EV1651
Upwardly Mobile by Luxor
Setter’s Blog
The location of PANDORA in the film Avatar which contains THE FLOATING MOUNTAINS replaces the entry RED-EYES.
Setter’s blog
I decided to set myself the challenge of compiling a puzzle in which certain letters would change position within some of the entries. I then had to find a suitable theme to justify using this device. The idea to feature the Avatar movie came to me fully formed in the middle of the night. The Floating Mountains seemed to offer a perfect reason for the relocations. The name of the moon, Pandora, would be revealed at the bottom after changing a number of single characters to form new words. Accommodating these features ruled out a two-way rotational grid, but vertical symmetry worked well.
The premise of the film is that humans arrive on Pandora in the 22nd century to extract unobtanium, the rare magnetic mineral from which the Floating Mountains are composed. This inevitably brings them into conflict with the local inhabitants. Director James Cameron conceived the project in 1994 but had to wait ten years for new CG techniques to be developed before production could begin. During filming, actors wore suits fitted with markers that were picked up from every angle by hundreds of cameras. They also wore headsets that accurately recorded their facial expressions. Praised for its groundbreaking visual effects, Avatar went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time.
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A full review of this puzzle can be seen over on fifteensquared.