00:00 Actually, you know what? We didn't even try to beat them again.
00:02 It just happened spontaneously.
00:04 The Chinese government said, "All right, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
00:07 What do we want them to go see? How about Avatar?"
00:09 All right.
00:09 [music]
00:14 I definitely know your stuff.
00:17 Oh, thank you very much.
00:18 Yeah.
00:18 It's a masterpiece.
00:19 Oh, thanks.
00:20 It's a masterpiece. I'm a parent, and so it...
00:22 How many kids do you have?
00:22 Two boys.
00:23 Yeah, and age?
00:24 They... One's a freshman in high school. They're 18 and 14.
00:27 Yeah, okay.
00:28 Freshman in high school, freshman in college.
00:29 So one's right in the crazy age, and the other one's just coming out of it.
00:32 But the second born is the youngest, so he's chill.
00:35 Okay, right, right.
00:37 He's observed the madness.
00:38 But you've been through being a father to the craziness.
00:42 Yes, 100%.
00:43 Okay, so you know what this movie's about.
00:44 Oh, 100%.
00:45 Right?
00:46 Yes. It resonated in ways that I didn't expect.
00:49 I wanted to make a movie for kids.
00:52 And by kids, I mean that angsty teenage period, which I remember so well.
00:57 And then now I've been through it with five kids, male and female,
01:00 and seeing it from the other side of the fence.
01:04 And the only answer is you've got to lead with love, right?
01:08 If I was going to give any kind of...
01:10 And I don't think anybody should be asking me for parental advice,
01:12 but if I was going to give advice, I would say you lead with love.
01:15 You start the hard conversations when they've done something, you know,
01:19 when you've had to bail them out or whatever it is,
01:22 or bail them out from getting in trouble at school.
01:24 You lead with no matter what.
01:26 I love you.
01:27 Now, let's talk about what just happened.
01:29 Right.
01:30 But the safety net, you're 100%, is that support system.
01:33 Yeah.
01:34 I think when the family embraces, you know,
01:36 that's you feel it so much in this film that gets conveyed.
01:39 And, you know, kids are having a rough time right now.
01:42 You know, I mean, you know the stats on teen suicide and mental illness,
01:47 anxiety, depression, all that stuff has shot up over the last few years.
01:49 Probably the pandemic had a lot to do with that.
01:52 And, you know, so you go to an escapist fantasy film.
01:56 Right.
01:56 And you go, you know, 200 years in the future and 4.6 light years away
02:00 to this fantasy world and you see, oh, they feel the same way I do.
02:05 I see myself in there.
02:06 Yeah, exactly.
02:07 Why do you come to us?
02:08 I just want to keep my family safe.
02:13 We cannot let you bring your war here.
02:23 Outcast, that's all they see.
02:25 Go!
02:27 I see you.
02:29 People will say it's been 13 years since you've made a film,
02:31 but that's not accurate, right?
02:33 You've been working on these films this whole time.
02:35 Yeah, well, we it's been five years of basically unbroken production.
02:41 Right. So we started in September of 17 and we made essentially
02:44 completed all production, photography and capture on two,
02:49 basic two and a half movies.
02:50 So two, three, first part of four.
02:54 And then we posted two and now we're going to post three.
02:57 And so it won't be 13 years till the next one.
02:59 It should if everything works out, it should be only another two years.
03:02 Oh, OK. That's not so that's nothing.
03:04 No, not at all.
03:05 Keep up, Forest Boy.
03:08 I'm from North Carolina.
03:09 You shot a film called The Abyss.
03:10 Oh, right. In my neck of the woods.
03:12 Yeah, your neck of the woods.
03:13 We came into North Carolina, the airport,
03:15 but we shot just over the state line in Gaffney, South Carolina.
03:18 That's right. Correct. Yeah.
03:19 Curious. Do you wish you had this level of tech
03:22 back when you were working on, say, The Abyss and Titanic?
03:24 Can you imagine like so that so that, you know,
03:26 the Abyss worked pretty well.
03:27 And there was that really strong scene with Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth,
03:29 Master Antonio, where they bring her back to life and all that.
03:32 But the ending, you know, the big ship coming out of the water and everything.
03:36 We could do that so much better.
