IGN Movies has caught a sneak peek of the upcoming DVD release for Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Complete Book 2 Collection, on which director M. Night Shyamalan has a frank conversation with the show's creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino about bringing the animated series to live-action life.
"I really was looking for something to do where I could do these cool fighting scenes and everything," Shyamalan explains in the "Interview with Creators and M. Night Shyamalan" bonus featurette. "Avatar had such a beautiful way of doing that. The supernatural, with all of the elements -- that's another huge thing for me and it's kind of based in all of this eastern stuff; it's really beautiful ideas behind it."
The filmmaker notes that the biggest challenge he will face adapting the series to live-action will be the practical demands of the locations.
"When you guys write a scene that [takes place] in the North Pole, you can do that. But we've got to be in Arctic weather for months on end," he says. Additionally, Shyamalan lets slip that he is struggling with the challenge of streamlining the show's story to fit into three two-hour films. "It's going to be really hard for me because I really loved what you guys did and I'm finding it hard to let go of anything. At first when I put the outline together, I showed it to you guys and it basically had every single thing you guys wrote."
He is getting a grasp on the material, however, and beginning to break down the story into three self-contained films.
"I think I've got to a place where I really know how to bring in the characters, and what characters I can save for the other movies, and what moments we can save for the other movies," Shyamalan says. "So it's really starting to take shape into a two-hour movie -- and I think that will happen for each of the three movies."
"I think they're going to be mostly unknown kids and teenagers," Shyamalan adds of his potential.
But he looks forward to the adaptation process as it will mark his first formal collaboration with other screenwriters on a movie.
"The really cool thing for me is that I close my door and I write my movies and it's just the most lonely, depressing process that anyone could go through. On this movie, I've got you guys to be depressed with me, so this is such an exciting thing for me."
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