Legendary writer/director James Cameron discusses his “Avatar” sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water” in this interview with CinemaBlend Managing Editor Sean O’Connell. He reveals the guiding parenting principle he’s learned that’s seeped into his “Avatar” films and gives us an update on "Avatar 3" and "Avatar 4." Plus, Cameron provides his analysis of the state of 3D movies, praises what the Russo brothers did with “Avengers: Endgame,” and so much more.
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00:00 Actually, you know what? We didn't even try to beat them again.
00:02 It just happened spontaneously.
00:04 The Chinese government said, "All right, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
00:07 What do we want them to go see? How about Avatar?"
00:09 All right.
00:09 [music]
00:14 I definitely know your stuff.
00:17 Oh, thank you very much.
00:18 Yeah.
00:18 It's a masterpiece.
00:19 Oh, thanks.
00:20 It's a masterpiece. I'm a parent, and so it...
00:22 How many kids do you have?
00:22 Two boys.
00:23 Yeah, and age?
00:24 They... One's a freshman in high school. They're 18 and 14.
00:27 Yeah, okay.
00:28 Freshman in high school, freshman in college.
00:29 So one's right in the crazy age, and the other one's just coming out of it.
00:32 But the second born is the youngest, so he's chill.
00:35 Okay, right, right.
00:37 He's observed the madness.
00:38 But you've been through being a father to the craziness.
00:42 Yes, 100%.
00:43 Okay, so you know what this movie's about.
00:44 Oh, 100%.
00:45 Right?
00:46 Yes. It resonated in ways that I didn't expect.
00:49 I wanted to make a movie for kids.
00:52 And by kids, I mean that angsty teenage period, which I remember so well.
00:57 And then now I've been through it with five kids, male and female,
01:00 and seeing it from the other side of the fence.
01:04 And the only answer is you've got to lead with love, right?
01:08 If I was going to give any kind of...
01:10 And I don't think anybody should be asking me for parental advice,
01:12 but if I was going to give advice, I would say you lead with love.
01:15 You start the hard conversations when they've done something, you know,
01:19 when you've had to bail them out or whatever it is,
01:22 or bail them out from getting in trouble at school.
01:24 You lead with no matter what.
01:26 I love you.
01:27 Now, let's talk about what just happened.
01:29 Right.
01:30 But the safety net, you're 100%, is that support system.
01:33 Yeah.
01:34 I think when the family embraces, you know,
01:36 that's you feel it so much in this film that gets conveyed.
01:39 And, you know, kids are having a rough time right now.
01:42 You know, I mean, you know the stats on teen suicide and mental illness,
01:47 anxiety, depression, all that stuff has shot up over the last few years.
01:49 Probably the pandemic had a lot to do with that.
01:52 And, you know, so you go to an escapist fantasy film.
01:56 Right.
01:56 And you go, you know, 200 years in the future and 4.6 light years away
02:00 to this fantasy world and you see, oh, they feel the same way I do.
02:05 I see myself in there.
02:06 Yeah, exactly.
02:07 Why do you come to us?
02:08 I just want to keep my family safe.
02:13 We cannot let you bring your war here.
02:23 Outcast, that's all they see.
02:25 Go!
02:27 I see you.
02:29 People will say it's been 13 years since you've made a film,
02:31 but that's not accurate, right?
02:33 You've been working on these films this whole time.
02:35 Yeah, well, we it's been five years of basically unbroken production.
02:41 Right. So we started in September of 17 and we made essentially
02:44 completed all production, photography and capture on two,
02:49 basic two and a half movies.
02:50 So two, three, first part of four.
02:54 And then we posted two and now we're going to post three.
02:57 And so it won't be 13 years till the next one.
02:59 It should if everything works out, it should be only another two years.
03:02 Oh, OK. That's not so that's nothing.
03:04 No, not at all.
03:05 Keep up, Forest Boy.
03:08 I'm from North Carolina.
03:09 You shot a film called The Abyss.
03:10 Oh, right. In my neck of the woods.
03:12 Yeah, your neck of the woods.
03:13 We came into North Carolina, the airport,
03:15 but we shot just over the state line in Gaffney, South Carolina.
03:18 That's right. Correct. Yeah.
03:19 Curious. Do you wish you had this level of tech
03:22 back when you were working on, say, The Abyss and Titanic?
03:24 Can you imagine like so that so that, you know,
03:26 the Abyss worked pretty well.
