Page 14 - aruba-today-20220921

A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 21 september 2022

Q&A: James Cameron on the

return of 'Avatar'

back in cinemas. It's not where we years since, much has only gone
were before. Streaming has taken worse for the climate and the
a bite. The pandemic has taken a health of the planet. How much
bite. We're probably down 20, 25% was that on your mind making the
from where we were pre-pandem- sequels?
ic. I think it's going to be a very long CAMERON: Very much so, even to
tail on this thing before we're back the extent that I very strongly de-
to where we were before. It's in- bated with myself and discussed
cumbent on us to double down on with my wife whether I should stop
showmanship. filmmaking and work on the sus-
AP: Over the years, some have ar- tainability issues. But we managed
gued that "Avatar," despite its stat- to be able to do that in parallel
ure as the highest grossing film of with the filmmaking process. We're
This 2009 image released by 20th Century Films shows filmmaker James Cameron all time, hasn't stuck in the culture doing all of our sustainability efforts
on the set of "Avatar." the way you'd expect. Do those ar- — I don't want to say as a side hus-
Associated Press guments irk you? tle, but in parallel. I put as much ef-
By JAKE COYLE "Avatar" business. CAMERON: I think it's true for a spe- fort into that as I do the filmmaking.
AP Film Writer Remarks have been edited for cific reason, which is that we didn't That said, the new "Avatar" films
NEW YORK (AP) — Thirteen years af- clarity and brevity. immediately follow it up with an- aren't any more like a lecture on
ter James Cameron plunged mov- AP: Does "Avatar" seem like a long other film in two or three years, and climate or environmentalism than
iegoers into the cosmic world of time ago to you? another film in two or three years. the first one was. The first one was
"Avatar," the lush, distant moon of CAMERON: It feels like yesterday We didn't play the Marvel game. an adventure. It captured you at
Pandora is finally orbiting back into at times and then obviously it feels We're playing a longer game here. the level of character, at a level of
view. Cameron's "Avatar" industrial like more than a decade other "Avatar" isn't going anywhere, it just storytelling. I think subtext is a use-
complex has been whirling in high times. The time has passed quickly. didn't follow up with a continuous ful way of looking at it. It's there but
gear for some time; production I've been doing all sorts of interest- barrage to keep it in the public it's not what's driving the story. And
on the upcoming sequel, "Avatar: ing things. Deep ocean research. eye and the public consciousness, we kept that in mind with the new
The Way of Water," began back Building submersibles. Writing four which is what you have to do. Tak- films. Yes, "Avatar: The Way of Wa-
in 2017. But after shuffling through epic movies. Now finishing up ing a lesson from that, we basically ter" is about the oceans and our re-
half a decade's worth of release "Avatar 2" and we're mid-process architected four sequels so that if lationship with the oceans and the
dates, Cameron's science-fiction in post on "Avatar 3." So "Avatar" "Avatar 2" is successful, we can fol- animals that live in it. But it's driven
epic is poised to again blanket has never been far from my mind. I low it up with a regular cadence by character.
movie screens and transport willing constantly go back to it, obviously — two years, maybe three years AP: "Avatar: The Way of Water" will
travelers back, in 3-D, to the land in the remaster process making it at the most between "3" and "4." It bring back 3D and feature high-
of the Na'vi. better than it's ever looked before. will be in the public consciousness frame rate footage, both of which
For even the visionary filmmaker of I'm kind of just living on Pandora more and more regularly, but only moviegoers have mixed opinions
"Titanic" and "The Terminator," the right now. if people embrace "Avatar 2." on. What do you think has been
relaunch of "Avatar" is, as Cam- AP: When you went back to watch AP: And there is an awful lot riding the biggest technological leap in
eron said in a recent interview "Avatar," how did it look to you? on "The Way of Water." the last 13 years?
from Wellington, New Zealand, "a CAMERON: I see a lot of good work CAMERON: Yeah, it's a big play. CAMERON: In terms of the presen-
big bet." A third "Avatar" is already by a lot of good people in terms of It's a big bet. And we won't know tation, we're authoring in high-dy-
in post-production, and produc- the production design, the visual where we are until the second or namic range, which I think is very
tion has begun on a fourth. The effects, the groundbreaking strides third weekend. The success of the important. Projection out there in
record-breaking $2.8 billion in box that were made at that time in first film — we had a pretty good the field is brighter now than it was
office that "Avatar" grossed made capturing the performances of opening at $75 million. But open- a decade ago, which is much bet-
the coming "Avatar" armada a the actors, and the great work of ings are dwarfing that by factors ter for 3D. We're judiciously using
far-from-risky wager. But a lot has the actors. It was tough to live up of two or even three these days. high-frame rates in the process of
changed since the original's re- to. We had set the bar very high Even if we have a stellar opening, authoring our 3D because people
lease, when Netflix was still renting for ourselves back then and we we won't really know where we are become more sensitive to rapid
DVDs by mail and Cameron was had to live up to that bar this time for a couple weeks because it was lateral motion. Your mind is more
working for 20th Century Fox. with the new films. I remind our VFX the return visits on the first one. It sensitive, so we solved that by ju-
To whet moviegoers' appetites team all the time: "Look at the bugs was people wanting to go share. If diciously applying high-frame rate
ahead of the Dec. 16 debut of the in the forest in the first movie. We we get that again, we'll probably here and there throughout the film.
three-hour "Avatar: The Way of Wa- had better bugs!" be on solid ground. That's all at the service of making it
ter" — and remind them of a movie AP: Moviegoing rebounded this AP: I think the odds are in your fa- a better viewing experience.
world they may have lost touch summer but there's been a late- vor. I don't think anybody should go
with — the Walt Disney Co. on Fri- summer lull that the "Avatar" re- CAMERON: Nobody knows. The see a movie because it's authored
day will rerelease "Avatar" in a re- release may help jumpstart. How market has changed. Twenty-five a certain way. That's just part of our
mastered, 4K, HDR version that he do you see the health of theatrical percent could be our entire mar- showmanship. I think the reasons to
says is "better than it's ever looked." right now? gin. It's one thing to make a lot of see this film are the same reasons
It's an opening salvo in Cameron's CAMERON: It's shown resiliency money, it's another thing to actu- to see the first one. You enter a
ambitious plan to sketch a yet- that I don't think we expected. The ally make a profit. We're not go- world. You become fully immersed
grander sci-fi saga, and to again pandemic, quite rightly, scared ing to keep making movies that in it. You feel like it surrounds you
conjure a cinematic experience, everybody. There was a period lose money even though they look and you become an inhabitant
as he says, "that you simply cannot of time where you were basically good and make a ton of money. there, and you get to linger there.
have in the home." Taking a break risking your life to go to the mov- This is a wait-and-see, let's-put-it- You go on that journey. Of course,
from all the "Avatar" juggling, Cam- ies. People did it anyway. Now, out-there-and-see-if-people-em- in the new film, it's a bit longer be-
eron talked re-watching the origi- we feel like we're past the hump brace-it kind of situation. cause we have more characters
nal, his expectation for "The Way of or at least it's a manageable prob- AP: "Avatar" was especially rich and more story to service. I think
Water" and why he nearly quit the lem. We're seeing a resurgence in an ecological subtext. In the 13 people are very story-driven. q