Heavy rumour has it that James Cameron has signed his first cast member for his Sci-Fi epic Avatar already, and that it's the lead role. Apparently the signing goes to Joel Moore from Dodgeball and Art School Confidential (review).

From Hollywood North Report through AICN:

Rumor is he's playing a disabled war vet named Jake who is at the center of the whole shebang...

...In the futuristic, $200M film, tentatively set to begin shooting in Vancouver this fall/winter, a disabled war vet named Jake must contend with complex political and social machinations when he is taken to the planet Pandora and forced to contend with not only the culture of the humanoid Na'vi, but also with his fellow human inhabitants.

It's a shame that we're going to have such a wait to see this epic from Cameron, 2008, and that's today's estimate. Let's watch that roll away, especially since the film will use the cutting edge of technology for the motion capture.