IN a recent interview with the New York Times, director James Cameron revealed that not everything was smooth sailing between him and 20th Century Fox executives during the production of his upcoming film Avatar: The Way of Water.
“I think I felt, at the time, that we clashed over certain things,” Cameron said. “For example, the studio felt that the film should be shorter and that there was too much flying around on the ikran – what the humans call the banshees. Well, it turns out that’s what the audience loved the most.
“And that’s a place where I just drew a line in the sand and said, ‘You know what? I made Titanic. This building that we’re meeting in right now, this new half-billion dollar complex on your lot? Titanic paid for that, so I get to do this.’”
“It’s such an intense process when you’re editing a film and you have to fight for every frame that stays in,” Cameron added. “I felt pretty good about the creative decisions that were made back then. We spent a lot of time and energy improving our process in the decade-plus since.”
Coming almost 13 years after Cameron’s successful 2009 film Avatar, The Way of Water is also set ten years after the events of the first film, and tells the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his newfound family after he leaving his human body to permanently become one of the Na’vi on the planet of Pandora.
Once a familiar threat returns to finish what they previously started, Sully must work with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) his wife and future Tsahìk of the clan to protect their planet.
Cameron’s remastered Avatar is set to be re-released in theatres beginning Sept 23 in IMAX and 3D formats before the upcoming release of the long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, which will unfurl in theatres Dec 16.
