Max3d (yes, it's called that now) will include a Lua interpreter!
Not too sure about the idea of including scripting in the 3D engine. That's the sort of thing that annoys me about other 3D engines - they incorporate a lot of functionality that would be better incorporated at the programming end (to give greater control and versatility).
One question I would have in regard to this, is how well would the scripting engine integrate and interact with the functionality of the main program? Assuming a program was data driven, would it be necessary to end up with two scripting languages - one in the 3D engine, and one in the main program? I imagine not, but it's something that needs clarifying. I'd also like to know if there's a good reason for incorporating scripting in the 3D engine (better speed, better access to the 3D engine's functionality, etc), rather than making the 3D engine more accessible to a scripting engine incorporated in the main program