Vitals
- Products: Avatar
- Franchises: Avatar
- Genres: Action Adventure
- Studio: 20th Century Fox
- Notable Characters: Col. Quaritch, Jake Sully, Princess Neytiri
- Writer: James Cameron
- Director: James Cameron
- Cast Members: Joel David Moore, Michelle Rodriguez, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldana
- Producer: Jon Landau
- MPAA Rating: PG-13
If you're getting ready to make a return visit to Pandora this Thursday when Avatar hits DVD and Blu-Ray, the LA Times has a great interview with James Cameron to help you pass the time. Besides being a detailed discussion, Cameron touches upon some of his ideas for the Avatar sequel, a film which he says will explore the oceans of Pandora.
Coming from the director of ocean-set The Abyss, Titanic and Aliens of the Deep (among others), hearing that Avatar 2 will have a ocean theme shouldn't come as the biggest surprise. Cameron promises that the waters of Pandora will be "equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative" as the rainforest we've already seen (which, he adds, will still be a key setting).
Also of interest to Avatar fans is Cameron's confirmation that the original film will return to theaters this August with an additional six minutes of footage. Part of what makes the interview so impressive is Cameron's blunt honesty of explaining that he just doesn't know how the film will perform post-DVD but hopes that it may have a theatrical afterlife. (He compares it to 2001 but, worst case, I'm sure the blue-makeup crowd can push it to at least a Rocky Horror.)
Regardless of how you feel about the film itself, you have to respect Cameron as a businessman and, more to the point, one that believes in film as a theatergoing experience. For all the fanboy criticism of Cameron's bravado, it's genuinely neat to hear him discuss his success openly and talk frankly about the risk of having an overbearing environmental message.
