Patel will be joined by ‘Twilight’ actor Jackson Rathbone, and newcomers Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, and Jessica Jade Andres, reported 'Variety' magazine.

Ringer, a 12-year-old from Texas is a newcomer who got the title role by sending in a video clip of himself performing martial arts to an Internet audition held by

Shyamalan.

The 18-year-old Patel, meanwhile, steps into a role that was originally meant for Hollywood heartthrob Jesse McCartney but his second career as a musician got in the way because McCartney was busy touring.

"Jesse had tour dates that conflicted with a boot camp I always hold on my films, and where the actors here have to train for martial arts," Shyamalan told the publication.

Patel was "already one of the guys I was interested in. Then I saw 'Slumdog Millionaire,' and the kid just grew in my eyes," he said.

Production will begin in mid-March in the exotic locale of Greenland and will hit theaters on July 2, 2010. If all goes well, it will be the first in a planned trilogy.

The film that was previously titled ‘Avatar-The Last Airbender’ is an adaptation of a sci-fiction animated Nickelodeon series about the rivalry between four nations each controlling one of the elements of fire, water, earth and air.

The film follows the adventures of the successor to a long line of Avatars who must put aside his irresponsible ways and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and