For those who are remotely curious... yeah, all two of you... I am, in fact, not dead.
Now that the Collector's Edition of
Avatar has been released and it's various deleted and extended scenes are now available, I am now able to finish the DVD release of
Pandora which includes new additions and several cuts that weren't present in the V1 AVI release. New elements for the fanedit's V2 cut currently include:
- uses the alternate "Future Earth" opening, replacing the original theatrical cut's opening (cuts around a third of Jake's internal monologues)
- cuts the scene in the jungle introducing the four-armed lemur/monkeys creatures (no, I don't remember its name)
- adds in the new scene of Jake, Norm, and Grace visiting the abandoned Navi school
- uses the extended "training" montage sequence, along with the new scenes of Grace explaining to Jake what really happened to her Navi school
- adds in the new Sturmbeast hunt scene
- uses the extended love scene between Jake and Neytiri
- adds the new "Drums of War" sequence of Tsu-tey and Navi hunters bombing bulldozers, along with the humans reaction to its destruction
- adds the scene of Grace explaining that the Company destroyed the Navi's sacred site on purpose to provoke a violent response; in addition, I've also cut Jake's "This is how its done" speech (which was way too over the top and preachy, not to mention nonsensical at times).
- adds shots of Tsu-tey falling into the jungle after being shot
- Cuts Quaritch's "Nothing's over while I'm breathing" line before he fights Jake
- adds in the new "Last Shadow" sequence, where a dying Tsu-tey names Jake as the next leader of the Navi and has him ritually put him out of his misery
Additionally, I will be attempting... but make no promises... to add the deleted scene of "Pandora Rules" (where Quaritch expands on the rules of the Company's instillation on Pandora and belittles Norm for not paying attention) back into the film, along with possibly the "Breakfast With The Scientists" deleted scene. Unlike previous fanedits that I've done, this would be my first attempt at upconverting a 2.0 stereo audio mix into a 5.1 dolby surround mix (although technically it'd be more like building a new audio mix, much like what I did for certain scenes of my Episode 1 edit). If, however, my audio attempts aren't up to my quality standards, then I won't be including those scenes in the V2.
Lastly, I will be adding a black "scope overlay" matte over the top and bottom to give the film a 2.35:1 aspect ratio (to better match the video of the deleted scenes, which are in scope AR, with the film's video). Plus (and this is just my personal opinion), I think the movie actually looks better and more, well... "film-like" with a scope AR.