Director James Cameron dreamed of Avatar already at the end of the 1970s, but the first real attempt to create the Pandora universe came two decades later, at the end of the 1990s, after the extraordinary success of Titanic.
However, at the time a film like Avatar was essentially impossible due to the lack of the necessary digital technologies and the prohibitive costs that would have raised the budget to double that of the romantic blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet (which at the time had recently become the most expensive film in the history of cinema).
It is no coincidence that an article from 1999 is currently circulating on social media marked the end of the Avatar project: “(Not) coming to your local cinema“, reads the title of the short article, which adds: “You’d be surprised how many Hollywood films begin production…without ever being finished. Here’s a look at the projects that will probably never make it to the big screen!“. After that the article mentions Avatar (1999): “Great idea: after having grossed 1 billion with Titanic and having won 11 Oscars, director James Cameron could have made any film he wanted… and this is the project he would like to make. Set in 2040, Avatar follows the story of a paralyzed war veteran named Josh on a mining expedition to the planet of Pandora where, through a computerized psychic link, he enters the body of a Pandorian, a purple-skinned, ten-foot-tall alien capable of breathing the planet’s poisonous air.”
The article adds: “The Kiss of Death: Cameron wanted to use an ultra-realistic cast of computer-generated actors. Additionally, many of the special effects to recreate Pandora had to be invented from scratch. The budget? The impressive figure of 400 million dollars. No studio wanted to finance the film, so it was cancelled.”
Exactly 9 years later, in 2009, James Cameron’s Avatar was released in cinemas and became the highest-grossing film in the history of cinema, surpassing Titanic (a record it still holds today).
For other content, find out when Avatar: Fire and Ash might be released on Disney+.
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