Now that Avatar has raised the bar thanks to its cutting-edge visual effects, the folks at Pixar are taking notice. Their next big picture is the other-worldly epic John Carter of Mars, and Avatar just changed the game for them.

In an interview with Collider actor Mark Strong discussed how Avatar made everyone at Pixar sit up and take notice, mere days before they go into production in January.

Strong, who plays Matai Shang, the God-like ruler over the Fern people who spends his time being ripped and keeping tabs on the Universe, shared his thoughts on how Pixar's Andrew Stanton is ready to dominate James Cameron's Avatar with their own mo-cap/live action scifi film.

I mean it's "Avatar" type territory, and I think the point I was making before [is that] these Pixar guys are always wanting to be in the vanguard. They want to be leading from the front. They're giving the public stories that the public don't even know they want. I mean a story about a fish? A story about an old guy keeping his house? On paper, these must seem like, you know, how on earth are you going to carry those things off. Talking toys? Come on. But they... I think Andrew said they're in the business of giving the public what they want before they know they want it. So I can totally imagine he's gone to see "Avatar" and that'll just set the cogs whirring in his brain and the twinkle in his eye because he'll just want to surpass it, no question.

James Cameron Versus Pixar — it doesn't get much better than that. Sure Pixar, will have to upgrade their live action assimilation, since the Toy Story humans still reside deep in the uncanny valley. But story wise? Pixar, hands down. It should be interesting to see what they pull out.

As for Strong, he's signed on to make the entire John Carter movie trilogy that Pixar has planned as the heroes nemesis, if it beats Avatar, that is.

Shooting will last five months, before two years of post-production FX work that will see the film released in 2012.

PIxar's first live-action, John Carter of Mars stars Taylor Kitsch in the title role, with support from Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Dominic West, Samantha Morton and James Purefoy. Filming kicks off in London in January.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."