James Cameron once boasted, “I’m king of the world,” but some of his colleagues could take a lesson in terms of his self-confidence. Right now the film and television industry is in a death spiral, content to sit on the sidelines while millions of jobs and a good chunk of the global economy go down the drain.
The worldwide coronavirus shutdown has ameliorated life as we knew it, but when the going gets tough the tough get going. Forgive the cliché, but there is no better way to say that tough people tough it out and then they get their butts moving.
James Cameron is an original who isn’t sitting on his laurels
Adaptation is necessary to survival and too few creatives are acting on Darwin’s insight. Call him bold, call him boastful, even egomaniacal, but Cameron is surviving by getting out there and finding a way to work around life’s constrictions. Unlike California Governor Gavin Newsom who refuses to let the movie industry go back to work, risking a major economic downturn plus a mass exodus of talent.
Cameron is hard at work in New Zealand on the live-action portions of the new Avatar movies and there is no reason to expect them to be anything less than brilliant based on the original.
In the meantime, movie producer Jon Landau is talking about what moviegoers can expect when the film debuts.
In the #Avatar sequels, you won’t just return to Pandora — you’ll explore new parts of the world.
Check out these brand new concept art pieces for a sneak peek at what’s to come. pic.twitter.com/bfZPWVa7XZ
— Avatar (@officialavatar) January 7, 2020
Jon Landau spills the tea on the new Avatar
Fans already know that Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) return. But Landau shed light on the plot saying, “This is the story of the Sully family and what one does to keep their family together. Jake and Neytiri have a family in this movie, they are forced to leave their home, they go out and explore the different regions of Pandora, including spending quite a bit of time on the water, around the water, in the water.”
How has Avatar been allowed to film?
According to Landau, the cast and crew took appropriate precautions including a two-week quarantine upon arrival. He praised the New Zealand government’s COVID-19 response saying, “We feel very comfortable … we feel we’re coming back to the safest place in the world possible thanks to a team of people that we’ve worked with. We believe we have a very thoughtful, detailed and diligent safety plan that will keep everybody as safe as possible in these unprecedented times.”
And why can’t Hollywood, the movie capitol of the world, do what an island nation known more for earthquakes and lush landscape do? Here’s another cliché: where there’s a will there’s a way, Mr. Newsom.
