Entertainment Weekly is reporting that director M. Night Shyamalan has chosen youthful karate star Noah Ringer to play Aang, the key role in the live action version of the popular Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Ringer will portray the 12-year-old Avatar and lead a cast of young actors that will reportedly also include Twilight’s Jackson Rathbone as Aang’s friend Sokka, a warrior from the South Pole’s Southern Water Tribe, Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) as Aang’s sister Katara, and singer Jesse McCartney as the Fire Nation’s villainous Prince Zuko.  Judging from the fan reaction to the EW article, more than a few of the faithful are upset that the cast for The Last Airbender (as the film will be known to differentiate it from James Cameron’s unrelated science fiction epic, Avatar) won’t be more diverse.

Shyamalan will begin shooting the film early next year in Philadelphia before shifting to Greenland where much of the film will be shot.  The Last Airbender is slated to debut on July 2nd, 2010 (see “The Last Airbender Release Set”).