Sigourney Weaver as Rex Brooks in Vantage Point Courtesy of Sony

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2009 is expected to be a banner year for sci-fi in cinema, largely because it will see the reuniting of two of the genre's most enduring titans — Jim Cameron and Sigourney Weaver — for Avatar, an interplanetary odyssey of such unbridled ambition and scope that Weaver tells us it will "blow the mind of this industry" when it finally lands in theaters after two solid years of post-production work. Speaking exclusively to Premiere about the project, long shrouded in secrecy, Weaver recounts her recent visit to the Weta post-production facilities, gives her take on what themes Cameron is trying to explore and muses about how audiences will respond to the film's next-generation 3D.

Our conversation also delves into Vantage Point, a twisty thriller opening this week about a Presidential assassination in which Weaver plays a newsroom producer watching it all go down. We also talk about her recent successes in dramatic roles such as Snow Cake and Weaver reveals exclusively to us that The Weinstein Co. has bought The Girl in the Park, an emotionally grueling drama that played last year's Toronto Internationl Film Festival in which she stars as a woman who comes to believe that a grimy street hooker, played by Kate Bosworth, may be her long lost daughter.

Premiere: Let me start by saying that I saw The Girl in the Park in Toronto and I think it's one of your best performances.
Sigourney Weaver: Oh, good! Thank you.

Sigourney Weaver and Kate Bosworth in The Girl in the Park

Do you have high hopes? I don't think it has distribution yet.
It does. It's been bought by Weinstein. Harvey hasn't seen it yet. When they saw Snow Cake they bought it. So, I'm hoping that this is more their kind of thing and they'll give it a proper send-out. I mean, I think Kate is so brilliant in it and the relationship is so fascinating and I do think that people would really enjoy seeing this movie, but I think it's going to take some work to, you know, get the word out there. It's a smart, small film.

I loved the idea of your character being this woman who is so damaged by a tragedy that her judgment becomes impaired. She's not savvy anymore. She's not "with it."
Yeah. She's cocooned herself so much that the skills have sort of disappeared. I'm so glad you liked it!

I wonder if you're going through sort of a "wounded character phase," between that and Snow Cake.
I guess I don't see the character in Snow Cake as wounded. I actually see her as a great success story, but I think a lot of people who maybe haven't done the research I have might not see it that way. To me, she's incredibly strong and will always need support but, whew, you know? It's sort of what Alan says — things are pretty simple for her, in a lot of ways. But you know, I'm not looking for anything in particular in terms of characters, because characters are sort of the last thing I consider. What I consider usually is "What is the story?" "Is it about something more than the people in it?" and "Does it have a beginning, middle, and end sort of structure?" so that you can't sink it or screw it up. I do kind of prefer being in films that actually get seen, and in the old days when films did get seen, you know, you just had to pick good scripts. I never cared what the part was — although with Snow Cake I obviously did and also with Julia [her character in The Girl in The Park], I thought it was just brilliant — but I try to see the whole picture as just something I'd want to see.