Paramount and Nickelodeon have designated July 2nd, 2010 as the premiere date for The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan’s live action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Paramount has dropped the “Avatar” from the live action picture’s title to avoid confusion with James Cameron’s 3-D science fiction film, Avatar, which is slated to debut in December of 2009.

The live action Airbender project was first announced in January 2007 (see “Avatar: The Last Airbender Headed to Film”).  The animated series, about a young boy who has the ability to manipulate the elements and uses his powers to hold off a ruthless nation bent on domination, has been a huge hit on the popular Nickelodeon network.  The animated series has spawned a popular series of Cinemanga volumes from Tokyopop (see “Avatar Cinemanga Tops 500K”) as well as highly successful DVD releases.

According to Variety the creators of The Last Airbender animated series were inspired by the work of Hayao Miyazaki, and Shyamalan told Variety that in The Last Airbender he sees “an opportunity to make a live action Miyazaki film.”