James Cameron Slams Matt Damon's Declare That He Turned Down a Goal in Avatar
Two years after Matt Damon’s claim that he turned down a $250 million deal to play Jake Sully in Avatar, James Cameron residing the checklist straight.
Looks as if Matt Damon was as soon as by no approach getting a day trek to Pandora.
Following The Martian actor’s previous claim that he turned down the lead purpose of Jake Sully in Avatar, which he may per chance possibly well also possess authorized in alternate for a whopping 10 p.c of the movie’s earnings, director James Cameron has revealed his side of the narrative, and it’s receive to train that the two don’t match up.
“He was as soon as by no approach provided the part,” James told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview printed Dec. 18. “I will’t take into account if I sent him the script or no longer. I don’t mediate I did?”
As James remembers of their decade-previous conversation concerning the movie, Matt—who shares kids Alexia, 25, Isabella,19, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15, with wife Luciana Damon—outlined how even though he would opt to be within the 2009 movie, he had a scheduling battle due to the his purpose within the stream-thriller sequence Bourne.
“Then we damage up on a name and he acknowledged, ‘I’d opt to discover doing a movie with you,”’ James recalled of their conversation. “’I possess slightly a pair of respect for you as a filmmaker. Sounds fascinating. But I truly possess to achieve this Jason Bourne movie. I’ve agreed to it, it’s an instantaneous battle, and so, regretfully, I possess to indicate it down.’”
Even though it’s actual that the pair possess mentioned the blockbuster hit, the Colossal director needs to produce it sure that Matt’s involvement was as soon as by no approach a carried out deal, adding, “But he was as soon as by no approach provided. There was as soon as by no approach a deal. We by no approach talked about the personality. We by no approach got to that stage. It was as soon as simply an availability discipline.”
At the time of his claim, the Correct Will Making an try huge name, 55, asserted that he turned down a $250 million offer—10 p.c of the movie’s box office profits—for the aim of Jake Sully, which in a roundabout plan went to Sam Worthington.
“I'm sure it's essentially the most money an actor ever turned down, ?” Matt revealed on the July 2023 episode of Who's Talking to Chris Wallace. “But I had a contract.”
But James, 71, dispelled that claim, as properly.
“Now what he’s carried out is he’s extrapolated ‘I catch 10 p.c of the inferior on all my motion pictures,’” he added. “And if, in his ideas, that’s what it may per chance possibly possibly well’ve taken for him to achieve Avatar, then it wouldn’t possess took blueprint. Belief me on that.”
James playfully persevered, “So he’s off the hook and doesn’t possess to beat himself up anymore. Matt, it’s okay, buddy! You didn’t cross over one thing else.”
For extra secrets from the sector of Avatar, be taught on…
How James Cameron Actually Dreamed Up Avatar
The director of Colossal, The Terminator and Aliens had a dream that made him truly feel blue, in an even manner.
“I wakened after dreaming of this roughly bioluminescent wooded field with these bushes that see roughly like fiber-optic lamps,” James Cameron told GQ in 2022, “and this river that was as soon as gleaming bioluminescent particles and roughly purple moss on the ground that lit up as soon as you walked on it. And these forms of lizards that didn’t see like well-known till they took off. And then they was these rotating followers, roughly like living Frisbees, they customarily near down and land on one thing. It was as soon as all within the dream.”
Then he residing to inserting his vision on paper (a proficient artist, that's Cameron's hand sketching Kate Winslet's Rose in Colossal), drawings that “saved us from about 10 courtroom cases,” he added. “Any successful movie, there’s constantly some freak with tinfoil below their wig that thinks you’ve beamed the premise out of their head.”
Cameron wrote the screenplay for the principle Avatar movie—apart from came up with the seeds of the Na'vi language—and then turned over his 800 pages of world-increasing notes to married writing partners Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, who wrote the subsequent two movies.
Josh Friedman is the credited creator, in conjunction with Cameron, on the at stammer titled Avatar 4, while Shane Salerno labored on Avatar 5.
Studios Wanted a Movie Without a Message
Armed with a poignant environmental message about conservation and colonizers who would fortunately plunder one americans's natural assets, Cameron was as soon as within the muse shut down by executives who wished him to avoid wasting away with “the overall tree-hugging crap,” he told the Unique York Times sooner than the initiating of Avatar: Fire and Ash. He recalled telling them, “'No, that's why I'm making the movie.'”
Matt Damon Turned Down Avatar
Damon was as soon as within the heart of shooting 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum when he was as soon as “provided a shrimp bit movie known as Avatar,” the actor acknowledged all the plan in which thru a 2021 Cannes Film Competition masterclass. “James Cameron provided me 10 p.c of it. I will drag down in history…you are going to by no approach meet an actor who turned down extra money.”
