Avatar: The Way of Water
CBFC: U/A 2022 ‧ Sci-fi/Action ‧ 3h 12m
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Avatar: The Way of Water is a 2022 American epic science fiction film directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver from a story the trio wrote with Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. Produced by Lightstorm Entertainment and TSG Entertainment and distributed by 20th Century Studios, it is the sequel to Avatar (2009) and the second installment in the Avatar film series. Cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, and Matt Gerald reprise their roles from the original film, with Sigourney Weaver returning in an additional role.[6] New cast members include Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, and Jemaine Clement. In the film, Na'vi Jake Sully (Worthington) and his family, under renewed human threat, seek refuge with the Metkayina clan of Pandora.
Cameron stated in 2006 that he would like to make sequels to Avatar if it was successful, and he announced the first two sequels in 2010, following the widespread success of the first film, with the first sequel aiming for a 2014 release.[7][8] However, the addition of two more sequels, for a total of five Avatar films, and the necessity to develop new technology in order to film performance capture scenes underwater, a feat never accomplished before, led to significant delays to allow the crew more time to work on the writing, preproduction, and visual effects.[9] The filming process, which occurred simultaneously with a currently untitled third film, began in Manhattan Beach, California, on August 15, 2017. The filming location moved to Wellington, New Zealand, on September 25, 2017, and concluded in late September 2020 after three years of shooting. With an estimated budget of $350–460 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.[2][3]
Twelve years after the Na'vi repelled the human invasion of Pandora by the Resources Development Administration (RDA),[a] Jake Sully lives as chief of the Omaticaya clan, and raises a family with Neytiri, which includes sons Neteyam and Lo'ak, daughter Tuk, adopted daughter Kiri (born from Grace Augustine's inert avatar), and a human boy named Spider, the son of Colonel Miles Quaritch, who was born on Pandora and was unable to be transported to Earth in cryostasis due to his infancy. To the Na'vi's dismay, the RDA returns to prepare Pandora for human colonization, as Earth is dying. Among the new arrivals are 'recombinants'—Na'vi avatars implanted with the minds and memories of deceased human soldiers—with Quaritch's recombinant serving as their leader.
One year later, Jake is leading a guerilla campaign against the RDA. During a counterinsurgency mission, Quaritch and his subordinates capture Jake’s children. Jake and Neytiri arrive and free them, but Spider remains captured by Quaritch, who recognizes him as his son. After the RDA fails to coerce Spider to divulge information through torture, Quaritch decides to spend time with him in order to draw Spider on his side, and in turn, Spider teaches Quaritch about Na'vi culture and language. Aware of the danger Spider's knowledge of his whereabouts poses to their safety, Jake and his family exile themselves from the Omaticaya and retreat to the Metkayina reef people clan at Pandora's eastern seaboard. Although Jake and his family are given refuge, they are viewed with antipathy from some of the tribesmen due to their human heritage, with Avatar-hybrid Na'vi, aside from Neteyam and Tuk, possessing ten fingers and toes rather than eight. Nevertheless, the family learns the ways of the reef people, Kiri develops a spiritual bond with the sea and its creatures, and Lo'ak befriends Tsireya, the daughter of clan chief Tonowari and his wife Ronal.
Writting
In 2012, Cameron stated that the sequels were being written as "separate stories that have an overall arc inclusive of the first film", with the second having a clear conclusion instead of a cliffhanger to the next film. Screenwriters were also announced: Josh Friedman for the first, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver for the second, and Shane Salerno for the third.[57] However, Friedman later clarified and stated that Jaffa and Silver were writing the first of the four sequels and he was writing the second.[71] In April 2014, Cameron expected to finish the (then) three scripts within six weeks, stating that all three sequels would be in production simultaneously and were still slated for December 2016 to 2018 releases.[72][73] He stated that although Friedman, Jaffa and Silver, and Salerno are each co-writing one sequel with him, they at first worked together on all three scripts: "I didn't assign each writer which film they were going to work on until the last day. I knew if I assigned them their scripts ahead of time, they'd tune out every time we were talking about the other movie."[57][74][75][19][71][76] Cameron added that they had "worked out every beat of the story across all three films so it all connects as one, sort of, three-film saga", a creative process that was inspired by his experiences in the writing room of his television series Dark Angel.[77] The writing took longer than expected, forcing Cameron to delay the release of the films further in 2015.[58]
He spent a year writing and completing a full script for the first sequel titled Avatar: The High Ground, a 130-page treatment and then threw it out and started over because "it didn't go enough into the unexpected," which is one of the critical elements about sequels, according to Cameron. At one point he threatened to fire his writers because they would only focus on the new stories rather than first figuring out what made the original movie a success.[78][79] In December 2015, Cameron stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying "I'm in the process of doing another pass through all three scripts [...] Just refining. That's in parallel with the design process. The design process is very mature at this point. We've been designing for about a year and a half. All the characters, settings and creatures are all pretty much [set]."[80] On February 11, 2017, Cameron announced that the writing of all four sequels was complete.[81] In a November 26 interview the same year, he estimated that the scripts had taken four years to write overall.[82]
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