James Cameron’s Avatar: No Pressure, Eh?

So it’s finally official that James Cameron is finally going to start work on his long-time project Avatar. The man certainly knows how to make amazing, gripping films… heck, my number one all-time favorite movie was directed by him: Aliens. And much as I hate to admit it, yes, I actually like Titanic.

I could be WAY off the mark, but the thing that worries me a little bit is that it’s been 10 years since Cameron has directed a feature film. That’s a long time to be out of the director’s chair.

According to Variety Cameron has already been working on this for one and a half years, and it’s going to be a $200 million, 3-D, Sci Fi extravaganza with a little romance thrown in (for the ladies, I’m sure). He’s casting relative unknowns for lead roles, which I think is a good thing.

Over the past few years Cameron has really gotten into the geek-tech side of moviemaking and he’s a huge fan of 3D in movies. Personally I think the tech has come a long way and I’ve enjoyed recent implementations of it (Superman Returns, Monster House) quite a bit. Hopefully he won’t go “George Lucas” on us by getting so wrapped up in the visual effects that he forgets about story and character development.

It’s slated for release sometime in 2009(!) and I’ll be sure to follow this one closely.

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Vic

Now that's funny... I never knew Lucas said that. Oh, the irony... ;-)

Gotta disagree with you on "Titanic", I thought it was very entertaining, although DiCaprio didn't quite work for me in the role.

Vic

Brian

It's interesting that you compare Cameron to Lucas. I remember an interview with Lucas from the 80's where he was talking about the use of special effects. He said they should only be used to the extent that they help you tell the story, even if they're only on the screen for a few seconds. He was exactly right, but then what did he do? He failed to follow his own advice in Episodes I-III. The special effects were great, as expected, but the scripts were sub-par.

Like Lucas, James Cameron tends to be mostly or entirely responsible for writing the movies he directs. Most of the time, that works out very well, but in the case of Titanic, I was underwhelmed. The special effects were great, but the script was not. If Cameron's top priority is a quality script, the movie has the potential to be truly groundbreaking. I don't think any of his other abilities (i.e. directing, special FX, etc.) would be in dispute aside from that.

Brian

Vic

Cool, thanks for the link to the interview. Cameron seems to know what he's doing (duh, right?) and I *really* liked what he had to say about how the protagonist needs to come across onscreen in regards to believability that people would follow him in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Rudyard Kipling.

Vic