Back with the sequel to “Avatar”, James Cameron confides: “Happy to find Kate Winslet! »

On D-7 of the biggest film event of the year, director James Cameron (“Titanic”, “Terminator”) spoke exclusively to Sudinfo about the sequel to his film “Avatar”, and his reunion with actress Kate Winslet for the occasion.


Hello James Cameron! How does this sequel to the film “Avatar” distance itself from the first, released in 2009?

The difficulty was to find the right balance between what we wanted to keep from the first film and invent for the second. You will find familiar faces and some sets, but above all there is room for novelty. I also wondered how to summarize what had happened during the fifteen years that separate the story of the two films. That’s why the movie starts out as a tutorial. Jake Sully (the hero of the first film, editor’s note) tells us everything we missed. It’s better than starting with a summary of the previous film. I may take the melon but I thought that summarizing the story of the most profitable film in the history of cinema risked being redundant for a lot of people (laughs)!

“Avatar” is about a planet being colonized. Is there a specific message that you want to convey?

If intent matters, ours was to celebrate the indigenous perspective and ancient traditions. And if there’s a take-home message from the movie, it’s not that there are nice aliens out there somewhere in the sky and that all humans are evil. No, the message of the film is that the Na’vi represent the best part of ourselves. They have a vision of life towards which we would like to tend, but from which we have strayed too far to be still connected to it. The humans in the film represent our current civilization, organized around the principle of consumption. It is a question of opposing a state of grace to a kind of forfeiture.

You were inspired by the Maori culture to create the Na’vi…

Maori, like many other indigenous peoples, believe in the concept of guardianship over nature. They have specific word to talk about it. This concept makes us guardians of nature. It’s as simple as that, but it is above all a very important aspect of their social organization. With spiritual and religious implications. Although many Maori have converted to Christianity, they observe this spiritual attitude. So I did some research on this view of things.

At this point, with your obsession with the ocean, you can almost say you’ve become a scientist…

Oh no, let’s say a science-loving groupie (laughs)!

How does this fascination influence your profession as a filmmaker?

I have to admit, my thirst for ocean knowledge knows no bounds. My curiosity led me to dive all over the world, build submarines and work with real scientists. To have spent so much time traveling or working on boats therefore gives me considerable experience. During the filming of “Avatar 2”, the animators would come to the studio every morning to show me footage, and I would say to them, “This splash is weird” or “This wave is different from what your colleagues are doing on another stage” , etc. Having shot many times on the water in my thirty-four year career has given me this foresight.

How was your reunion with Kate Winslet, twenty-five years after “Titanic”?

A real joy! More than on ‘Titanic’ anyway. As everyone knows, the filming of “Titanic” was hard for her and for me. A real breakdown of morale in the midst of chaos. But did you know that she had never shot twice with the same director before this film? So it couldn’t be so terrible (laughs)! Kate is the same person as at the time of “Titanic” but she has gained confidence. He is an Alpha type personality (charismatic people tending to take control of a group, editor’s note). If you meet her, you will feel it immediately. From her first day of filming, she couldn’t help but take the production in hand. She told the other actors what to do, took the teenage actors under her wing, a real matriarch running the house. All this when she is one of the only people on the team who didn’t even take part in the shooting of the first film (laughs)!

‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ hits theaters on December 14th.








Read also


Prince Harry fan of Marvel? Discover the disguise he chose to send a very important message! (video)

People




Prime Video: this French action film breaks a historic record!

Prime Video






RTLPlay: what’s new for December 2022?

RTLplay




“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3″: the continuation and end of the trilogy is revealed in a first teaser

Movie theater




“Indiana Jones 5”: a first trailer and the official title revealed (video)

Movie theater



See all news









Most read



“The most despicable people I’ve met in my entire career”: Patrick Sébastien talks about his eviction from France 2 (video)

People

Manon wins the eleventh season of the “Best pastry chef”: “This victory seemed inaccessible to me”

TV

“Les 12 Coups de midi”: two boxes disappear from the mysterious star, here is the reaction of the production

TV

“It’s a crazy story”: Soprano reveals that he found his son born under X when he was only 16 years old

People

Harry and Meghan: this punitive “option” that King Charles III would seriously consider after the release of the explosive Netflix documentary

People

“Horrible to film”: why Jenna Ortega (“Wednesday”) does not have a good memory of the filming of the dance scene?

netflix








Back with the sequel to “Avatar”, James Cameron confides: “Happy to find Kate Winslet! »