At first glance, the films would appear to have nothing in common except that they have not previously screened in Wanaka.
James Cameron's multimillion-dollar 3-D science-fiction film features Australian actor Sam Worthington as a 2.7m-tall, electric-blue hero called Jake on a search for the rare element "unobtanium" in a post-apocalyptic world.
Rabbits was produced on a shoe-string budget by Wanaka's Greg Von Heraud Parker and features the previously unknown talents of Wanaka builder Lance Boyd and Luggate grandmother Nola Sims as "Dave" and "Mum", struggling to pay the rates on their rabbit-infested land.
There is also a "very manky rabbit" that runs like a dog with severe arthritis.
But somewhere buried in credits for Avatar should be a mention of set designer Stone St Studios, of Wellington.
That is where the links begin.
Mr Parker is a self-employed Wanaka engineer, whose hobby is making films.
He began writing Rabbits in 2005 but could not secure funding and all but gave up.
Then, in 2007, the former Alpine Fighter Collection employee secured a job for nine months at Stone St Studios in Wellington.
The company employed about 130 people to build sets for Avatar and Mr Parker built the aircraft sets.
He met Wellington independent film-maker Tony Hiles, who has become a mentor and helped refine the script for Rabbits.
Other people involved with Avatar encouraged Mr Parker to make a rabbit puppet.
"It was awesome.I really loved it. It was really good. So that is why the Rabbits premiere is on the same night as Avatar," Mr Parker said.
Mr Parker and his friends began shooting scenes in December 2007 as soon as he returned to Wanaka.
The last scenes were shot last week and eight hours of footage has been trimmed to 12 minutes.
First-time actors Lance Boyd and Nola Sims enjoyed the experience.
`He didn't have to dress me up as an old lady because I am an old lady. I am in my 70s. I thought I would never be able to learn my lines, even though there were not that many. But it was all good fun and I am quite interested to see how it all works out," Mrs Sims said.
Some of Mr Boyd's scenes were filmed at night in the heart of winter in a freezing airport hangar, with him wearing nothing but shorts and a shirt.
"It was so cold and I didn't have much to wear. I felt like a model posing in a cold beach scene," Mr Boyd said.
The other 66 characters were rabbits.
"We didn't work with live rabbits. We realised early on it wasn't working so we stuck to dead ones. The dead ones were better actors than the live one. He was too scared and sat down and didn't move. So we let him go," Mr Parker said.
Mr Parker's other short films include mountain-biking action spoofs Woollyman (2002) and Woollyman II (2003).
He also makes cinema advertisements and is on the Wanaka Film Trust.
Rabbits and Avatar screen at Cinema Paradiso at 8.30pm tomorrow.
