iTunes to Offer Special Edition of 'Avatar'

9:50 AM PST 12/16/2011 by Carolyn Giardina

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Fox and Lightstorm introduce new interactive features that reveal how the James Cameron blockbuster was made.

A new Special Edition of James Cameron’s Avatar will be available for purchase on iTunes beginning Dec. 20.

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From Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Lightstorm Entertainment, the iTunes Special Edition includes new types of interactive features that allow viewers to deconstruct scenes and learn how Avatar was realized.

One new feature dubbed Green Screen X-ray — which the brainchild of Avatar producer Jon Landau—effectively gives users a chance to move an 'X-ray' around one scene to get a look behind the finished shot and at the original green-screen footage.

With these exclusive features, the studio aims to interest fans in content ownership at a time when home entertainment business models are under a microscope. “These new interactive features enhance the experience and encourage digital ownership,” said Aubrey Freeborn, senior vp of marketing and product management for worldwide VOD and electronic sell-through, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Additional interactive tools in this Special Edition enable viewing of performance capture to template to final shot in 17 of the film’s scenes (or roughly one hour and 20 minutes of the movie). It also features an original screenplay by James Cameron, Cameron’s scriptment (a novella with some scenes broken out into dialogue), and a gallery of 1,700 images.

Going forward, the studio expects to offer the new interactive capabilities as extras on additional Fox titles. Pricing for the Avatar iTunes Special Editon is $19.99 (HD) and $14.99 (SD).