James Cameron's Avatar was groundbreaking when it debuted, bringing a new sci-fi color to the masses. Now, 13 years later, the record-setting film will have its sequel, Avatar 2: The Way of Water. Speculation and comments on the internet have been hot since the trailer was released in May of this year, and fans are wondering what else is going on in the series.
It is true that there will be sequels and there will already be video games, but will Avatar spawn its own extended universe?
Fans are eager to see the wizarding world unfold, whether in the form of spin-off shows or otherwise. Like Harry Potter and Star Wars certainly do, Avatar would indeed benefit from an expanded lore that made it one of the most expansive primordial universes since Tolkien's Middle-earth.
Avatar has been a mystery to many in the cultural current. It currently grosses $2.908 billion, making it the highest-grossing film of all time. It embraces revolutionary motion capture and computer-generated imagery technology, but no one seems to remember much when it comes to characters and plot.
While the story on screen is considered fairly average, there's so much more to see when peeking behind the scenes, and its production history spans more than a dozen years.
▶ Project 880 and the beginning of Avatar
James Cameron, director of blockbusters such as "Titanic", "Alien", "Terminator" and so on. Ambition is undoubtedly a word that can be used to describe him, as he constantly pushes the limits on screen, from spectacular scenes to innovative technology and special effects. However, through it all, he had a project that was considered too ambitious at the time.
In 1994, Cameron created his baby, an 80-page Avatar treatment plan. The film, once scheduled for Project 880, is a synthesis of his beloved science fiction and the literary genre of "The Lost World". It is a story of self-discovery, with themes of imperialism and ecology, man and nature.
The influence of works such as Princess Mononoke, Dances with Wolves, and Lawrence of Arabia, which he later cited, was also evident in these early concepts. Back in the late 90s, he had the idea of a completely computer-generated character and wanted to create the film after the success of Titanic.
However, there was one thing that hindered him: the technology simply didn't have it. It was the early days of CGI, and the medium was evolving rapidly, but still very immature and not as realistic as James Cameron's vision for the film had hoped.
This didn't make him abandon the film entirely, he just put the project on hold and refocused his energy on making documentaries like Return to the Battleship Bismarck and Ghost of the Abyss, he loved the ocean so much and worked to advance the technology that ultimately made Avatar a success.
CGI and motion capture performances developed rapidly from the late 90s to the early 21st century, and some real milestones in the medium can be found during this period. Andy Serkis' full-motion capture performance of Gurum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and Bill Nye's David Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Gathering Coffins (2006) inspired the decision that it was time for Pandora to be resurrected.
▶ Create the world of Avatar
Development began in 2005 when he readjusted the script and really started building the Na'vi and their world. This attention to detail is why the Disney World attraction has been so successful, and why the upcoming sequel may show some promise.
The fictional language of the species was coined by linguist Dr. Paul Frommer, who eventually drew inspiration for about 1,000 words from Amharic and Treo Maori.
Pandora's geography comes from the beautiful Zhangjiajie of China, as well as rare plants from all over the world, bringing together the most exotic wonders of nature and elevating them to level 11, giving Pandora a feeling that is both strange and familiar. There are two separate concept artists who create human-mechanical and Pandora landscapes respectively, devoting a lot of time to production design alone.
While the Pandora world is evolving, Cameron is also keen to introduce the technological developments that have taken place since he first came up with the idea for the film, bringing in the renowned visual effects company Weta FX and launching his own reality photography system that allows him to shoot in stereoscopic 3D.
However, with all this preparation, Fox at the helm became less and less enthusiastic. They had experience working with Cameron in the past, and his unwavering ambition caused them a lot of trouble during the production of Titanic, resulting in an oversized budget and constant delays.
While that movie did be a huge success, they were wary of Avatar because they were worried that the lightning wouldn't hit twice. It wasn't until James Cameron began marketing the film to other studios, such as Disney, and they almost won the project, that Fox explicitly agreed to shoot the film and gave Cameron a specific budget: $237 million, and $150 million in marketing expenses for the project.
▶ On budget and on time
Filming began in April 2007, using physical scenes from the Los Angeles Airplane Stage and a digital studio in Wellington. All the actors involved in the film received specialized character training and research to really understand their characters.
Sigourney Weaver, who plays exobiologist Dr. Grace Augustine, worked with set designers and a professor of plant biology to conduct an in-depth study of Pandora's plants and animals. At the same time, the actors were trained in horseback riding, archery, hand-to-hand combat, and the use of firearms.
