00:00Actually, you know what, we didn't even try to beat them again, it just happened spontaneously.
00:04The Chinese government said, alright, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
00:07What do we want them to go see?
00:08How about Avatar?
00:09Alright.
00:10I definitely know your stuff.
00:17Oh, thank you very much.
00:18Yeah.
00:19It's a masterpiece.
00:20Oh, thanks.
00:21It's a masterpiece.
00:22I'm a parent, and so it...
00:23How many kids do you have?
00:24Two boys.
00:25Yeah, and age?
00:26One's a freshman in high school.
00:27They're 18 and 14.
00:28Yeah, okay.
00:29So one's right in the crazy age, and the other one's just coming out of it.
00:33But the second born is the youngest, so he's chill.
00:35Okay, right, right.
00:37He's observed.
00:38Yeah, but you've been through being a father to the craziness.
00:42Yes, 100%.
00:43Right?
00:44Okay, so you know what this movie's about.
00:45Oh, 100%.
00:46Right?
00:47Yes.
00:48It resonated in ways that I didn't expect.
00:49I wanted to make a movie for kids, and by kids I mean that angsty teenage period, which
00:55I remember so well.
00:57And then now I've been through it with five kids, male and female, and seeing it from
01:02the other side of the fence.
01:04And the only answer is you've got to lead with love, right?
01:08If I was going to give any kind of, and I don't think anybody should be asking me for
01:11parental advice, but if I was going to give advice, I would say you lead with love.
01:15You start the hard conversations when they've done something, when you've had to bail them
01:20out or whatever it is, or bail them out from getting in trouble at school.
01:24You lead with, no matter what, I love you.
01:27Now, let's talk about what just happened.
01:29Right, right.
01:30Yeah.
01:31But the safety net, you're 100%, is that support system.
01:33Yeah.
01:34You have to lean on.
01:35I think when the family embraces, you feel it so much in this film, that gets conveyed.
01:40And kids, they're having a rough time right now.
01:43You know the stats on teen suicide and mental illness, anxiety, depression, all that stuff
01:48has shot up over the last few years, probably the pandemic had a lot to do with that.
01:53So you go to an escapist fantasy film, and you go 200 years in the future and 4.6 light
01:59years away to this fantasy world, and you see, oh, they feel the same way I do.
02:05I see myself in there.
02:06Yeah, exactly.
02:07Why do you come to us?
02:11I just want to keep my family safe.
02:19We cannot let you bring your war here.
02:23Outcast, that's all they see.
02:27I see you.
02:29People will say it's been 13 years since you've made a film, but that's not accurate, right?
02:33You've been working on these films this whole time.
02:36Yeah, well, it's been five years of basically unbroken production, right?
02:41So we started in September of 17, and we made, essentially completed all production, photography,
02:47and capture on two, basically two and a half movies.
02:50So two, three, first part of four.
02:53And then we posted two, and now we're going to post three.
02:57So it won't be 13 years until the next one.
02:59If everything works out, it should be only another two years.
03:02Oh, okay, that's nice.
03:03So that's nothing.
03:04No, not at all.
03:07I'm from North Carolina.
03:08You shot a film called The Abyss.
03:10Oh, right.
03:11In my neck of the woods.
03:12Yeah, your neck of the woods.
03:13We came into North Carolina, the airport, but we shot just over the state line in Gaffney,
03:17South Carolina.
03:18That's right, correct.
03:19I'm curious, do you wish you had this level of tech back when you were working on, say,
03:23The Abyss and Titanic?
03:24Oh, can you imagine?
03:25So The Abyss worked pretty well, and there was that really strong scene with Ed Harris
03:29and Mary Elizabeth, Master Antonio, where they bring her back to life and all that.
03:32But the ending, you know, the big ship coming out of the water and everything, we could
03:36do that so much better now.
03:37Oh, I can imagine.
03:38I mean, it's just so, I look at it now, and it's like quaint at best.
03:44You know, the last movie that really warranted 3D was Avatar.
03:48There hasn't been a movie that's demanded it since that point.
03:50I would push back a little bit that Life of Pi, Aang's film, and Martin Scorsese's Hugo,
03:57and even Ridley Scott's Prometheus, these were filmmakers at the top of their game authoring
04:03in 3D.
04:04Those are worthy films.
04:05It's all the kind of rank-and-file conversion movies where the filmmakers haven't cared
04:10or the studio hasn't let them, you know, author, actually shoot in 3D.
04:14Right.
04:15They're not that good.
04:16And I think it's hurt it.
04:18But we also got to put it in perspective.
04:21When Avatar came out, there were 6,000-ish 3D, digital 3D screens in the world.
04:27Sure.
04:28There's now 120,000 3D-enabled digital screens in the world, 60,000 alone in China.
04:34So it's much more ubiquitous, it's much more available, it's much more accessible,
04:40and it's much less important.
04:42Right.
04:43Right?
04:44Much less important.
04:45It's the voices.
04:46Nobody's going to go to see a movie because it's in 3D.
04:48They're going to go see a movie because of all the other reasons they want to see the film.
04:52And if they like 3D, it's available.
04:54And if they don't, see it in 2D and it'll still be beautiful.
04:56Absolutely.
04:57You know?
05:10I was lucky enough to interview Guillermo del Toro this past week for Pinocchio.
05:14He mentioned he got in trouble for tweeting his reaction to Avatar.
05:17He got in trouble?
05:18He got scolded.
05:19Oh, look, I'm so grateful.
05:20He got scolded a little bit.
05:21He was the first reviewer.
05:23Look, nobody can tell Guillermo what to do.
05:25He's just so enthusiastic.
05:27You know, he's so enthusiastic about film.
05:29He's one of my dearest friends.
05:31And hopefully that wasn't the only reason he tweeted on it.
05:35He told us about a barbecue that you guys were at where he had just finished Cronos.
05:39Yeah, that's in 91.
05:41Oh my gosh.
05:42That's in 91.
05:44Your creature design reminded me very much of stuff that he would put into his films.
05:47Sure, absolutely.
05:48He and I both love the creature design.
05:50We know all the artists.
05:52Right.
05:53You know?
05:54He does the same thing I do when he's doing a film.
05:56He surrounds himself with the best artists he could find.
05:59He's celebratory of their work.
06:01He's a good artist himself.
06:02He's a great artist himself.
06:03Sure.
06:04He could do it himself.
06:05Right.
06:06But he loves to work with a team, and so do I.
06:08I do the same thing when I'm making these Avatar films.
06:12All right.
06:13Before they kick me out of here, did you send a note to Kate and Leo when Avatar passed
06:16Titanic at the box office?
06:18No.
06:19No.
06:20But when Titanic beat Star Wars, George Lucas put an ad in the trades.
06:26Yes.
06:27And then when, what was it?
06:30Not Infinity War.
06:31Endgame.
06:32Endgame beat Avatar.
06:34Right.
06:35We put an ad in the trades celebrating them.
06:39It's just the fact that movies can make that kind of money, that people care enough to
06:44go to the movie theater.
06:45That was so celebratory of what they were able to do.
06:48Right.
06:49You know?
06:50And then we kind of snuck in.
06:52Actually, you know what?
06:53We didn't even try to beat them again.
06:54It just happened spontaneously.
06:56The Chinese government said, all right, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
06:59What do we want them to go see?
07:00How about Avatar?
07:01Right.
07:02Boom.
07:03Like, all right, everybody, go to the movies this week.
07:04Right.
07:05And they all came for that.
07:06Yeah.
07:09Wherever we go,
07:14this family
07:17is our fortress.
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