Avatar premier: stars gather at Hollywood Boulevard

Hundreds of fans gathered at the Hollywood Boulevard Wednesday to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars at the opening of the most-awaited sci-fi project, Avatar.

Avatar, which is set to hit cinemas Friday, is a 3-D motion picture strongly acclaimed by its critics.

Hollywood stars gathered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre, in the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Directed by James Cameron
, of Titanic fame, the movie had an enormous budget of $310 million!

Cameron considers himself an innovative storyteller
Cameron, who has been called a visionary, was accompanied by his wife Suzy Amis. He talked to the reporters for half an hour after which the film was scheduled to screen.

The director believed the success of the film will be due to the emerging technologies and the storyline, which he considers to be innovative.

“I'm a techno geek and I love the innovative processes, but I never put that before telling a story,” said the 55-year-old.

“I spent a lot of time in the writing; I spent a lot of time thinking about the characters. I love working with the actors finding the characters. I love the casting process, finding the actors that will bring those characters to life,” he added.

The cast
The 3-D film is expected to take cinema to newer levels. The whole cast came to support it.

Sam Worthington came with girlfriend Natalie Mark, while Sigourney Weaver, who plays Dr. Grace Augustine, came with Giovanni Ribisi.

Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez, Bill Paxton and Tom Arnold, also came to support the movie. Esteemed Fox co-Chairmen Jim Giannopoulos and Tom Rothman were also seen.

The story
The story of the multi-million project is centered around Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) who is wounded in combat on Earth. He is selected to participate in the Avatar program, which could enable him to walk again.

Jake travels to Pandora, an extraterrestrial planet filled with incredible life forms. Pandora is also where the Navis (a race stronger than humans) live.

When the humans attack them, the Navis’--who are otherwise peaceful--harmony is disturbed.

Jake, however, falls in love with a young Navi girl, Neytiri, and thus gets caught in the battle to save his planet.

The term Avatar is a Sanskrit word which means “descent” or “form of oneself”.