Airbender gets cast

After embarking on a countrywide casting tour, M. Night Shyamalan has found his stars for the the upcoming anime-inspired THE LAST AIRBENDER. Based on the Nickelodeon series “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” the film will star newcomer Noah Ringer, a karate star in Texas with no acting credits to his name, as Aang, the young superhero who must stop the Fire Nation (any relation to the Rhythm Nation?) from destroying the world. Also cast in the film are Jackson Rathbone (TWILIGHT) and Nicola Peltz (DECK THE HALLS) with Jesse McCartney in negotiations to play the film’s villain, Zuko (Danny Zuko?). Shyamalan is looking to get production started on the film early in 2009 with a July 2010 release date already set. Paramount is already planning on a trilogy though that could all change depending on the success of the film (Fox was also planning a JUMPER trilogy and, well, that’s just not happening). Despite a pretty extensive search on the web, I could find nothing on this Noah Ringer character. Anyone know something? Other than that, I’ll trust Shyamalan’s eye for kid casting (he did direct Haley Joel Osment to an Oscar nomination)…