With exactly 1 year to go until The Last Airbender hits theaters in America, filming on the Paramount Pictures production has officially wrapped. Director M. Night Shyamalan and his crew of acclaimed filmmakers were at the Budd Co. building in Philadelphia, as well as the Beltzville State Park in Pennsylvania, shooting for the very last time. Filming started a little less than 4 months ago in Ilulissat, Greenland. In the time since then, shooting has taken place at several soundstages across Philadelphia, and at a number of locations across beautiful state of Pennslyvania.


(Shyamalan leaves the set of The Last Airbender. Photo by Rob Kandel The Morning Call.)

There will reportedly be 9-10 months of post-production work on The Last Airbender. ILM will be doing the visual effects. Conrad Buff will be editing the film. Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie will be color-correcting and adjusting each scene shot. Composer James Newton Howard will be composing and recording the original score. And countless other crew members will be working on various aspects of the film. Shyamalan, the producers, and studio executives will be overseeing all the work, and will help to create a marketing campaign for the motion picture epic. Stay tuned for Post-Production Updates - starting soon.

[source: Kathy Lauer-Williams of The Morning Call]

iFMagazine.com got the chance to talk to The Last Airbender director M. Night Shyamalan on the set of the film in Philadelphia. Check it:

iF MAGAZINE: What was the plan with this film and what were you trying to achieve, to re-invent yourself?

M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN: I have always wanted to develop a long mythology based franchise like THE LORD OF THE RINGS. I always thought about it, but I had, until now, never found a good one where I could also add a little bit of my personal vision. I really wanted to find a franchise where my accent could be complementary to the piece. So this was the best thing that could have happened is that I didn’t have a real agenda, but I was on the look for it and waited for the perfect situation.

I was offered other franchises, but passed. And then this one came from my own family – it was suggested by my children who loved the TV animated series. When I saw the cartoon I thought it was so well thought out in term of mythology. It had Buddhism, and martial Arts, and CGI [and it was] character based. And so I thought we could do a great job by using ILM and do something with lots of emotions and texture. I knew we could do something that wasn’t going to be just a great treat for the eyes, but also for the mind and the soul. This is my approach when it comes to getting into this type of material, to approach it through the characters and keep it grounded. It has also deeper issues at its core, it talks about Genocide and Balance, and the connection to the Planet. And you know from my other movies that I’m interested with these subject matters -- it’s an important movie, not just a blockbuster summer movie.

In a bit of non-movie related news, AvatarSpirit.net just posted a message from Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creator Bryan Konietzko announcing that he and Michael Dante DiMartino will be doing a signing at this year's San Diego Comic Con. The signing event is currently scheduled for 4:00 - 6:00 on Saturday afternoon, July 25.

We will be filming a documentary on the making of the television series, and we'll be taping our interactions with people while they get their new ATLA SDCC '09 posters signed (which I am drawing right now!). The producers of the documentary will be pulling certain people who make a great impression aside to film "testimonials" about what the series has meant to each of them.

Read the full message at AvatarSpirit.net. There is still no word on whether or not the film The Last Airbender will have a presence at the convention, however it seems doubtfull.

Production on The Last Airbender is nearing its end as it entered its last two weeks of filming this week. Yesterday filming took place at the Girard College campus located in Philadelphia. There is no telling what they were filming there, but looking at the photo producer Frank Marshall shared makes one wonder.



Today they are filming at Lake Ontelaunee in Reading, Pennsylvania. There were reports last month that the production would eventually find itself there. Looks as if those were accurate. They are reportedly using Fire Nation soldiers at this location.



Tomorrow filming is said to return back to Philadelphia to the Navy Yard for Northern Water Tribe scenes. Stick around for more updates.

So apparently Paramount Pictures invited a bunch of online reporters (none of which were from one of the several large avatar fansites *cough*) to visit The Last Airbender set in Philadelphia last tuesday. We reported earlier about SuperHeroHype and IGN being on set, well now we've learned of MTV and io9's set visits as well.

The lavish ice palace had gone silent. The Fire and Water nations were no longer waging acrobatic battle between its frosty walls, and from the snow covered steps to the blown-glass chandeliers hanging above the balconies, a beautiful tranquility had descended. Meanwhile, the production was in full, hectic swing across town, where another massive hangar housed another set for M. Night Shyamalan's gargantuan, fantastical adventure story. Packs of extras wearing Samurai-like battle gear wandered here and there. Workers drilled and sawed and hammered. And Shyamalan and his star, Dev Patel of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame, were in the middle of it all, filming a pivotal fight scene. [via MTV]

And concerning one of everyone's favorite mythical creatures:

But I know you all want to know, what of Appa the giant white Sky Bison who flies? You've been asking ever since the film was announced. How will is it even possible to bring such a mythical creature to life? While we got to glimpse the enormous white furry top half of the magical six-legged creature (who will be part mechanical and part CG, the top half being mecha for the actors). Production Designer, Philip Messina, answered our Appa questions, reassuring us all that "I think once you see him on screen, you will see the Appa from the cartoon realm brought to life, but [that] still has the essence of his character. He has a character and a personality, he's an actor in the film to some extent." [via io9]

[read the complete articles @ MTV and io9]