STACK #224 June 2023

MOVIE FEATURE

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MANY MOONS TO GO With another three instalments in development, James Cameron recently revealed that he had retired from all non-Avatar related filmmaking. With tentative release dates of 2024, 2026, and 2028, the next instalment is already shot and in post-production. It is said to feature a new and aggressive Na’vi clan known as ‘The Ash People’ who live amongst volcanos. Little has been revealed about the final two chapters, other than producer Jon Landau stating that the final movie will take place back on Earth.

AVATAR THE WAY OF WATER JAMES CAMERON DIVES DEEP INTO THE WORLD OF AVATAR

James Cameron isn’t one to rest on his laurels and, true to form, his vision for the Avatar franchise is enormous. Words Gill Pringle

James Cameron directed Piranha II: Flying Killers (1982). In 2010 he described it as “the best flying piranha film ever made.” DYK?

W hen James Cameron recently beamed in by satellite from his editing suite in New Zealand to Cinemacon, the annual cinema owners conference in Las Vegas, he had every reason to look a little smug. After all, his Avatar sequel The Way of Water has broken so many records, it's hard to keep up. Having made US$2.3 billion at the worldwide box office, The Way of Water was the highest grossing film of 2022, the highest-grossing film of the COVID-19 pandemic era, and is the third highest-grossing film of all time. It reunites Australia’s Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña in the lead roles of Jake Sully and Neytiri. For the publicity adverse Worthington, it seemed like he’d hit the acting jackpot 15 years ago when he was first cast as handicapped military vet Jake - a character who would ultimately be magically transformed into a barely recognisable, ten-foot tall blue Na’vi for the next four films. What better way to fly under the radar? But success came at a terrible price

paparazzi laws mean they can better protect their childrens’ privacy. As for the other woman in

Cameron, who has spent the last five years pondering this notion across the filming of The Way of Water and the next three films in the Avatar series. “But also,

Worthington’s life - his co-star Zoe Saldaña - their unfolding Avatar roles have evolved right alongside their own lives. The Sully and Neytiri we meet in The Way of Water are protective parents now - reflecting their own personal lives, both raising their own families. If the original film introduced us to the spectacular forest lands of

to get them off-balance, do things that they don’t expect. There are a lot of surprises in terms of where the story goes in this film, that you just have to experience. “But we also go a lot deeper in terms of the heart and the emotions,” he continues. “The characters and the stories were simpler the first time out, but then I was inspired by the fact that both Zoe and Sam are parents - and I’m a parent of five - so we wanted to get into the family dynamics, and the responsibilities of having kids. And, also, what that’s all like from the kid’s perspective.” With Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang reprising their roles, the film also introduces Cameron’s Titanic leading lady Kate Winslet as Ronal, and Cliff Curtis’s Tonowari as leaders of ocean clan, the Metkayina. Still, Jake and Neytiri remain at the film’s heart, Cameron taking a bet on the actors’ own experience as parents to shine through onscreen. “You may be fearless when you don’t have kids, but you learn fear when you have kids - when you have something greater than yourself that you could lose,” he explains. “And that’s what both their characters are dealing with.”

the extrasolar moon Pandora - with its hanging islands filled with exotic fauna - then Avatar: The Way of Water focuses on the location’s vivid marine life, almost like a fantasy National Geographic documentary. “I think it’s important for a sequel to honour what the audience loved about the experience the first time,” says

• Avatar: The Way of the Water is out Jun 28

for the actor, who was actually living on the road, on a mattress in the back of his car, when he first won the role of Jake Sully. He found the loss of privacy excruciating, clashing with paparazzi and burying his angst in booze. It took an ultimatum from wife Lara Bingle to pull him back from the brink, and today he is eight years sober, the couple since relocating to New York with their three sons - where strict

14 JUNE 2023

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