Sam Worthington ended up taking the part of Jake Sully and, as Damon completely knows, Avatar made $2.7 billion worldwide on a $237 million funds.
Asked about that disregarded opportunity, Damon outlined on Who's Talking to Chris Wallace in 2023 that he didn't are looking out to leave the Bourne crew within the lurch by leaving early to shoot Avatar.
“I desperately wished to work with Cameron,” the actor acknowledged. “I indicate, because he labored so no longer regularly.”
The Na'vi Were Impressed by Cats
“Obviously, we took loads from tom cat anatomy and tom cat behavior,” Cameron told the Unique York Times in 2025 of the blue-hued inhabitants of Pandora customarily known as Na'vi. “We now possess got a entire vocabulary for Neytiri's tail.”
Neytiri is the 9-foot-huge Na'vi princess played by Zoe Saldaña, who for the reason that main Avatar came out has had three kids, starred in five Marvel movies and won an Oscar.
You Can Study How to Recount Na'vi
Retired USC professor Paul Frommer created the Na'vi conlang (an invented language intended for human communication), which Cameron memorably invoked when he won his 2d Golden Globe for directing in 2010, translating what he acknowledged as, “I glance you, my brother and sisters.”
To align with Cameron's vision, “Na'vi needed to be fully accrued,” Frommer told Campfire Writing in 2024. “It had to sound 'good'; it had to cease in accordance to the thirty-some-extraordinary phrases he had already near up with—basically names of characters and animals.”
It needed to be a language humans may per chance possibly well also very properly be taught, as some attain within the movie. And, since Frommer figured a pair of americans may per chance possibly well glance Avatar, “I wished to make sure it was as soon as attention-grabbing, uncommon and would stand up to scrutiny.”
The professor made workbooks, including “a observe-for-observe gloss and an English-y 'phonetic' transcription that some actors came upon well-known,” he acknowledged. “But the most well-known instruments possess been the mp3 recordings, which they may per chance well also simply rep and spend for apply.”
Then he tutored them in particular person, he acknowledged, to “comely-tune the pronunciation and be sure the sentence intonation was as soon as relevant. On a pair of cases, a spontaneous sound an actor came up with became a canonical battle weep. And one time, an actor unwittingly coined a accrued observe.”
Why Did It Rob So Prolonged to Win the 2nd Avatar Film?
In 2012, Cameron spent a reported $16 million on 2,500 acres of farmland by Lake Pounui in Unique Zealand's Wairarapa Valley to help as his home unhealthy for the making of his peaceable-deliberate four Avatar sequels.
Noting that he was as soon as “within the very early phases” of working on the 2d and third Avatar motion pictures, Cameron told E! News at the time, “We've spent the closing two years building instruments and instrument to produce it a truly gentle pipeline for what’s going to be a truly colossal and no longer easy project.”
And sooner than the title Avatar: The Contrivance of Water was as soon as revealed, the deep-sea exploration pioneer shared that the oceans of Pandora would residing the scene for the sequel.
“Normally, on every occasion you add water to any discipline, it just correct gets 10 times tougher,” Cameron told Collider in 2017. “So, we've thrown slightly a pair of horsepower, innovation, creativeness, and accrued technology at the discipline, and it's taken us a pair of 365 days and a half now to figure out how we're going to achieve it.”
After 18 months of performance-capture work in L.A., which they carried out in November 2019, Cameron deliberate to catch rolling on reside stream filming in Unique Zealand in early 2020. Manufacturing was as soon as shut down that March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then resumed in June and wrapped in September 2020.
How the Stars of Avatar No doubt Feel In regards to the Prolonged Route of
“Correct issues scheme shut time, I mediate, and Jim understands that,” Worthington, peaceable dedicated to what’s going to in a roundabout plan be a two-decade-long expertise playing paraplegic ex-Marine turned Na'vi warrior Jake, told E! News sooner than Avatar: The Contrivance of Water's start in 2022. “This was as soon as his labor of enjoyment in.”
And when Cameron described his thought for the sequel in 2013, properly-known costar Saldaña, who performs Na'vi princess Neytiri, “it had handiest been three years since we had released the [first] movie.”
“And here's the vivid ingredient,” the actress persevered, “if there's anyone who has full and suppose respect for audiences and followers, it's James Cameron. Yes, he may per chance possibly well also've taken just correct thing about the momentum of Avatar 1 and whipped out a formulaic Avatar 2— and then it may per chance possibly possibly well possess lost its purity, the essence of what made it so special. So, elegant issues attain scheme shut time. He did possess to scheme shut a ruin and drag reside his existence.”
Saldana recalled Cameron calling them to his studio in 2015 to part the comfort of his notion.
“And that's as soon as we learned it's no longer just correct a sequel,” she told E!. “It's four extra chapters of this blooming saga.”
