James Cameron Worried This Aspect Of Avatar's Re-Release Would Fail To Meet Audience Expectations
When director James Cameron's sci-fi epic "Avatar" was released in 2009, audiences were blown away by the technology it employed. The film almost single-handedly ushered in a new wave of movies made (or converted) to 3D. Its use of motion capture technology took fans into the world of Pandora, bringing new meaning to the idea of immersive entertainment.
Cameron has always been at the forefront of new film technology. He employed the use of IMAX cameras on his 2003 documentary "Ghosts of the Abyss" five years before "The Dark Knight" made IMAX a standard for premium releases of box office juggernauts. His use of 3D in "Avatar” changed the game as well.
Prior to that film, 3D would often be used as a gimmick with characters on screen sticking objects out into the audience. Cameron did the opposite and took 3D inward, making the world pop around you in an almost pop-up-book-like fashion. Once again employing new groundbreaking 4K HDR technology to the sequel "Avatar: The Way of Water," Cameron was worried the re-release of "Avatar" would fail to meet audience's expectations.
The technology employed for Avatar's theatrical re-release exceeded expectations
"Avatar" director James Cameron told Entertainment Weekly, "I went into that screening worried that it was going to be a bit cringe-worthy relative to the new film." The original 13-year-old film was also remastered in 4k High Dynamic Range technology, a technology that wasn't available at the time of the first film's release, and according to Cameron, "It looks better than I've ever seen it."
This led to Cameron expressing another concern, "As the film ended, I went, 'Hmm, I don't know. I'm now worried about the new film.'" He continues after the jest, "That's not true. I'm not worried about the new film. It looks pretty amazing."
Although Cameron has quite a bit of experience filming in actual water, a piece of "Avatar: The Way of Water" that proved difficult for the animators to bring to life was the CG water. Cameron said, "Our water is mostly CG water, but you won't be able to tell. It looks photo-real. It looks like we just went out to the ocean in Pandora and shot it."
The re-release of "Avatar" also contained some surprising new footage from "The Way of Water." Fans are very excited about another journey into Pandora. Cameron is playing this one pretty close to the chest, as he threw away an initial draft of the sequel's script to ensure the sequel was perfect.
He told The New York Times that he isn't concerned about the amount of time he's taken to make a sequel, "I think I could have made a sequel two years later and have it bomb because people didn't relate to the characters or the direction of the film." He continued, "There's that scarce seen but wondered at principle, which is, 'Wow, we haven't seen that in a long time, but I remember how cool it was back then.' Does that play in our favor? I don't know. I guess we're going to find out."