Continuing on with their coverage of “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Empire has posted a lengthy interview with the film’s director James Cameron who covered a range of topics from the release pattern of the sequels, the box-office potential and internet trolling.
Go online anywhere and it’s easy to find people making fun of the “Avatar” sequels usually along two lines of thought – that so much time has passed since the first film, and how that first film had such little apparent cultural impact despite the money it made.
Cameron thinks the first film’s September re-release will help refresh viewers’ memories and admits: “we’ve gotten into a little bit of an outer orbit and we’ve got to re-establish ourselves” which is why the re-release is happening:
“The trolls will have it that nobody gives a s— and they can’t remember the characters’ names or one damn thing that happened in the movie… Then they see the movie again and go, ‘Oh okay, excuse me, let me just shut the f— up right now.’ So I’m not worried about that.”
He’s also got some stern words for those who might complain about the film’s length, especially in the age of binge television:
“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours… I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonisingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a f—— break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row.”
He then amusingly has a solution for those worried about length: “Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s okay to get up and go pee.”
What he does wonder about is box-office. He admits making a four-quadrant hit these days is difficult:
“‘Avatar’ played eight to 80, does the audience still even exist at that scale?… If we did 20 or 30% less because the market simply doesn’t exist anymore, that would be bad.”
As we know, only the second and third of his planned “Avatar” five-film saga have been fully shot. Much of the fourth and all of the fifth will be done at a later date, likely when the second film’s box-office numbers come in and Disney feels confident enough to proceed.
But will Cameron still be interested? He tells the outlet even if those two films are green-lit, he might not direct them himself and has other ideas he wants to explore:
“The Avatar films themselves are kind of all-consuming. I’ve got some other things I’m developing as well that are exciting. I think eventually over time – I don’t know if that’s after three or after four – I’ll want to pass the baton to a director that I trust to take over, so I can go do some other stuff that I’m also interested in. Or maybe not. I don’t know.
I got more excited as I went along. Movie four is a corker. It’s a mother—-er. I actually hope I get to make it. But it depends on market forces. Three is in the can so it’s coming out regardless. I really hope that we get to make four and five because it’s one big story, ultimately.”
The fourth film reportedly features a big time jump early on which is one reason Disney was happy to put in a break between the films. “Avatar: The Way of Water” will premiere in theaters on December 16th.
Source: Empire
