Tara Bennett - The Art of Avatar The Way of Water

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I n 2009, inside darkened movie theaters around the globe, James Cameron transported audiences to 2154, where he introduced them to the bespoke, bioluminescent, science-fiction world of Pandora in Avatar . The response was immediate and exuberant. The movie quickly became a global phenomenon, setting the stage for Camerons expanding vision.

Crafted using groundbreaking 3D visual effects, Avatar was the result of 15 years of development, world-building, and innovative cinematic technology shepherded by Cameron and his longtime producer, Jon Landau. For Camerons seventh film as director, he and Landau were aided by phenomenal teams of artists, craftspeople, and technicians who helped bring Pandora to life. The films setting and story, distilled from a lifetime of Camerons ideas and inspirations, were realized through the lens of his life experiences and his 30 years of moviemaking. At the end of its theatrical run, Avatar earned $2.7 billion worldwide, shattering the global box-office record. Compelled to tell more stories in the world with the characters of Avatar , Cameron and Fox announced in 2010 their intention to make sequels.

The first decision Cameron needed to tackle was to assess his treasure trove of story ideas and pick one that would drive the first sequel. Secondly, he needed to decide if the ongoing stories would take place exclusively on Pandora, the already-introduced moon orbiting Polyphemus, a fictional gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. And if not, should the new movies consider going to different planets?

Cameron and team wrestled with that conundrum very early in the creative process. We have always viewed Avatar as a metaphor for the world in which we live, Landau says in reference to Earth. We realized that we could traverse our world and not see all the wonders this planet holds. This idea helped lead Jim to the conclusion to not venture to other alien planets in the sequels, but to instead explore the diversity of locations and cultures that Pandora could still offer. Front and center of those biomes were the oceans, which reflect a passion for preservation and conservation that Jim and I share.

The commitment to remain on Pandora meant the sequels could reveal the previously unseen topography of the moon. Even without a script ready at the time preproduction began, that alone posed a massive design undertaking. Could the filmmakers create brand-new aquatic landscapes that would rival the majesty of the exotic Pandoran rain forests already seen in the first film? The design challenges and the number of elements we needed to generate proved to be an incredible, immense task, especially across four movies, says Landau. As such, work needed to start immediately.