The director of “Avatar” and the sequel “Water’s Way” compares the feeling of seeing his film to the feeling of being a child in front of a “big, open, beautiful” world that arouses curiosity.
James Cameron it came from a small hit called Titanic – $ 1.8 billion (or R $ 9.2 billion) worldwide box office, 11 Oscars – when it launched avatarin 2009. Despite this, many people did not believe in the project that used motion capture and other technologies to tell the story of the natives of a threatened planet.
But Cameron became the king of the world again after seeing her ambitious avatar raise more than US $ 2.8 billion (about R $ 14.4 billion today). Since that time, the director has been preparing four sequelswith the first, Avatar: The way of water, whose definitive debut is scheduled for December 15th. To refresh the public’s memory, the Original Avatar arrives Thursday 22 in Brazilian cinemas in a remastered 4K HDR version.
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From New Zealand, where he works in post-production for The path of waterCameron participated in a videoconference round table, with the participation of Estadio. The following are excerpts from the conversation:
The market landscape has changed since 2009. Today it is dominated by superhero movies. How do you see the re-release of ‘Avatar’ and the sequel’s debut in this scenario?
Don’t you think it will be a breath of fresh air to have a blockbuster with all these production values, 3D, etc, isn’t it a superhero movie? I like superhero productions, but it’s like a birthday cake: I love it, but I don’t want to eat it with every meal. avatar it’s a different kind of movie, there’s nothing like it. It is very difficult to introduce new intellectual property these days, but avatar is already established. At the same time, it looks new because we haven’t seen any more in the last decade.
And how much have you changed in nearly 13 years since the release of ‘Avatar’?
I raised my children, who have all left home. Only one of the children still lives with me. I witnessed his teenage angst and that influenced me a lot in the new films, both in terms of The path of water as in the next sequences. We see Jake (Sam Worthington’s character) passing the story on to the new generation. There is an interesting parallel with the new generation of movie fans who may not know it avatar, or that they haven’t seen in theaters. That’s why we think it’s important to bring back the original, so that people understand what that experience is like.
Going to the movies was hugely hampered by the pandemic, with rare successes since then. Worried about it?
I think a lot avatar how much Avatar: The way of water it can help, because they are films that practically require to be seen in the cinema. They are experiences. When people looked avatar, their jaws dropped. They couldn’t even explain the experience, you had to look at it. And they came back several times. I cross my fingers for this effect to repeat itself. Because the re-release has sharper pictures and sounds and the halls are much better. Those who went in 2009 will also see something improved. And for the little ones, who have only seen it in Blu-Ray or streaming, it will be like going from black and white to color.
Why do you think the film was so successful?
I believe for the appreciation of beauty. It was a feeling that people couldn’t describe, it worked almost on a subconscious level, like daydreaming, when you feel like you are in a world you don’t want to leave. It is similar to what it feels like to be a child, with the world being large, open, beautiful, arousing your curiosity. Children relate to nature. And people liked to leave their jobs or university and go and live in that world. I use science fiction and fantasy to talk about the human experience. avatar It’s not about blue people on another planet, it’s about ourselves.
‘Avatar’ talks about topics such as the struggle of indigenous peoples and the importance of nature. Has anything changed since then?
The film was my answer to many of these problems. Obviously the struggle of the indigenous peoples has not improved anything, quite the contrary. But it was bad enough. In 2010, shortly after the launch, I went for the first time to the Brazilian Amazon to meet indigenous leaders and see if I could help with anything, because their territories had been destroyed by the Belo Monte dam. Since then I have made several trips. I think today we are more aware of these problems globally. But they already existed.
The film also addresses the evils of colonization.
Yes, it is an invasion story. The Na’vi call humans aliens because it’s an alien invasion story, only here on Earth we don’t get invaded by giant lizards. We are the alien invaders. And we see history from the point of view of the invaded, the colonized, the indigenous. I was trying to wake people up to the struggle of the indigenous peoples of India, Africa, Brazil, Australia. I think many people are more aware of this today, so I hope the resonance will be greater.
Wouldn’t it have been better to release ‘The Waterway’ right after the first Avatar?
I think a lot of times a sequel feels like something just to make money. The viewer feels it. But it probably would have been better to release a little earlier than the one we’re debuting. Only I was living my life. I was exploring the ocean, raising my children. And in the end it took 13 years. The advantage is that it will look original. The release of the trailer made me confident that people still remember avatar and they are curious, because it has had 148 million views. And the teaser made it clear that it won’t be the avatar from your parents, but something completely different.
Was it a challenge trying to maintain the “Avatar” level in “The Waterway”?
Yes, the former set a very high standard and expectations are high for subsequent productions. It has been a daily challenge for us, while creating our sequels, to live up to this expectation. There are about a thousand people working right now The path of water, and many of them are quite young. I asked them to go back to the original, to look at the details, even though a lot was done by hand. We now have more tools to facilitate our ambitions. Visually, I believe we have kept our promise. As for the story, it’s another conversation. Will people be interested? I hope so. I can confidently say it will be great.
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Source: Terra
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
