Ever since the press release of Avatar , James Cameron has been work to preserve Earth ’s own Pandora with the Achuar people from the Amazon . Last night at Popular Mechanics ’ Breakthrough Awards — where Cameron gain the Breakthrough Leadership Award for his contributions to filmmaking — we enquire the director how his many trip to the Amazon have influenced his sequel to his extraterrestrial megahit .
I was reading about your head trip to the Amazon and how you screened Avatar for a few of the local tribes folk there …
James Cameron : That ’s not quite accurate . What hap was , Avatar was screened by the BBC for a group of Achuar in Peru . And I saw that online and observe it in a speech I was making at a fundraiser . And the woman who runs Amazon Watch came up and introduced herself to me afterwards and say , “ I was at that screening . ” It was a very interesting moment where these Achuar people , it was actually the first time they ’d ever been in a movie theater , and they were observe Avatar in IMAX 3D. So I was interested in that from a ethnic standpoint . As a result of my on-going family relationship withAmazon Watch , I ’ve been down to Brazil double on delegacy to try and make some public awareness around the Belo Monte Dam , and that ’s how that total about .
How have your experience there influenced Avatar 2 ?
I ’ve certainly take from it . I ’ve learned a piffling chip more about the indigenous community ’s perspective on our world . The way they think and the way they find that they are ( in a way ) tasked by fate to be the protective spirit of their rainforest , of their world . They are the people who speak for the natural world and we need to listen to them for a number of reasons . First of all , they have the right field to subsist the way they ’re used to existing , we do n’t have the right to change that . Although that does n’t seem to stop us . And secondly , because we necessitate their wisdom . We need to heed to nature a lot more than we do as as civilization . And we ’re not listening and we ’re in endangerment properly now .
Did you vary any game because of it ? Were you moved by a certain man , woman or family that you met and inspired rewrites ?
No . It ’s undoubtably had an influence but I could n’t guide to a specific scene . That ’s something I ’d probably be more inclined to talk about later when the film ’s done .
We also ask Avatar producer Jon Landau ( who has also traveled with Amazon Watch and Cameron ) how these tripper have impacted his film .
How did the Amazon experience impact Avatar 2 ?
Jon Landau : It chip in us an even big sense of social responsibility , that our picture show can have a social impact on people around the Earth and make an impact . And one of the great things I think Jim is capable to do in Avatar is , he did n’t preach but he exposed things to people and let them come to their own conclusions . So no one went out and said this is wrong and this is correct , they took it upon themselves to understand it however they saw fit . And I think as we go onwards — not just as it relates to the movie — but as it relates to what we ’re doing with the Disney motif ballpark , whatever we might do in publishing . In the motion picture , we agnise that we have a societal responsibleness to challenge people to do what Jake did in the motion picture . open up their eyes . We do n’t tell them what to do after they open up their eye , because we think citizenry make the right decisions , we just challenge them to afford their eyes .
As a film producer and a writer , what did James Cameron change in Avatar 2 after going to the Amazon ? Did he rip up pages and rewrite things ? Or is it all set ?
Number one : it starts with chronicle . You ’ve got ta start with a narration that ’s compelling and you have people that you need to follow on that journeying . And then if you get through that story , you meander in the themes that you want to convey . What we ’ve learned from Avatar and Titanic is that we have a responsibility to put those themes in . Some people see it and say , it ’s too FernGully , it ’s too airy fairy , no that ’s what this movie is . Some people see it that way , other mass wo n’t .
So are things go to be a scrap more brutal in Avatar 2 ?
No , I do n’t think it ’s about being beastly . I think it ’s about the journeying that these characters go on . We ’ll stay on Jake ’s journeying , we ’ll persist in Neytiri ’s journey in the next flick [ … ] We need it to be provocative . Good science fiction is a metaphor for the world in which we live . And I consider Jim is great at place those touchstones in all of his films . Even Terminator has metaphor for the earthly concern .
So instead of saving a planet this yr , are you going braggy ? Will you make unnecessary a universe or different species ?
I recall picture show are n’t about saving the world . I think movies are about people , and saving people . Whatever backdrop you set , I mean it ’s about who are those multitude , and who are you vex behind emotionally .
Image via André Vieira forThe New York Times .
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