In the year leading up to Avatar's release, the constant meme was that it would be wholly responsible for a forward shift in filmmaking, particularly in the arena of 3-D. Now going into the film's fifth week of release, already the second most successful film of all time worldwide, with critics and audiences lauding the film's aesthetics, the question has shifted from "if" to "when. The answer? Pretty damn soon. But while some names on the subject have been repeated ad nauseam, such as Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson and Robert Zemeckis, people have also begun to wonder what other directors will take interest in the technology's potential.

In a New York Times feature about Avatar's impact, in addition to mentioning the directors above, a new name has been floated: Bryan Singer. According to the article Singer, so impressed by Avatar's visuals, has approached New Line about filming his next project Jack The Giant Killer, an alternate take on the fairytale "Jack and The Beanstalk", in 3-D. The studio has yet to give permission to the director, but negotiations are on-going.

While 3-D adds something new to the mix, I keep going back to comments made by Jeffrey Katzenberg back in September, which seemed to indicate that the technology could be simply used as an excuse to get film-goers to shell out a few more dollars for the added experience (some have even questioned the legitimacy of Avatar's box-office number's due to the added expense of the glasses). Singer's project could potentially benefit from the new tech, as audiences may secretly crave the feeling of being stepped on by a giant, but the question remains: has Cameron's film opened a new avenue for filmmaking, or simply a new avenue for revenue gain?