It appears that Zoe Saldaña spoke that Avatar documentary into existence: Disney+ has just dropped a trailer for Fire and Water: The Making of the Avatar Films. The sci-fi saga’s star is a part of Eywa’s collective consciousness, so it makes sense that she was on the same wavelength as James Cameron.
The look behind the scenes of the Avatar franchise will be released as a two-part documentary on Disney+ this November. In the trailer, Cameron, who seems to have too many Pandora plates spinning, talked about the labor of love that is Avatar and the care that goes into his life’s work through it.
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret. As much as we use computers and technology, Avatar is made by an incredibly talented team of people who bring every expression, every emotional beat, and the entire world to life,” he said of the collaborative effort he leads along with his ensemble of actors and expansive creative crew.
Jon Landau, the late film pioneer and producer, will also appear in the documentary. His presence is deeply felt as he speaks about the world he helped Cameron build in the look below: “We capture 100% of their performance in the digital world. We needed to come up with a methodology to do that underwater, to give them an experience that would be as close to Pandora as possible.”
The clip shows how Saldaña and co-leads Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, and Stephen Lang pushed the limits of their imagination to live truthfully within Pandora. It’s really a sight to behold as we get glimpses of giant mechanical stand-ins for Tulkuns, with some shooting the actors out of the ocean on jet packs meant to simulate the whales cresting out of the water.
The documentary seeks to show fans of the 20th Century Studios epic series the lengths the filmmaker goes to with his cast. Yes, there’s even the footage of Kate Winslet holding her breath for seveal minutes and 15 seconds. I would certainly have secondhand anxiety if we had to sit through all of those minutes.
“The heart of film is the heart of the actor. We’re not just making up images out of nothing.” Cameron is seen saying, “People work for years on the clothing, fabrication of the props. We had to figure out how to write a creature. You’ve got to build something that moves like the creature. The actors are doing everything that you see [the characters] are doing.”
Fire and Water: The Making of the Avatar Films will be released on November 7 on Disney+.
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