James Cameron made Avatar 2 writers read 800 pages of notes before they could start on its script
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James Cameron made sure the Avatar: The Way of Water writers basically had their Ph.D.s in Pandoran history before diving into work on the highly anticipated sequel's script.
The director says he made the film's entire writer's room read "800 pages of notes" about the world of Avatar that he had compiled over a six-month period. Only after that could they even begin brainstorming about the next Avatar installment.
"I walked in on the first day with the whole writer's room, and I plopped down 800 pages of notes, single-spaced," Cameron told ScreenRant in a new interview. "I said, 'Do your homework, and then we'll talk.'"
20th Century Studios 'Avatar: The Way of Water'
It wasn't until Cameron knew they understood what made the original 2009 film so successful that any potential sequel plans could start taking shape.
"The first thing I challenged them with was, 'Before we start talking about new stories, let's figure out how the first story worked. What were people keying into, what was working for them?'" He said. "We had a lot of discussions about that, and every idea we came up with as we went along had to measure up against that standard."
Of course, Cameron had a reason for assigning all that homework.
"[The story] had to hit the heart, had to hit the mind, had to hit the imagination, and it had to hit something even deeper, which we had a hard time quantifying," he explained. "Something you could call spiritual, or you could call subconscious. Some kind of connection that you can't even really describe in words. And I said, 'If we can't do that again, then we are going to fail.'"
Whatever magical concoction they ended up with for the sequel — which has received rave reviews from critics following its first screenings — seems to have worked. Cameron recently told Collider that the film's script received only "three pages of notes" from studio executives and that the following two installments, set for release in 2024 and 2026, received even fewer.
"When I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better," he said. "When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, creative executive over the films, wrote me an email that said, 'Holy f---.' And I said, 'Well, where are the notes?' And she said, 'Those are the notes.' Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?"
Cameron also teased that the final film is one where "you think you know what it's about, and then, oh no, you don't," before adding, "I hope I get to make that film, is what I'm saying."
Avatar: The Way of Water — which stars Zoe Saldaña, Sam Worthington, and Sigourney Weaver — washes up in cinemas Dec. 16.
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