“Avatar 2” would be “nothing without the actors” says James Cameron

• James Cameron came to Paris to present "Avatar: The Way of the Water" before its release on December 14.

• The director worked for five years with his team for this highly anticipated sequel.

• It evokes both the technical prowess and the ecological commitment contained in this pharaonic project and evokes the next episodes of the saga.

Finally… 13 years after the triumphant release of

, James Cameron is back with his sequel

in theaters on Wednesday December 14, undoubtedly the most anticipated film of the year 2022, if not the decade.

Without "disclosing", we can say that fans will be delighted with this return to the universe of the Na'vis, people of the planet Pandora, once again exposed to human greed.

Passing through Paris for an exceptional screening of his film, the director came back, face to face with

, on this exceptional cinematographic adventure.

Why did it take so long for "Avatar: The Way of the Water"?

We wanted to go even further in immersing the viewer.

That's why it took so long.

Between four and five years to write the story, create the character designs and develop an even more efficient motion capture technique to capture the gestures and expressions of the actors in their smallest details.

I had to be on all these fronts at the same time.

Are you the god of this universe?

I consider myself rather as a filter that sorts through the elements offered to it by all the creative forces.

I don't really create, I don't draw, I don't act… But it took me five years to orchestrate all this work, to get to the release of Avatar

, to shoot the live action and to the motion capture of

and part of

… And it's going to be time soon for me to focus on those other movies.

You could say that it's been a long journey during which I felt more like the one leading the herd in the right direction than an omnipotent deity.

Should "Avatar: The Way of the Water" be seen as a technical feat?

I consider it to be above all an activist film, which warns against the way in which human beings mistreat the environment as if they consider that everything belongs to them.

But there was already an anti-colonialist message in the first film.

These are subjects that are close to my heart.

Pure technique is not enough, it is essential to have a story that holds the road and emotions so that the public is caught up.

Human beings may one day be replaced by technology, but that is not the case today.

Shooting with the actors took eighteen months and was one of my favorite moments.

Motion capture is a way to enhance their performance, not erase it.

It allows us to go even further in what we make them embody.

My film would be nothing without the actors.

We can change a lot of things thanks to the technique but in “capture of performance”, there is “performance”.

Without it, without the imagination of the performers, there simply is no film.

How did you invent the new world of Pandora that we discover in “La Voie de l'eau”?

We had to create our own version of an underwater fauna and flora that is in the process of destruction.

We were inspired by coral reefs, an environment that is familiar to me as I am keen on diving.

I wanted to create a universe based on what I know but which has its own life.

Nothing religious but a force directed by nature.

I reunited with the artists from the first film, the ones I considered the best of the best, the ones I could almost communicate with intuitively.

I divided the teams in two, one of them was in charge of the human world and the military, the other was in charge of nature, animals and flora, everything that was the planet Pandora including its inhabitants.

So there were two artistic departments, two worlds.

They could say things like "My ships will destroy your creatures" or "My creatures will pulverize your machines".

It wasn't really bad.

We had a lot of fun…

What can we expect for the next movies?

To cultures different from those I have already shown.

The fire will be represented by the "Ash People".

I want to reveal the Nav'is from another angle because, for the moment, I have only shown their good sides.

In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Navi's examples.

In

, we'll do the reverse.

We will also explore new universes while continuing the story of the main characters.

I can say that the last parts will be the best.

The others were an introduction, a way to set the table before serving the meal.

But, obviously, everything will depend on how

will be received, if it will find its audience.

Will you be directing the sequels yourself?

I feel personally responsible for the huge investment I requested from Disney for

.

I'll give you an example: Disney had spent 4 billion dollars to acquire the rights to the

s.

So these movies had to make money even though George Lucas was no longer behind the franchise.

In the same way, I asked the studio to commit financially to an aesthetic and a universe.

It is my duty to think about the future: what would happen if I fell ill or if someone close to me was unwell and I had to retire?

I have to plan everything so that the story can continue without me, even if in the best of all possible worlds, I will continue to direct everything.

I am the only one who knows the smallest details of this universe.

I am a control freak and giving up control is not in my nature.

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"Avatar, the way of the water": Producer Jon Landau delivers some images and details

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