M Night Shyamalan's Avatar?

Sometimes films are like buses – you wait for one, then two come along at once. Except that, in this instance, we’ve been waiting for the first bus for eleven years – and the other one looks like it’s got a couple of weirdos onboard that no-one wants to sit next to.

Yes, James Cameron had barely closed his gob after announcing an official deal to release his long-awaited dream project Avatar, before M Night Shyamalan proudly proclaimed that, actually, he’s making a film called Avatar too.

In a bizarre twist of fate, Shyamalan signed up with Paramount for his Avatar – based on a successful Nickelodeon series – mere hours after Fox Filmed Entertainment confirmed they were greenlighting Cameron’s pet sci-fi action-adventure.

Presumably Paramount felt that, because it was such a brilliant coincidence, Fox wouldn’t mind sharing the title. Unfortunately, following the announcement, one Fox representative stated, “We own the movie title ‘Avatar.’ There won't be another film called ‘Avatar’ coming from any place.”

The debate has distracted from what’s actually a fascinating project – Avatar is Shyamalan’s first kids’ movie, and his first flick to come from somewhere other than his own twist-filled noggin.

Still, Jim’s film is the one with the release date – it’s set to arrive in 2009.