Zoe Saldana was even more decisive for James Camerons”Avatar” franchise than we thought.
Cameron told me Harper’s Bazaar that Saldaña was so devoted to the storytelling that he could have used her by his side when he actually wrote the story.
“I wish I had her in the room with me when I was writing the script,” Cameron said. “She wanted to know that there was an intention to make it about the people, 100 percent of what was going on in their hearts at the moment.”
He continued, “Of all my actors, Zoe was the one who reached out the most (to ask questions). I live with her face and her performance every day (on the editing screens).”
Saldaña earlier joked in one Instagram story that her involvement in the “Avatar” series will probably span 25 years of her life given how long it takes to make each sci-fi film.
“Great! I’ll be 53 when the last ‘Avatar’ comes out,” wrote the “Emilia Pérez” actress. “I was 27 when I shot the very first ‘Avatar’.”
Cameron is now in post-production on “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third installment of the planned six. Cameron told me Empire that he wants to “break the mold” of the franchise with each feature.
“We just started riffing on it and twisting it and flipping it,” Cameron said. “It’s a tricky thing. We can get high on our own supply here, and everybody looking at it says, ‘Damn, that’s not what I signed up for.’ But if you don’t make brave choices, you’re wasting everyone’s time and money. That alone isn’t enough to create success, but it’s necessary to break the mold every time.”
Cameron also teased that there are “some really clever action games” for fans to look forward to.
“You can get your blood pumping in this movie. But what excites me as an artist who recently turned 70 and has done all that is not just the opportunity to do it again, but to get to a level of character and intrigue that you haven’t seen before in an ‘ Avatar movie,” Cameron said.
And there may not be as long a break between the other films. “It’s in strong shape, I think,” Cameron said of “Fire and Ashes.” “We’ve doubled the number of completed frames at this stage of the game than we had on movie two (and) the movies are about the same length. So that puts us way ahead of the curve, which is something I’ve never, honestly, experienced before.”
He even said the process is “a little less nightmarish. We’re getting to a point where we’re actually getting good at this.”
