James Cameron Told One Movie Exec to "Get the Fu** Out" When He Asked Him to Make a Major Change on AVATAR 2
James Cameron is on the verge of finally releasing his long-awaited sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. The film is coming out 13 years after the first film, which broke records to become the highest-grossing movie of its time. Its visual effects were cutting-edge, and it garnered fantastic reviews, so the sequel, and its promised follow-ups have a lot riding on them.
Cameron has a big vision for these movies, and along with it comes a big passion, which apparently can turn to anger if pushed too hard.
In a recent interview with GQ, Cameron described what happened when a studio executive tried to tell him that he needed to trim the run time of the film:
"I said something I've never said to anybody else in the business. I think this movie is going to make all the f-cking money. And when it does, it's going to be too late for you to love the film. The time for you to love the movie is today. So I'm not asking you to say something that you don't feel, but just know that I will always know that no matter how complimentary you are about the movie in the future when it makes all the money."
He continued:
"And that's exactly what I said, in caps, 'ALL THE MONEY,' not some of the money, all the f-cking money. I said, 'You can't come back to me and compliment the film or chum along and say, "Look what we did together." You won't be able to do that.' At that point, that particular studio executive flipped out and went bug sh-t on me. And I told him to get the f-ck out of my office. And that's where it was left."
On one hand, the film’s runtime is a lengthy 3 hours and 10 minutes. But on the other hand, Cameron’s first film was highest-grossing of its time! So it kind of feels like he should have the final say on how the movies are cut and released. At least for this next film, and then we will see how it goes, or as James Cameron says, we will see “how many people still give a shit.”
Avatar: The Way of Water is set to be released in theaters on December 16th, 2022. Are you looking forward to the sequel?