Avatar: The Way of Water is the sequel to the highest grossing film of all time- Avatar. James Cameron blew people’s minds in 2009 when he displayed his technical might. There is hardly a visionary like Cameron working in the film industry, Nolan comes very close because of his use of practical effects. Cameron had made no film after Avatar took over the world and became the highest grossing film of all time beating another Cameron film- Titanic. The first Avatar packed in a lot of heart and emotion with its insane, never seen before visuals. The screenplay of the film while bloated was supremely heartfelt. It has been a lot of time since we heard from Pandora. Cameron has an annoying habit of reinventing cinema or creating some new technology every time he touches a camera.
I was absolutely taken aback by the first Avatar, not by the effects, I mean I was but I expected that but along with the effects the way Cameron had weaved in an extremely emotional and heartfelt story of Pandora and its people was brilliant. Also, the protagonist of a film like Avatar has a threat of becoming one dimensional or stereotypical but Cameron managed to make him unique and fresh. Really, Avatar was a cinematic achievement like no other and so when Cameron spawned a sequel for it I was ready to be blown away once again. After 13 years years, finally I got to see the continuation of Pandora’s story and it was an experience like no other. I’m amped up for Avatar 3 and a recent update reveals the runtime of the threequel- It is insanely long!
Avatar 3 First Cut Is Longer Than Both Avatar Movies Combined!
The Avatar movies are not known for their briefness, they’re long sagas that are part of a bigger saga which Cameron intends to tell us in the coming years. The first Avatar movie was 2 hour and 40 minutes long or 160 minutes. The sequel is 3 hours and 10 minutes or 190 minutes long. However, this is nothing in comparison what this report tells us about Avatar 3 (which is potentially titled Avatar: The Seed Bearer) runtime. As the filming for Avatar 2 & 3 took place simultaneously, Cameron is already working on the post production of Avatar 3 while we’re witnessing Avatar: The Way of Water now.
As the film is in early stage of post production, it seems like Cameron is ready with the first cut of the threequel and it is so long. While speaking on The Hot Mic podcast, industry insider- Jeff Sneider revealed that,“[James] Cameron handed in a cut of Avatar 3 last week, one that was nine hours” long. Snieder continued, “[Cameron is] insisting on doing the visual effects work for this cut,” meaning “all nine hours [would] get fully VFX’d” and then “he’ll cut it down” from there.
This is an astonishing number. I’m aware that having nine hours of footage is fine for a first cut as many elements would be shredded down making it much cleaner and shorter but what I was amazed by was that Cameron is demanding to do VFX for the entire nine hours. That is insane. Avatar 2 was 3 hours long and the production budget for that film is around $400 Million. Imagine what the cost would be for VFXing 9 hours of footage. It’ll cross a Billion dollars.
This report doesn’t mention but there is a real possibility that Cameron is asking for rough effects which will give him the idea of how the world and characters would look like which would give him an idea of what to keep and what to cut. However, since the report doesn’t mention this and given the stature and reputation of Cameron is a filmmaker there is a real possibility that he is asking for theatre ready effects for the entire nine hours and once that is done he’ll start cutting the film into a 3 hour package.
Avatar: The Way of Water is currently playing in theatres near you. Avatar 3 is slated to release in theatres on 20th December 2024.
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