Avatar 2: James Cameron spent a year on a screenplay that was discarded

In a recent interview with the Times dedicated to the highly anticipated sequel, James Cameron talked about the success of Avatar and how to replicate the formula for Avatar: The way of waterrevealing that, of these nearly 13 years of work, at least one was spent writing a screenplay for Avatar 2 which then, in the end, was discarded.

In response to the question about the secret of the success of his films, Cameron said:

I really don’t know, I don’t think about costs and money when making decisions for my films. You simply have to follow your narrator instincts. […] That said, when I sat down with my writers to talk about Avatar 2, we told ourselves we couldn’t move forward until we figured out why the former was so successful at the time.

All the films work on different levels of narration: the first is the most superficial one, made up of characters, problems to be faced and final resolution. The second is the theme, which is what message the film wants to make you understand and try to tell you. But Avatar also had another level, a third, that of the subconscious.

Cameron said that the third level, according to him, is the secret of the success of Avatar and it is the reason why so many people have seen it again and again and have loved it.

I wrote a whole script for the second chapter at the time, read it and realized it didn’t get to level three. Boom. End. From the beginning. A year of work gone.

But what does James Cameron mean when he talks about this third level? On the subconscious level? The director had previously explained this in a podcast of 2021always trying to understand the secret of the success of Avatar:

There was a tertiary level of reading… a kind of dreamlike sensation that made you yearn and wish with all of yourself to be there, in that place, a safe place where you could truly feel at home. Whether it was flying, yearning for that sense of ecstasy and freedom, or walking among the trees in the forest and smelling the fresh earth. In any case, it was something deeply sensory that communicated on a very deep level. This was the spirituality of the first film.

Set more than ten years after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri and their children), the danger that follows them, where they are willing to go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive and the tragedies they face. Directed by James Cameron and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau, the film stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement and Kate Winslet.

What do you think? Do you believe that Avatar 2 will be able to conquer like the first chapter? What are you up to from history? Let us know in the comments!

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Source: Variety