Montreal Media were invited behind the scenes today for a first look at some of the wonders that await in TORUK, and The Montreal Gazette has a wonderful piece (w/video) about the experience:
Toruk — The First Flight is inspired by James Cameron’s blockbuster movie Avatar, but don’t expect the new Cirque du Soleil show to be a live version of the flick.
At a media preview at Cirque headquarters in the St-Michel district Tuesday morning, Toruk writer-directors Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon underlined just how different the touring arena show will be compared with the 2009 film, which is the top-grossing movie of all time.
“It’s a transposition; it’s an evocation,” Lemieux said. “We couldn’t make the movie, and what’s the purpose of remaking the movie on stage? So we started with this universe of Avatar and we created this story that (takes place) 3,000 years before the movie. So in the prehistoric time, there were no humans … there’s a lot of volcanic eruptions … so we see another part of this Na’vi culture that we didn’t see in the movie.”
Toruk will have preview shows in the U.S., beginning in November, in Bossier City, La.; Lafayette, La.; Richmond, Va.; Allentown, Pa.; and Worcester, Mass. The official world première is at the Bell Centre on Dec. 21, and it runs at the Habs’ rink until Jan. 3. Tickets are already on sale.
Cameron, the Canadian filmmaker whose credits also include Titanic, has the final say on the creative content of the show.
“We presented the scenario to him and he was really happy,” Pilon said. “One of his assistants said to us: ‘I (haven’t) seen Jim smile so much … in a long time.’ ”
Added Lemieux: “He’s very involved. He has to approve everything that we do. It is his universe and we’re just excited to work with Jim Cameron.”
The media was given a tour of the set Tuesday, which is mostly made up of inflatable rubber structures, and the journalists saw some of the Cirque artists training for the show. There will be 35 acrobats, one actor and one singer in the production.
Lemieux and Pilon are two of Quebec’s most noted multimedia artists. They’ve co-created a slew of acclaimed shows, including Icare, La Belle et la Bête, The Tempest and Norman. The dynamic duo also have a history with the Cirque, working on the shows Delirium, Midnight Sun and Michael Jackson’s One.
Pilon says Toruk continues along the same lines of their earlier Cirque collaborations, in the sense that it has a strong visual element.
“Here the whole (arena) becomes a screen projection,” Pilon said. “We wanted to emphasize the immersion aspect of this performance. When you come to the arena to see the show, you come on Pandora (the planet in Avatar that is inhabited by the Na’vi). You’re in Pandora.”
There will also be a narrator who will, in the Montreal run, speak in French and English — a first for the Cirque.
“So we have a storyteller who will help us go through the story and tell us what’s happening,” Pilon said. “This is maybe for the Cirque one of the first (shows) that really has a story base to start with. So we’re working with the storyteller to tell the story of these three young people who are on a quest to ride the Toruk (the giant predatory airborne creature in Avatar).”
But it’s also an action show.
“It’s a Garden of Eden, Pandora, but with teeth and claws,” Lemieux said.
“It’s a beautiful place, but it’s a very dangerous place,” Pilon said.
Added Lemieux: “We’re dealing with the fact that the Na’vi don’t fear. It’s not in their culture, compared to us, where we fear everything. They don’t fear, but they put themselves often in positions of danger. So that creates action.”
Mostly, the two of them are just excited to be working on a project based on a film that means so much to them.
“The only time in my life I waited to see a movie was Avatar,” Lemieux said. “I waited for an hour to be sitting in the middle (of the theatre) with my (3-D) glasses. I was 50-something, but in my mind I was five years old and I loved it.”
But there’s a little apprehension, given the incredible success of Avatar.
“It’s also scary,” Pilon said. “There are big expectations. It’s a movie that a lot of people have seen. So we’re also nervous. But very, very excited.”
{ SOURCE: The Montreal Gazette | https://youtu.be/vAqVJF4bzbE, http://goo.gl/xbKYTp }
