James Cameron's Avatar franchise expands in new chapter
Welcome back to Pandora.
The cameras switch on again over the planet populated by the tall, blue, anthropomorphic creatures born from the imagination of James Cameron.
But the cards are reshuffled in Avatar: Fire and Ash, presented yesterday in its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and arriving in Italian cinemas on December 17, CE Report quotes ANSA.
The natives are no longer only good, innocent, and united against the humans trying to destroy them. New Na’vi clans enter the scene, such as the aggressive Ash People, who have rejected faith in Pandora’s guiding spirit, Eywa, and the Wind Clan, a nomadic tribe that travels on flying creatures.
“They ask me about the technology used, but Avatar is pure acting,” exclaimed the Canadian director, presenting the cast to an excited audience of fans (many dressed for the occasion), journalists, and crew members.
The breathtaking opening sequence shows how the third chapter of the franchise multiplies not only the technical feats of filming but also the emotional nuances of the characters. Cameron highlights this, having already created three of the four highest-grossing films in history: the first two Avatar films from 2009 and 2022 ($2.9 and $2.3 billion respectively) and Titanic, which grossed $2.2 billion in 1997.
“When I make a normal movie, only 50% of my attention can go to the actors. With performance capture, I’m with them 100%,” he explained on the sidelines of a screening at the Disney studios. “I don’t have to think about the dolly, cranes, sunset lighting, extras in the background, or moving vehicles. I’m not behind a monitor watching everything. I’m right beside them.”
This is shown in the documentary available on Disney+, Fire and Water: The Making of the Avatar Films: the actors, wearing black suits covered with sensors and dots on their faces, move in a practically empty space with green screens, while the cameras record the movements of their bodies, facial expressions, and voices, which are then transferred to their computer-generated characters. Cameron, age 71, with gray hair but bright eyes and hands full of enthusiasm, is always by their side.
“Avatar revolutionized the way I work with the cast. Normally you study the characters in preparation, because once on set the hours are limited—maybe the location is available for only two days or the light changes… In the ‘volume’ (the studio stage created at his Manhattan Beach facilities), we rehearse every day. Sometimes we sit and discuss for an hour or two. Then we start improvising,” Cameron explains.
Oona Chaplin makes the point even clearer: “I haven’t worked on a character like this since drama school. Filming Avatar was like putting on a school play,” says the granddaughter of the late Charlie Chaplin, who in Cameron’s latest blockbuster plays the new character Varang, the fierce leader of the Ash People. “I was shocked during the first weeks. We weren’t filming. I would come into the studio and do nothing but train with bow and arrows, learn to move with the Buugeng (an S-shaped martial weapon), and try to understand how my warrior inhabits that world.”
“I can confirm that. I’ve done many off-Broadway shows where we barely had money for black tights and an empty stage,” adds Sigourney Weaver with a thin smile, the sci-fi queen who first arrived on Pandora as the human scientist Dr. Grace Augustine, who sacrifices herself at the end of the first film. Surprisingly, she returns in the next chapters as the 15-year-old Kiri. “It was so exciting to have her on set that after her character’s death, I decided she should play her daughter,” Cameron says, giving her a friendly tap on the arm.
“I love Avatar: for an actor, it’s freedom. You’re there on the stage with your colleagues. There’s nothing around you to distract you; you have to imagine everything, feel deeply, and let emotions flow. You prepare, of course, but once you start, nothing is fixed in your mind. You just play freely in a protected space. Only that way could I embrace the madness of turning into a fifteen-year-old,” laughs Weaver, who is 76.
Sam Worthington, who plays family patriarch Jake Sully, agrees: “When you work on Avatar, you’re always in close-up; you know every micro-expression of your face is captured, so at a certain point you stop feeling the pressure of close-ups. You just act.”
“It’s like acting in its purest form,” concludes Stephen Lang, who plays the ruthless Colonel Miles Quaritch. “You just look into your partner’s eyes and channel the energy of the imagined situation around you. It creates enormous depth.”
