If James Cameron merely got his feet wet with “Avatar,” rest assured he’ll be fully submerged in the sequel.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Los Angeles Times, Cameron, who directed the $2.7 billion-earning 3-D blockbuster, said he hopes to add bold, new environments to the next “Avatar” film, including a look at its sea life.
“I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest,” Cameron said. “I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well.”
Nor did Cameron seem like he will limit himself to one planet: “We created a broad canvas for the environment of film. That’s not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system. And we expand out across that system and incorporate more into the story — not necessarily in the second film, but more toward a third film.”
On Thursday, which is Earth Day, Fox will release “Avatar” on DVD and Blu-ray, but James Cameron says a longer version of the film will be back in theaters in August — and that the franchise will return with a seagoing sequel. Hero Complex contributor Patrick Kevin Day recently spoke with the filmmaker.
PD: Will we see an “Avatar” theatrical re-release this summer?
JC: We’re working on finishing an additional six minutes of the film — which includes a lot of Weta work — for a theatrical re-release in August. We were sold out of our Imax performances right up to the moment until they were contractually obligated to switch to “Alice in Wonderland,” so we know we left money on the table there. And the 3-D really helped “Avatar” right up until the moment that it hurt it. And it hurt it at the moment “Alice” and then “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Clash of the Titans” came in and sucked up all the 3-D screens. We went from declining 8% a week to declining 50%. Clearly, it wasn’t market forces directly; it was the availability of theaters. So we’re going to wait until there’s a time to come back in, inject the new footage into the mix and see if we can interest people in the “Avatar” experience in theaters.
It’ll be interesting because it’ll be on DVD by then, but I think “Avatar” is kind of a unique category where people are enjoying the unique theatrical experience even though they may have seen it on the small screen. They want to have that immersive, transportive experience. “2001: A Space Odyssey” played for three years at the Loews cinema in Toronto. I remember that. It just kept playing. People wanted to return to that experience. That may not be the best example because I think “2001” took 25 years to break even.
PD: What goes through your mind when you hear that officials in China changed the name of a peak in Zhangjiajie peak to Avatar Hallelujah Mountains or that Palestinian protesters are dressing as Na’vi?
JC: I think it’s really interesting that these people see their reality reflected in the movie. And of course this is what’s caused all of these [environmental] groups to come to us and say, “Can you help us? Can we do fundraising? Can you help with awareness? Can we associate our website? Can we link to ‘Avatar’?” All of these things. Right now, my challenge is to orchestrate this in a way that “Avatar” can continue to do some good. I think the movie itself is reaching people all over the world, which it clearly did by the amount of money it made. It created a sense of an emotional response to this environmental crisis and I think it even may have made it an emotional call to action. The next step is people need to know what to do — what do I specifically do in my life next so that I don’t feel helpless and powerless.
PD: When you embark on your next film project, do you know what the challenge will be? Something on par with filming underwater for “The Abyss” or perfecting the performance capture technology in “Avatar”?
JC: Well you’ve already defined what the challenge will be on the next “Avatar” picture, which is to do what we did before at half the price and in half the time. Again, that’s an impossible goal, we won’t accomplish that, but if we can reduce by 25% in both categories, we’ll have really accomplished something. We know our methodology works. We also know it took two years to come up with. It didn’t even become efficient until the last two months of the production. So we were four years into a project before we had this machine running smoothly. So we take a snapshot of that moment in our production and say that’s what we look like on Day 1, we’re going to do better. Now, none of that has anything to do with coming up with a great story or great characters or great new settings and so on. That all is a given. That’s not to say that it’s done yet, it’s a given that we have to do that. But for me, the technical challenge is in improving the process having proved that it works.
We created a broad canvas for the environment of film. That’s not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system. And we expand out across that system and incorporate more into the story – not necessarily in the second film, but more toward a third film. I’ve already announced this, so I might as well say it: Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment – a different setting within Pandora. And I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest. I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well.
Last hurrah
Even as attention turns to a sequel, “Avatar” will have one last run in theaters. Director James Cameron told the Los Angeles Times an additional six minutes of footage is being worked into the film for a theatrical re-release in August. “Avatar” has raked in more than $745 million in domestic receipts, according to Boxofficemojo.com.
