The Avatar Vision

 AVATAR

James Cameron was interested in directing and producing a film involving computer generated actors. He wrote an 80 page script draft for Avatar in 1994. Given that he was already popular with film audiences after his films 'The Terminator' (1984),'Aliens', (1986)and Titanic(1997)earned $4,020,663, $10,052,042 and  $28,638,131 respectively in their Opening Weekends. In addition to his impressive box office resume, 'Titanic' had won 11 Oscars, meaning that he had a reputation with the public as being a talented and visionary film-maker.

 

He planned for the film to be released in 1999, but decided that

the technology was not advanced enough for his concept. Perhaps the most technologically advanced film released in 1999 was 'The Matrix', and although their innovative creation of bullet time was a hit with reviewers and audiences, the extensive use of CGI in Avatar would not have as advanced as Cameron wanted.

After seeing Andy Serkis play Gollum in Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' series, he decided that he could find technology adequate for the film. Gollums first real appearance in 'The Two Towers' created a large amount of press interest which ultimately led to an Oscar Campaign for best supporting actor. Although Serkis was passed over as he didn't appear in human form during the film, this meant that the use of having a CGI character being played by an actor had a respected reputation.

Fox Studios granted Cameron $10million to film a proof-of-concept clip of Avatar to be screened in late 2005. After the viewing, Fox did not greenlight or reject the film, due to financial costs. 'Titanic' had an enormous budget and Fox were uncomfortable spending so much money on a film that could still flop at the box office. Cameron, however, was able to continue the project alone, as his fees and contacts from previous films gave him the ability to make progess on the pre-production.

From 2005-6, Cameron worked on the full script, and hired Dr Paul Frommer (USC Linguistics Professor) to create a Na'vi language.
Much like the 'Klingon' language from 'Star Trek', this would attract a core demographic of young, technology savvy men who had been previously shown to embrace film languages to the extent of creating press interest by becoming fluent in it. With the creation of Youtube in 2005, the opportunity to encourage public response by posting videos of themselves speaking Na'vi was newly available to the film marketers.
 

The set of Pandora was initially designed with a team of designers, often in Cameron's kitchen. This personal touch gave the film a sense of secrecy, and as it closer approached it's release date the press grew more driven to report on it, as from the start the film package had been kept mostly under wraps by officials, sparking audience curiosity.

Fox passed on Avatar in July 2006, so he proposed it to Disney, which Fox managed to block. After Ingenious Media agreed to invest in the film, meaning that Fox would pay less than half of the $237 million budget, Fox greenlit it.

Cameron announced he was creating a new Reality Camera System that could film in 3D by using two hi-def cameras in one body, creating depth perception The new technology increased audiences interest as it meant that the 'Avatar' film would be the first of its kind. 3D cinema had always been a novelty but the promoters used the cameras as evidence that 'Avatar' would revolutionise 3D films, making it appear to be a must-see film.