Well, it’s about f&@king time. After ten years of fiddling around with 3D cameras, making more dives than Didier Drogba, and putting the finishing touches on his 1,000 piece jigsaw of the London Underground (NOW WITH ADDED DLR LINE!!!!), James Cameron will finally begin shooting on his first feature film since that movie about the big ship that sank (oh, you know the one), in April! Huzzah!

After much speculation about the identity of said feature film, it’s also been confirmed that Cameron – the genius behind Aliens, Terminator 1 and 2, True Lies, The Abyss, and Iceberg! – A Love Story – will be directing his long-in-gestation pet project, Avatar, and not Manga adaptation Battle Angel, which will now be put on hold for a while.

And, in case you’re thinking that we’ve been here before and that this official 20th Century Fox is only some kind of cruel trick, well Cameron has gone as far as casting his magnum opus, a giant sci-fi epic that has been knocking around for some time.

We could explain the plot, but cutting and pasting from the press release saves so much time and trouble, so Avatar is… “The story of a wounded ex-marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival.”

So, playing the ex-marine, Cameron has plumped for relative unknown Sam Worthington, an Australian actor who has been seen in the likes of Dirty Deeds and Somersault, while Zoe Saldana – who played the customs officer wooed by Diego Luna in Steven Spielberg’s The Terminal – will play the alien hottie whom Worthington’s Jake Sully falls for.

The rest of the casting will be announced soon, but the actors that line up for the start of shooting in April will have their work cut out not to get lost amidst all the sure-to-be-stunning eye candy that Cameron has planned. Y’see, over the last decade the King of the World may have given the impression that he’d rather do anything but tackle the pressure of following up the biggest movie of all time (yes, bigger than Shark Attack 3), but actually he’s been working on ways to make Avatar, which many have dubbed unfilmable due to the sheer size and scale of its alien worlds and mind-boggling sci-fi conceits, a reality.

To that end, Cameron will – and we have no shame in cribbing liberally from the press release again – “use revolutionary image-based performance capture techniques, and a real-time virtual camera system, to create new CG worlds and blend them with dramatic performances and live action in ways never before possible.” Ooh! Lovely! But in what ways, oh Mr. Press Release? Enlighten us!

“The film's new image-based process of facial performance capture will get all the subtle nuances of the actors' performances,” said Mr. Press Release. “The virtual camera system will allow Cameron to work intimately with the cast while seeing in real-time, as each scene evolves, the computer generated worlds and characters. This revolutionary approach allows Cameron to direct scenes with CG characters and environments exactly as he would on a live action set.”

Ooooh! So, while it sounds essentially like a souped-up version of what Robert Zemeckis did with The Polar Express, we’re sure that Jim Cameron can go at least ten better. After all, this is the man who said ‘less isn’t more. More is more’. This is the man who has pushed special effects and action film-making on by leaps and bounds with nearly every film he’s ever made (Piranha II: Flying Killers doesn’t count). So, we’re expecting something pretty big for Avatar – erasing the dead-eyed nature of CG characters would be a start.

Oh, and in case you’re not already impressed, the film will also be shot in full-on 3D, for a roll-out in conventional cinemas by summer of 2009 (by which time Cameron and Fox believe that your local multiplex will have installed 3D capabilities), while rather than farm out the effects to his old FX house Digital Domain (since bought by Michael Bay), Cameron will entrust Weta Digital with bringing the world of Avatar to funky life.

Cameron has already made the most expensive movie of all time a staggering THREE TIMES (Terminator 2, True Lies and that film about the boat, all of which held the record at the time of their release), and we’re betting that Avatar will hold that crown yet again, not least when you consider all the money spent on R&D.

Well, that’s enough of us. It’s time for some quotes from Fox bigwigs, wouldn’t you say? Here’s Fox chairmen Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopoulos. And no, we don’t know how they both contributed to one statement – imagine them each saying alternate words, and that might do the trick. “Every year, our business makes hundreds of films, most of which come and go,” said the guys who greenlit Alien vs Predator 2. “But a Jim Cameron film is different. Jim's movies raise the bar, both in storytelling and use of technology. Avatar will do so again. The world he has created is breathtaking and the action breathless. It will take two more years, but in the summer of 2009, 'Avatar' will be a seismic change in the movie going experience." Clearly, they haven’t seen Let’s Go To Prison.

Well, now that this story has become as long as your average Cameron-directed sinking ship drama, we’re going to wrap it up. But what’s this? Why, it’s only Cameron himself, with some thoughts on Avatar. Well, since it’s you, Jim…

"For me, as a lifelong fan of science fiction and action, 'Avatar' is a dream project,” he told us through the power of press release. “We're creating an entire world, a complete ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, and a native people with a rich culture and language. The story is both epic and emotional. This one's going to be a grand adventure."

There was also some guff in there about working with a great team of technicians, and trust and whatnot, but we cut it out. Trust us, you don’t need it. But what you do need, from the sound of it, is to start getting excited about Avatar right… now. We’ll boil it down to brass tacks for you: world’s greatest action director, back to show all those young pretenders who’s the daddy. Dream project. CG that would pop the buttons off George Lucas’ favourite check shirt. Trust us, this one’s going to be Titanic.

(And yes, this story did appear yesterday in our News Nuggets section, but frankly this deserves its own niche. Now, after all the waiting, don’t let us down, Jimbo!)