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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00:00Actually, you know what, we didn't even try to beat them again, it just happened spontaneously.
00:04The Chinese government said, alright, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
00:07What do we want them to go see?
00:08How about Avatar?
00:09Alright.
00:10I definitely know your stuff.
00:17Oh, thank you very much.
00:18Yeah.
00:19It's a masterpiece.
00:20Oh, thanks.
00:21It's a masterpiece.
00:22I'm a parent, and so it...
00:23How many kids do you have?
00:24Two boys.
00:25Yeah, and age?
00:26One's a freshman in high school.
00:27They're 18 and 14.
00:28Yeah, okay.
00:29So one's right in the crazy age, and the other one's just coming out of it.
00:33But the second born is the youngest, so he's chill.
00:35Okay, right, right.
00:37He's observed.
00:38Yeah, but you've been through being a father to the craziness.
00:42Yes, 100%.
00:43Right?
00:44Okay, so you know what this movie's about.
00:45Oh, 100%.
00:46Right?
00:47Yes.
00:48It resonated in ways that I didn't expect.
00:49I wanted to make a movie for kids, and by kids I mean that angsty teenage period, which
00:55I remember so well.
00:57And then now I've been through it with five kids, male and female, and seeing it from
01:02the other side of the fence.
01:04And the only answer is you've got to lead with love, right?
01:08If I was going to give any kind of, and I don't think anybody should be asking me for
01:11parental advice, but if I was going to give advice, I would say you lead with love.
01:15You start the hard conversations when they've done something, when you've had to bail them
01:20out or whatever it is, or bail them out from getting in trouble at school.
01:24You lead with, no matter what, I love you.
01:27Now, let's talk about what just happened.
01:29Right, right.
01:30Yeah.
01:31But the safety net, you're 100%, is that support system.
01:33Yeah.
01:34You have to lean on.
01:35I think when the family embraces, you feel it so much in this film, that gets conveyed.
01:40And kids, they're having a rough time right now.
01:43You know the stats on teen suicide and mental illness, anxiety, depression, all that stuff
01:48has shot up over the last few years, probably the pandemic had a lot to do with that.
01:53So you go to an escapist fantasy film, and you go 200 years in the future and 4.6 light
01:59years away to this fantasy world, and you see, oh, they feel the same way I do.
02:05I see myself in there.
02:06Yeah, exactly.
02:07Why do you come to us?
02:11I just want to keep my family safe.
02:19We cannot let you bring your war here.
02:23Outcast, that's all they see.
02:27I see you.
02:29People will say it's been 13 years since you've made a film, but that's not accurate, right?
02:33You've been working on these films this whole time.
02:36Yeah, well, it's been five years of basically unbroken production, right?
02:41So we started in September of 17, and we made, essentially completed all production, photography,
02:47and capture on two, basically two and a half movies.
02:50So two, three, first part of four.
02:53And then we posted two, and now we're going to post three.
02:57So it won't be 13 years until the next one.
02:59If everything works out, it should be only another two years.
03:02Oh, okay, that's nice.
03:03So that's nothing.
03:04No, not at all.
03:07I'm from North Carolina.
03:08You shot a film called The Abyss.
03:10Oh, right.
03:11In my neck of the woods.
03:12Yeah, your neck of the woods.
03:13We came into North Carolina, the airport, but we shot just over the state line in Gaffney,
03:17South Carolina.
03:18That's right, correct.
03:19I'm curious, do you wish you had this level of tech back when you were working on, say,
03:23The Abyss and Titanic?
03:24Oh, can you imagine?
03:25So The Abyss worked pretty well, and there was that really strong scene with Ed Harris
03:29and Mary Elizabeth, Master Antonio, where they bring her back to life and all that.
03:32But the ending, you know, the big ship coming out of the water and everything, we could
03:36do that so much better now.
03:37Oh, I can imagine.
03:38I mean, it's just so, I look at it now, and it's like quaint at best.
03:44You know, the last movie that really warranted 3D was Avatar.
03:48There hasn't been a movie that's demanded it since that point.
03:50I would push back a little bit that Life of Pi, Aang's film, and Martin Scorsese's Hugo,
03:57and even Ridley Scott's Prometheus, these were filmmakers at the top of their game authoring
04:03in 3D.
04:04Those are worthy films.
04:05It's all the kind of rank-and-file conversion movies where the filmmakers haven't cared
04:10or the studio hasn't let them, you know, author, actually shoot in 3D.
04:14Right.
04:15They're not that good.
04:16And I think it's hurt it.
04:18But we also got to put it in perspective.
04:21When Avatar came out, there were 6,000-ish 3D, digital 3D screens in the world.
04:27Sure.
04:28There's now 120,000 3D-enabled digital screens in the world, 60,000 alone in China.
04:34So it's much more ubiquitous, it's much more available, it's much more accessible,
04:40and it's much less important.
04:42Right.
04:43Right?
04:44Much less important.
04:45It's the voices.
04:46Nobody's going to go to see a movie because it's in 3D.
04:48They're going to go see a movie because of all the other reasons they want to see the film.
04:52And if they like 3D, it's available.
04:54And if they don't, see it in 2D and it'll still be beautiful.
04:56Absolutely.
04:57You know?
05:10I was lucky enough to interview Guillermo del Toro this past week for Pinocchio.
05:14He mentioned he got in trouble for tweeting his reaction to Avatar.
05:17He got in trouble?
05:18He got scolded.
05:19Oh, look, I'm so grateful.
05:20He got scolded a little bit.
05:21He was the first reviewer.
05:23Look, nobody can tell Guillermo what to do.
05:25He's just so enthusiastic.
05:27You know, he's so enthusiastic about film.
05:29He's one of my dearest friends.
05:31And hopefully that wasn't the only reason he tweeted on it.
05:35He told us about a barbecue that you guys were at where he had just finished Cronos.
05:39Yeah, that's in 91.
05:41Oh my gosh.
05:42That's in 91.
05:44Your creature design reminded me very much of stuff that he would put into his films.
05:47Sure, absolutely.
05:48He and I both love the creature design.
05:50We know all the artists.
05:52Right.
05:53You know?
05:54He does the same thing I do when he's doing a film.
05:56He surrounds himself with the best artists he could find.
05:59He's celebratory of their work.
06:01He's a good artist himself.
06:02He's a great artist himself.
06:03Sure.
06:04He could do it himself.
06:05Right.
06:06But he loves to work with a team, and so do I.
06:08I do the same thing when I'm making these Avatar films.
06:12All right.
06:13Before they kick me out of here, did you send a note to Kate and Leo when Avatar passed
06:16Titanic at the box office?
06:18No.
06:19No.
06:20But when Titanic beat Star Wars, George Lucas put an ad in the trades.
06:26Yes.
06:27And then when, what was it?
06:30Not Infinity War.
06:31Endgame.
06:32Endgame beat Avatar.
06:34Right.
06:35We put an ad in the trades celebrating them.
06:39It's just the fact that movies can make that kind of money, that people care enough to
06:44go to the movie theater.
06:45That was so celebratory of what they were able to do.
06:48Right.
06:49You know?
06:50And then we kind of snuck in.
06:52Actually, you know what?
06:53We didn't even try to beat them again.
06:54It just happened spontaneously.
06:56The Chinese government said, all right, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
06:59What do we want them to go see?
07:00How about Avatar?
07:01Right.
07:02Boom.
07:03Like, all right, everybody, go to the movies this week.
07:04Right.
07:05And they all came for that.
07:06Yeah.
07:09Wherever we go,
07:14this family
07:17is our fortress.