03:27 And there was that really strong scene with Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth,
03:29 Master Antonio, where they bring her back to life and all that.
03:32 But the ending, you know, the big ship coming out of the water and everything.
03:36 We could do that so much better.
03:37 Oh, I mean, it's just so it's I look at it now and it's like quaint at best.
03:42 You know, the last movie that really warranted 3D was Avatar.
03:48 There hasn't been a movie that's demanded it since that.
03:50 I would push back a little bit.
03:52 Life of Pi, Aang's film and Martin Scorsese's Hugo
03:57 and even Ridley Scott's Prometheus.
03:59 They all these were filmmakers at the top of their game, authoring in 3D.
04:04 Those are worthy films.
04:06 It's all the kind of rank and file conversion movies where the
04:09 the filmmakers haven't cared or the studio hasn't let them,
04:12 you know, author shoot, actually shoot in 3D.
04:14 Right. They're not that good.
04:16 And I think it's hurt it.
04:18 But we also got to put it in perspective.
04:21 When Avatar came out, there were six thousand ish 3D,
04:25 digital 3D screens in the world. Sure.
04:27 There's now one hundred twenty thousand 3D enabled digital screens in the world.
04:32 Sixty thousand alone in China.
04:34 So it's much more ubiquitous.
04:37 It's much more available.
04:39 It's much more accessible and it's much less important.
04:42 Right. Right. Much less important. Right.
04:43 I mean, people will make choices.
04:45 It's not nobody's going to go to see a movie because it's in 3D.
04:48 They're going to go see a movie
04:49 because of all the other reasons they want to see the film.
04:51 And if they like 3D, it's available.
04:53 And if they don't see it in 2D and it'll still be beautiful.
04:56 Absolutely. You know.
04:57 The way of water connects all things
05:05 before your birth
05:06 and after your death.
05:10 I was lucky enough to interview Gamma Dottoro this past week for Pinocchio.
05:14 Yeah. He mentioned he got in trouble for tweeting his reaction to it.
05:17 He got in trouble?
05:18 Oh, look, I'm so grateful.
05:20 I mean, he was the first reviewer.
05:22 You can't look. Nobody can tell Guillermo what to do.
05:25 He's just so enthusiastic.
05:27 You know, he's so enthusiastic about film.
05:29 He's one of my dearest friends.
05:31 And hopefully that wasn't the only reason he tweeted on it.
05:35 He told us about a barbecue that you guys are at where he had just finished Cronos.
05:38 Yeah. He's about to. That's in 91.
05:41 Oh, my gosh. That's in 91.
05:42 Yeah. We've been pals since then.
05:43 Well, your creature design reminded me very much of stuff that he would put into it.
05:47 Sure. Absolutely.
05:48 He and I both love the creature design.
05:50 We both love we know all the artists. Right.
05:53 You know, he does the same thing I do when he's doing a film.
05:56 He surrounds himself with the best artists he could find.
05:59 He's celebratory of their work.
06:01 He's a good artist himself.
06:02 He's a great artist himself. Sure.
06:04 He could do it himself. Right.
06:05 But he loves to work with a team.
06:07 And so do I. I do the same thing.
06:09 You know, I do the same thing when I'm making these Avatar films.
06:12 Right. Before they kick me out of here.
06:13 Did you send a note to Kate and Leo when Avatar passed Titanic at the box office?
06:17 No. No.
06:19 But when when when Titanic beat Star Wars, George Lucas put an ad in the trades.
06:25 Yes. And then when when what was it in not Infinity War, the end game
06:32 beat Avatar. Right.
06:34 We put an ad in the trades celebrating them.
06:37 And, you know, it's just the fact
06:41 that movies can make that kind of money, that people care enough
06:44 to go to the movie theater.
06:45 That was so celebratory of what they were able to do.
06:48 You know, and then we kind of snuck in.
06:51 Actually, you know what?
06:53 We didn't even try to beat them again.
06:54 It just happened spontaneously.
06:56 The Chinese government said, all right, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
06:59 What do we want them to go see?
07:00 How about Avatar? Right.
07:02 Oh, all right, everybody go to the movies this week.
07:04 Right. And they all came from that. Yeah.
07:06 Wherever we go.
07:11 This family is our fortress.
07:19 And.
07:19 And.
07:20 And.
07:21 Oh. Oh. Oh.
07:26 (bells chiming)
07:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]