By Leslie Simmons

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Giovanni Ribisi is landing on a new planet.

The actor has signed on to James Cameron's 3-D feature "Avatar," playing a passive-aggressive character named Selfridge. The Fox film revolves around a band of humans pitted against a distant planet's indigenous inhabitants.

He joins a cast that includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez.

The $190 million "Avatar" is set for release in 2009, and features a blend of live-action photography and new virtual photorealistic production techniques invented by Cameron's team. The film features six computer-generated actors known as "synthespians" and is in production in Los Angeles and next month starts production in New Zealand at Peter Jackson's Weta Digital effects house.

The film marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since the Oscar-winning blockbuster "Titanic" in 1997.

Ribisi was in theaters earlier this year with the Halle Berry thriller "Perfect Stranger." His other credits include "Lost in Translation" and "Flight of the Phoenix."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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