03:37 Oh, I mean, it's just so it's I look at it now and it's like quaint at best.
03:42 You know, the last movie that really warranted 3D was Avatar.
03:48 There hasn't been a movie that's demanded it since that.
03:50 I would push back a little bit.
03:52 Life of Pi, Aang's film and Martin Scorsese's Hugo
03:57 and even Ridley Scott's Prometheus.
03:59 They all these were filmmakers at the top of their game, authoring in 3D.
04:04 Those are worthy films.
04:06 It's all the kind of rank and file conversion movies where the
04:09 the filmmakers haven't cared or the studio hasn't let them,
04:12 you know, author shoot, actually shoot in 3D.
04:14 Right. They're not that good.
04:16 And I think it's hurt it.
04:18 But we also got to put it in perspective.
04:21 When Avatar came out, there were six thousand ish 3D,
04:25 digital 3D screens in the world. Sure.
04:27 There's now one hundred twenty thousand 3D enabled digital screens in the world.
04:32 Sixty thousand alone in China.
04:34 So it's much more ubiquitous.
04:37 It's much more available.
04:39 It's much more accessible and it's much less important.
04:42 Right. Right. Much less important. Right.
04:43 I mean, people will make choices.
04:45 It's not nobody's going to go to see a movie because it's in 3D.
04:48 They're going to go see a movie
04:49 because of all the other reasons they want to see the film.
04:51 And if they like 3D, it's available.
04:53 And if they don't see it in 2D and it'll still be beautiful.
04:56 Absolutely. You know.
04:57 The way of water connects all things
05:05 before your birth
05:06 and after your death.
05:10 I was lucky enough to interview Gamma Dottoro this past week for Pinocchio.
05:14 Yeah. He mentioned he got in trouble for tweeting his reaction to it.
05:17 He got in trouble?
05:18 Oh, look, I'm so grateful.
05:20 I mean, he was the first reviewer.
05:22 You can't look. Nobody can tell Guillermo what to do.
05:25 He's just so enthusiastic.
05:27 You know, he's so enthusiastic about film.
05:29 He's one of my dearest friends.
05:31 And hopefully that wasn't the only reason he tweeted on it.
05:35 He told us about a barbecue that you guys are at where he had just finished Cronos.
05:38 Yeah. He's about to. That's in 91.
05:41 Oh, my gosh. That's in 91.
05:42 Yeah. We've been pals since then.
05:43 Well, your creature design reminded me very much of stuff that he would put into it.
05:47 Sure. Absolutely.
05:48 He and I both love the creature design.
05:50 We both love we know all the artists. Right.
05:53 You know, he does the same thing I do when he's doing a film.
05:56 He surrounds himself with the best artists he could find.
05:59 He's celebratory of their work.
06:01 He's a good artist himself.
06:02 He's a great artist himself. Sure.
06:04 He could do it himself. Right.
06:05 But he loves to work with a team.
06:07 And so do I. I do the same thing.
06:09 You know, I do the same thing when I'm making these Avatar films.
06:12 Right. Before they kick me out of here.
06:13 Did you send a note to Kate and Leo when Avatar passed Titanic at the box office?
06:17 No. No.
06:19 But when when when Titanic beat Star Wars, George Lucas put an ad in the trades.
06:25 Yes. And then when when what was it in not Infinity War, the end game
06:32 beat Avatar. Right.
06:34 We put an ad in the trades celebrating them.
06:37 And, you know, it's just the fact
06:41 that movies can make that kind of money, that people care enough
06:44 to go to the movie theater.
06:45 That was so celebratory of what they were able to do.
06:48 You know, and then we kind of snuck in.
06:51 Actually, you know what?
06:53 We didn't even try to beat them again.
06:54 It just happened spontaneously.
06:56 The Chinese government said, all right, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
06:59 What do we want them to go see?
07:00 How about Avatar? Right.
07:02 Oh, all right, everybody go to the movies this week.
07:04 Right. And they all came from that. Yeah.
07:06 Wherever we go.
07:11 This family is our fortress.
07:19 And.
07:19 And.
07:20 And.
07:21 Oh. Oh. Oh.
07:26 (bells chiming)
07:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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