"Avatar" changed the game for Hollywood last year with its incredible 3-D presentation and "Tron Legacy" will keep that trend flying high at the end of this year, but Alexandre Aja knows what the real appeal of 3-D is: T&A. His "Piranha 3-D" hits theaters on August 27, and there'll be plenty of T&A on hand to titillate 3-D-loving audiences. Aja promises "3-D double-D boobs" along with generous helpings of bloody violence.
"I think we broke all the records in the manner of blood used," he said in an exclusive interview with MTV's Eric Ditzian. "I don't remember the exact number, but we passed 'Kill Bill.' You've never seen something like that before." Much of the fake blood is spilled during one scene in particular, involving a wet t-shirt contest.
"The biggest thing for the fans is going to be the big spring-break wet T-shirt contest, where we have thousands of spring-break groups on the water," Aja revealed. "And the party has its climax when the piranhas come and start attacking everyone. It's almost 25 minutes of a huge massacre, and it's really insane." That's a pretty serious amount of time for a piranha massacre, but it's definitely true to the pulp roots of the original "Piranha."
Aja was initially unsure about converting his movie to 3-D, but the realities of shooting in that format from the start -- as is the case with "Avatar" and "Tron Legacy" -- required it. "We were going to shoot with the camera system Cameron used, and we found out that, of course, we don't have the same budget as an 'Avatar' or as much time. And shooting on the water with a real 3-D camera brings some very big restrictions in terms of dealing with reflections."
Aja was ultimately sold on doing a conversion after seeing some test reels that included footage from "Star Wars" and "Titanic." That said, the movie will feature some true 3-D as opposed to converted scenes. "All of our piranha are CG [and] they are all real 3-D in the computer. Our movie is going to be completely converted, but a big chunk of it will be real 3-D as well."
The key thing to remember is that "Piranha 3-D" is all about having fun. Where "Avatar" maintains some degree of seriousness, Aja sees "Piranha" as more of a "cult guilty pleasure," along the lines of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Gremlins" and "The Breakfast Club."
"I understand why James Cameron in "Avatar" didn't want to make the 3-D gimmicky, and he was right," Aja said. "But we are making a piranha-attacking-spring-break movie, so we are going to go for the huge on-the-screen effects and fish attacking the audience."
It's 3-D Week on MTV.com! All this week, we're bringing you the latest news on your most-anticipated upcoming 3-D releases, along with plenty of exclusive content and the same great opinions and commentary you've come to expect from the talented MTV Movies team.
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