Everyone has a different take on what’s going to happen to the film industry over the next few years.
The pandemic saw numerous experiments in release strategies with some working, and some not so much while streaming became a dominant force in entertainment.
Aside from Marvel and major event films, the box-office is seemingly not working out for features. This has resulted in theatrical exclusivity windows either being shrunk or in some cases abandoned.
Two champions of theatrical release strategies – filmmakers Denis Villeneuve and James Cameron – participated in Variety’s Directors on Directors interview series and expressed optimism that streaming and the theatrical experience can co-exist and thrive – so long as they stay distinctly separate experiences. Villeneuve says:
“I’m very optimistic. I think that the theatrical experience will prevail. I think that we need this kind of massive, immersive, physical [experience] – the sound, with Atmos system or IMAX, it becomes physical. It’s something that cannot be reproduced at home.
There’s nothing more powerful than to share an emotion together in a theater. I think that as humans we need that kind of connection. I think we are not meant to be isolated. So I’m optimistic. I hope that the language of cinema will not become too much like TV.”
Television has become much more akin to cinema in modern times in terms of production values, top-tier talent and cinematic techniques.
The prospect of the reverse happening, cinema embracing certain aspects of television, is not something Cameron seems to relish:
“If you know your character’s always going to survive so that they can make another movie, then there’s no real jeopardy. There’s no anxiety on the part of the audience that someone that they’ve fallen in love with is going to die. You know?
Even so, he’s not against utilising elements that are strengths for television such as longer-form storytelling with more time allowed for richer characterisation:
I’m not afraid. I like change. I’m a child of the 60s. I like it when things are chaotic. I think what we can see is an expanded form of cinema. I want to do a movie that’s six hours long and two and a half hours long at the same time.
Same movie. You can stream it for six hours, or you can go and have a more condensed, roller coaster, immersive version of that experience in a movie theater. Same movie. Just, one’s the novel, and one’s the movie. Why not? Let’s just use these platforms in ways that haven’t been done before.”
Cameron is of course at work on the four “Avatar” sequels which have been years in the making. Speaking about the current status of the films, he says:
“[‘Avatar 2’] is fully in the can. We have a working cut that we’re filling in the visual effects within. I feel pretty confident with that film.
[‘Avatar 3’] is still a bit shadowy. It’s way too long. I haven’t really turned my energy into a disciplined cutting process on that yet. But I know I’ve got the performances. That’s the important thing. I’ve done all the capture. I’ve done most of the live-action shooting. I still owe a little bit on some of the adult characters. We were more concerned with the kids aging out.”
The aging of the film’s child stars is one reason the production opted to shoot the second, third and elements of the fourth together:
“We mixed the schedules for ‘2’ and ‘3’ together, based on the types of scenes and the environments. I said, let’s just treat it like it’s a six-hour miniseries and we’re only going to go to Frankfurt once.
We’re going to shoot all the scenes from ‘2’ and ‘3’ at the same time. That was more or less the motif. Actor availability was an issue as well. Anything that had to be done with a specific actor, we did all the scenes for ‘2’ and ‘3’ together — and a little bit of ‘4.’
Because once again, I had to shoot the kids out. They’re allowed to age six years in the middle of the story on page 25 of movie ‘4.’ So I needed everything before then, and then everything after, we’ll do later.”
Cameron also confirmed that he took the actors out into the rainforests of Hawaii to get some real experience engaging with the environment, dubbing it a “sense-memory odyssey”.
The first of the “Avatar” sequels arrives next December.
