James Cameron hasn’t directed a fiction movie since Titanic back in ’97, and Avatar is his thus-far-shrouded-in-mystery-and-clearasil return to sci-fi.  Set for a December release, it’s described in its original treatment as “a man tries to make his way as a miner by combining with an alien during an interplanetary war in which humans can make themselves manifest by possessing alien bodies – avatars.”   Marketsaw recently dug up some of the Avatar concept art you see here.  I’ll let /Film describe it:

This one appears to show action from a set piece. Fleeing in the foreground is another one of the futuristic flying machines (most likely the Dragon Gunship) and behind it is one of the native beasts of Pandora. This one, I think, is a Bansheeray.

A great amount of Pandoran flora and fauna was dreamt up by Cameron to create a very complex alien ecosystem and I think he’s planning to leave it in the background, behind the drama and characterisation.From Bansheerays to Direwolves, the Leonopteryx to the Direhorse, and of course including the Na’vi, the humanoid natives at the heart of the matter, there’s an awful lot Avatar alienage, the vast majority of it still to be unveiled.

Thankfully, it shouldn’t all be so alien that we won’t be able to understand it – and indeed, the human characters who come to this strange world seem to mostly comprehend the otherness of what they find by referring to it in familiar, Earthly terms.

Haha, nice one, nerd.  I generally comprehend the otherness of what I find by socking it the gut and stuffing it in a locker.  Then I yell, “Be more normal, fag!”  It’s just my way. (*pops collar on letterman jacket*)