James Cameron directed, wrote, produced, and co-edited Avatar, a 2009 American epic science fiction movie starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. In the mid-twentieth century, mankind colonized Pandora, a lush livable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, to extract the valuable mineral unobtanium.
The mining colony’s expansion puts a local tribe of Navi – a humanoid race native to Pandora – in jeopardy of extinction. The title of the movie refers to a genetically altered Navi body that is used to engage with the people of Pandora and is controlled by the brain of a distant human. Cameron began working on Avatar in 1994 when he wrote an 80-page treatment for the movie. Filming was meant to begin after Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic was completed, with a planned release date of 1999; however, Cameron said that the requisite technology was not yet ready to realize his vision of the movie.
The official budget for Avatar was $237 million. Other estimates put the production cost between $280 million and $310 million, including a $150 million promotion budget. The movie makes considerable use of innovative motion capture filmmaking techniques, and it was released in select South Korean theatres for traditional viewing, 3D viewing, and ‘4D’ experiences.
After the success of the movie, Cameron negotiated a deal with 20th Century Fox to create four sequels: Avatar 2 and 3 have wrapped principal photography and are set to hit theatres on December 16, 2022, and December 20, 2024, respectively; future sequels are set to hit theatres on December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Worthington, Saldana, Lang, and Weaver are among the cast members who are anticipated to return.
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