Twentieth Century Fox

While the world has been clamoring to get a sneek peek at the highly anticipated sci-fi epic Avatar, director James Cameron has been busy wheeling and dealing to bring television into the third dimension — and, no doubt, make himself even richer.

A deal announced Friday will put Avatar in several trailers that will haul Panasonic’s big-screen, 3-D TVs around the U.S. and Europe next month.

Avatar is shot entirely in 3-D, and it will be the first major motion picture to debut in both 2-D and 3-D when it is released in theaters Dec. 18. But the technology — both in homes and at theaters — is so new that it is sorely lacking in content and has no clear direction when it comes to disc and broadcast formats. Cameron’s name will give Panasonic a major edge in the coming dimensional war.

Because, in a recession, the first thing on people’s minds is this: “Gosh, I need to get me a better TV.”