‘Avatar’ returns with more footage

James Cameron is sending audiences on an extended tour of “Avatar” as his blockbuster returns to theaters next month with eight minutes of extra footage.

Distributor 20th Century Fox announced Thursday that Cameron’s special edition of “Avatar” will debut exclusively in digital 3-D and IMAX 3-D theaters on Aug. 27.

The added footage will include new creatures and action scenes set on the distant moon of Pandora, where the sci-fi spectacle plays out among greedy humans and the noble blue-skinned warriors who live there.

“Audiences repeatedly told me they wanted more of Pandora and wished they could have stayed there longer,” Cameron said.

With the new footage, the special edition of “Avatar” will run just 10 minutes shy of three hours. It’s expected to run in a few hundred theaters.

The biggest modern blockbuster, “Avatar” has rung up $2.7 billion in box-office revenue worldwide.