Director James Cameron thinks the visuals that are being created on the set of Avatar 2 are fantastic, but he isn't patting himself on the back. The long-delayed sequel, which was initially slated to be released in 2014, is currently shooting in New Zealand, concurrently with three further Avatar sequels in one of the most ambitious undertakings in movie history. Cameron isn't a stranger to ambitious shoots, as his monster hit film Titanic, was considered an enormous risk at the time of its release in 1997 due to its enormous budget and heavy use of CGI.
However, Cameron's gamble paid back big time as Titanic became the highest-grossing movie of all time until the first Avatar movie unseated it, also considered a significant risk, in 2009. Since then, Cameron has had to delay the release of his four sequels time and again as he waited for technology to catch up with his vision. Avatar 2 will reportedly use the latest tech to show off the underwater worlds of Pandora, and Cameron has been hard at work in New Zealand shooting these sequences now that production has restarted.
Speaking with the Toronto Sun, Cameron says even he is blown away by what he sees on set. Cameron says that despite making movies for years and seeing images from set every day, what is emerging from shooting is "really amazing." However, he insists he's not patting himself on the back, crediting the artists and designers on the movie with creating the jaw-dropping images.
"I deal with images in that world every single day and there are some days when I look at those images and say, 'This is really amazing.' I’m not patting myself on the back with that comment. It’s a distillation of some of the best designers in the world and a great cast. But if you’ve got the script right and the design right and you have a great cast, then it’s just an iterative process to get the whole thing shot and assembled."
It's a rare moment of humility for the director, who has been known to wax lyrical about his films in the past. However, this time, he makes it sound like putting together Avatar 2 has been a relatively simple task thanks to the caliber of people he hired for the job, rather than taking credit for the process as a whole. Regardless of who is responsible, Cameron is clearly passionate about the project.
Yes, Cameron is complimenting his own movie, but the signs are there that he might not just be bragging. He is a filmmaker that is known to push the boundaries of the blockbuster, and his use of new underwater filming techniques may well push the medium forward in the same way Avatar did 11 years ago, despite the lukewarm reception the movie receives these days.
Both Titanic and Avatar represented watershed moments for the movie industry. The first heralded in the age of CGI, and the second showed that digital characters could look realistic alongside human actors. Whatever Cameron has in store with Avatar 2, you can rest assured it'll look nothing less than spectacular.
Source: Toronto Sun
