea, the plague of locusts, the golden calf) but they will also incorporate "brand new elements" drawn from Midrashic sources. I wonder if they'll also find a way to include the scene with Zipporah rescues their son from the Lord by circumcising him? Because they could do some slow motion blood splatter with that.

Being an irreligious sort, I find the idea silly instead of offensive but it's possible that a lot of moviegoers could find this very disrespectful to their faith. Will it spur on copycat projects? Will other studios go "Why didn't we think of the Bible?", abandon Greek texts, and start producing 300 versions of Maccabees? Judges? 1 and 2 Kings? There's a lot of gory tales just waiting to be revamped with green screen.

When you think of a man of brawn who can outwit the ruthless Predator, you think of two men: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Adrien Brody. What, you didn't picture that last one? Well, Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal did. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brody and Topher Grace are both set to join Alice Braga, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Walt Goggins, Danny Trejo and Oleg Taktarov in Predators, a franchise reboot of sorts that will follow several of earth's "killers" who are kidnapped and dropped on the Predator's home planet for a game of hide, seek and be brutally murdered.

All joking aside, Brody and Grace's unassuming demeanors will be a big part of their characters. Brody will play a soldier forced to become a leader (presumably because the Predator killed the old one), but is fit for the job because he's "a hunter of men." Grace will play a nerdy, accountant type whose very ordinariness hides the fact that he's a serial killer.

The rest of the cast is a little better suited for the lethal jungle. Braga will play a tough female killer, while Ali is a man who is unafraid to die. Goggins is a loose cannon (there's always one!) and Takatarov will be a former Russian operative. But baddest of them all is Trejo's Cuchillo, "a hardened warrior with two uzis strapped to his back." I don't know about you, but my leader would be the one with the twin uzis. That's just me though.

Shooting begins next month in Hawaii, and then moves to Austin. Variety notes that Brody lobbied very hard for the role, and has already signed on for future installments. So, I guess we know which operative makes it out of the jungle ...

Will a video game movie based on a game with no characters or storyline whatsoever be more successful than a Max Payne or Tomb Raider? Fox and EA are going to give it a shot and find out, as Variety reports that they are setting up Spore as a feature film. Chris Wedge is attached to direct, with Greg Erb and Jason Oremland writing the screenplay.

Spore is a colorful, family friendly game that allows you to build a variety of fanciful creatures. But perhaps most notably, it allows you to evolve them. Your creatures start out as microscopic organisms, develops into a complex animal, and becomes a social and intelligent creature. You help guide its society from a primitive stage all the way to space travel. It's a very organic game not only in its single-player conception, but because it allows you to share your creatures and your worlds with other gamers, and create a comprehensive universe at the Sporepedia. Fittingly, the Sporepedia acted as kind of historical documented, and recorded everything glorious and dubious about the player created worlds.

So, when a game is all about playing Supreme Being, how do you make a movie out of it? Wedge isn't sure yet, but he feels the property is rich in possibility. "I'm always looking for unique worlds to go to in animation. From every perspective -- visually, thematically and comedically -- the world of Spore provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen." It might just create something quite original off, if they kept a bit of evolution in its storyline. Haven't you always wanted to see a cartoon picketed by Kirk Cameron?

Last night saw attendees of the Real D-sponsored Fantastic Fest greeted with an extended look at footage from James Cameron's forthcoming Avatar, and with it (for me at least) a more defined shift in expectations for the long-awaited film. The footage -- more often than not composed of extended scenes from Avatar Day -- still looks terrifically realized in 3-D, but the bits and pieces of story filled in by producer Jon Landau between scenes and the voice-over of Sam Worthington's character during them suggest something a little less... rapturous.