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  • 7 weeks ago
"Avatar: Fire And Ash" is one of the most exciting 2025 movie releases left, chiefly because of the potential it has to become another box office phenomenon. It follows "The Way of Water," which became one of the highest -grossing movies ever alongside the first "Avatar." When James Cameron made "The Way of Water," he also simultaneously made "Fire And Ash," so I had to ask the filmmaker how the audience reaction of the first sequel may have affected the upcoming release. Let’s get into how he answered.

During CinemaBlend’s conversation with James Cameron for "Fire And Ash," I asked the writer/director/producer what might have changed about the third "Avatar" movie after the second movie came out.
Transcript
00:00It's a fluid process, right?
00:02The beautiful thing about performance capture
00:04is that we can reproduce any set or setting
00:07in the movie almost instantly, within an hour or so.
00:10We don't have to go back to a location.
00:12We don't have to go back to some huge built set that's been torn down.
00:16So after The Way of Water came out,
00:19there were certain things that emerged
00:21that required maybe a bit of clarification.
00:24And there were some things that I pushed out of
00:26The Way of Water in editing into movie three, right?
00:30So it was all adjusting itself.
00:33And I also, just over the course of time,
00:35I saw some things that I felt I had done slightly wrong in the script.
00:39For example, I'm going to give you a couple of examples.
00:41One, Jake doesn't get the Turok in the shooting script of Fire and Ash.
00:48So I pulled that forward actually from a scene
00:51that was taking place in movie four.
00:54Because I said, no, I've got to answer this question.
00:57And once he has his moment with Spider,
00:59and you know the one I'm talking about,
01:01and we shouldn't talk about it,
01:02but there's only one path from that moment forward.
01:06And it's to get that thing and to change history
01:10and redawn that mantle of leadership that he's been avoiding
01:15because of the consequences,
01:17you know, the death that it caused last time.
01:20That's a huge change.
01:21So I just call up all the actors and say, hey guys, I got an idea, you know.
01:26And there are a couple of other examples as well of some big changes.
01:29Some of them were in response to the audience's interest.
01:32It wasn't so much that problems emerged as, oh, they really like this.
01:36They're really, you know.
01:37Pyakon emerged as one of our most favorite characters in movie two.
01:41He wasn't that big a player in movie three.
01:45So I reworked some stuff and I gave him more of a role.
01:48Because in my mind the story had moved on to another problem, you know.
01:53But so there was some contouring involved.
01:56So it never adds.
01:58The actress, you know, they crack up over it.
02:00Okay, when are we going to get called back?
02:02You know, because it's evolving.
02:03And it should, you know.
02:04And sometimes their ideas.
02:06Some notes from Zoe, you know, gave me some ideas for maybe not a whole scene,
02:11but maybe a way in which part of a scene was played.
02:14And, you know, because she, you know, as a mother,
02:17she was evolving in her perception of her role with her own children.
02:21You know, this played out over a period of years.
02:23So we started production in September of 17.
02:27And we were capturing for both films, right?
02:30So that was an 18-month period back then to capture for Way of Water and Fire and Ash at the same time.
02:38And then we revisited it.
02:40And sometimes it would be a day here or a week there.
02:43But it's been ongoing up to, I'd say, a year ago, you know.
02:47Ain't done until it's shipped, you know.
02:50And it got shipped about three weeks ago.
02:57I had a couple of episodes.
02:58But what we're taking a time while, it'sgiving.
02:59And it did.
03:00I was just...
03:02Hello, my friend.
03:03The icon may be here, my friend.
03:04I love you.
03:05I just wanna watch it.
03:06I really wanna go.
03:07I'm sorry.
03:08My friends are able to do this.
03:09You know, my friends are willing to do this.
03:10I'm sorry.
03:11I don't know.
03:12I'm sorry.
03:13I didn't know.
03:14But it's a day.
03:15You need to be a child.
03:16I don't know.
03:17You know, when I was born,
03:18you're a child.
03:20Bye.
03:21I'm sorry.
03:22I love you.
03:23Yeah.
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