For the sake of the film, everyone turned into action stars, using motion capture techniques and enhancement techniques instead of lengthy makeup processes to make shooting easier.
Cameron managed to keep the budget under control and met on time almost every day, completely eliminating the studio's initial concerns. He did a lot of publicity about the film, touring Comic-Con from 2009 until its release in December, relying heavily on the theme of environmental protection and the strange new world he showed in this film.
At the box office, it became a hit, the highest-grossing film of all time, and was beaten by Avengers 4: Endgame until recently, but it returned to the top thanks to the recent re-release.
While the film does have its problems, the effort that Cameron, the cast and crew put into the film is undeniable. There is a lot of debate about the pros and cons of CGI in movies, and people think it is overused or unreal.
But Avatar is one of the purest examples of CGI technology. We all know the history of James Cameron's Titanic and how the film turned into a disaster because of his dedication to authenticity and total control over the work.
The technology behind Avatar, the innovations he helped develop, gave him all the control he dreamed of without embarrassing the cast, crew and studio on set.
Anything you dream of can become a reality through technology, and even Na'vi's design is based on a dream of Cameron's mother. Avatar is a passionate film, and the sequel gives us high hopes for the future of the series, and we'll see more fascinating things as all the work is put into its world.
As he did for the first Avatar, Cameron spent years working with different companies to fine-tune and enhance technology to bring Pandora's beautiful environment and the lives of its inhabitants to the sequel.
Cameron once again advocated the 3D format in Avatar 2, using a specially made camera to bring the water environment to life. Water is an element that has proven difficult to realistically simulate with visual effects, but preliminary footage of Avatar 2 suggests that the upcoming movie may have the best-looking CGI water ever.
However, it's not just technological advancements, Cameron also puts a lot of emphasis on filming actors in a realistic water environment in Avatar 2. Winslet, Worthington, Saldana and other stars are said to have learned to hold their breath for long periods of time while wearing motion capture suits to shoot complex underwater scenes.
Early box office predictions for Avatar 2 may be lower than the original, but Cameron fans and his vision for the planet Pandora won't want to miss the sequel, which is shaping a completely new visual experience.
▶ The visual achievements of Avatar changed Hollywood forever
One aspect of Avatar's influence that cannot be ignored is its lasting impact on the film industry. James Cameron's film required the development and pioneering of never-before-seen motion capture and 3D technology, as well as an unforeseen large server farm to render all the footage data.
This symphonic technical achievement not only inspired the subsequent 3D cinema distribution model; It set a benchmark for Hollywood, clearly proving that viable mass cinema can indeed be almost entirely digitized.
Hollywood doesn't seem to have learned another enduring footprint from Avatar's visual achievements. Avatar's CGI technology has aged gracefully because its production team has invested so much time and manpower to polish the visuals so amazingly that they were able to elevate an original story to world record success.
Instead, a list of Hollywood's highest-grossing movies over the past 13 years shows that they both loathe non-IP story material and the relatively quick turnaround time between sequels rather than prioritizing the timelessness of the film.
Despite huge box office successes and breakthroughs in filmmaking technology, one fact remains undeniable. Avatar is still a movie that took 13 years to see a sequel.
According to the director himself, James Cameron's biggest challenge before the release of Avatar 2 will be to overcome the gap between the two films. Expectations, influence, and respect all wane over the course of more than a decade, and Avatar 2 has vastly different results in all three, while the cinematic universes of Marvel and DC have advanced by leaps and bounds.
James Cameron's Avatar 2 will further explore the depths of its fictional world, which will further revolutionize filmmaking techniques. The footage released so far gives viewers an insight into Cameron's description of Pandora's underwater ecosystem, which is as dazzling as the forest in the original film.
James Cameron loves movies and is passionate about the cinema experience. This passion was realized in many of his previous films and contributed to the overall huge box office success. Cameron understands that his Avatar 2 is risky, but the long gap between his original film and the sequel can be a help, not a hindrance.
If Avatar 2 comes out three years after the first installment, Cameron will still use the same technology, albeit with some minor upgrades. If it fails, viewers are likely to feel that the sequel is a cash in and fails to replicate the sense of wonder of the original film.
As technology evolved during this decade, Avatar 2 felt like a movie that came out at the right time, fulfilling Cameron's vision. And not just a follow-up that takes advantage of the success of the highest-paid film of all time.
In a box office landscape dominated by an interconnected cinematic universe and rushed sequels, Avatar 2 will bring a breath of fresh air to audiences who are disappointed with the status quo of modern blockbusters.