A Few Billion to Break Even
Acknowledging Avatar: The Contrivance of Water's gigantic funds, Cameron told GQ in 2022 that “you possibly may per chance possibly simply peaceable be the third or fourth highest-grossing movie in history” to produce any money. “That’s your threshold. That’s your ruin even.”
Sources told The Hollywood Reporter the sequel payment wherever from $350 million to $400 million to produce, no longer including advertising and marketing expenses that set the movie in billion-buck funds territory.
As it turned out, even though, the movie's $2.34 billion haul did produce it the third highest-grossing movie ever, at the support of handiest the principle Avatar ($2.9 billion, including re-start returns) and Avengers: Endgame ($2.8 billion).
Near for the Visual Outcomes—and End for Them, Too
Avatar had an estimated 2,500 visual results shots, while 2022's Avatar: The Contrivance of Water had 3,250, accomplished by a team of 1,300 artists.
The motion pictures start within the Los Angeles blueprint, where Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment production firm is headquartered. On that discontinuance, Cameron gets the lighting, performances and digicam angles he needs, after which a team from Peter Jackson's Wellington, Unique Zealand-based Weta FX (formerly Weta Digital) handles the special results.
“It’s no longer animation in a Pixar sense where they’re just correct making stuff up,” Cameron, who started living in Unique Zealand rotund-time all the plan in which thru the pandemic, told GQ in 2022. “The actors already outlined what they did, however it completely has to be translated from the captured recordsdata to the 3D-CG personality. And there’s all forms of AI steps in there.”
And, suffice it to train, Avatar: Fire and Ash blows each and each out of the water, results-like a flash-witted.
Additionally End for the Chronicle About Household
“I just correct desire each person would stamp the closing ingredient within the sector I are looking out to discuss is the technology,” Cameron told the South China Morning Post in 2022. “I'm a creator, I are looking out to discuss the characters, I are looking out to discuss the actors, I are looking out to discuss the solid and the plan in which they interpreted these characters, and the dramatic and emotional impact that that creates.”
And it's a household that was as soon as at the heart of this ocean fable.
“What attain two characters who’re warriors, who scheme shut chances and create no longer possess any difficulty, attain after they’ve kids they customarily peaceable possess the yarn war?” Cameron set it to GQ, relating to how Avatar: Contrivance of Water picks up with Jake and Neytiri being americans of four. “Their instinct is to be courageous and keep crazy issues. Soar off cliffs, dive-bomb into the heart of an enemy armada, however you’ve got kids. What does that see like in a household surroundings?”
What Efficiency Capture Is—and What It System to James Cameron
“On a performance-capture residing, we scheme shut as long as we desire to,” Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter sooner than Avatar: Fire and Ash's December 2025 start, pushing support against the characterization of his motion pictures as being heavy on AI. “There’s no stressful about the digicam, about the lighting; I’m no longer coming in with a shot list. For me, it’s about getting to the emotional core of the scene. They say it’s no longer ‘right performing’—that’s essentially the most bulls–t ingredient in history, [as if] ‘right performing’ is stage performing where you’re whispering loud sufficient to be heard 30 rows support.”
To possess their performances captured, the actors wear spandex unitards and dots are applied to their faces. Cameras strapped to their helmets checklist their facial expressions and then the overall recordsdata is fed steady into a instrument program that turns the stars into their Na'vi characters.
The final result: Oscar wins for Avatar and Avatar: The Contrivance of Water's visual results, apart from Academy Awards for art route and Mauro Fiore's cinematography on the principle Avatar.
Kate Winslet By no approach Lets Scramble
To play hydrophilic Metkayina warrior Ronal in Avatar: The Contrivance of Water, Winslet learned to free dive and held her breath underwater for seven minutes and 14 seconds. That feat broke a previous movie-production checklist residing by Tom Cruise, who held off from respiratory for six minutes while making 2015's Mission: Very no longer doubtless—Rogue Nation.
“There was as soon as just correct no manner I used to be as soon as going to train no,” Winslet told ScreenRant about reuniting with Cameron 20 years after Colossal. “When he first talked to me about playing this part, and he described Ronal, he acknowledged, 'Glance, she's the matriarch, she's the female goddess warrior leader of her clan.' I indicate, who writes roles like that for ladies folks? And it's no longer just correct that they're solid ladies folks, it's that these ladies folks that he conceives of in his ideas are physically bionic.”
Regrouping After a Spacious Loss
Cameron's longtime producing partner Jon Landau died in 2024, and Winslet—support for Avatar: Fire and Ash—requested if she may per chance possibly well also attain one thing else to help. He requested her to discover an early minimize of the third movie and provides notes.
“Now that's a special Jim,” the actress told the Unique York Times sooner than the movie's December 2025 start. Since they made Colossal, she outlined, “he's well-known extra open, well-known much less resistant to someone looking out to present up an thought of how one thing would be better.”
But Landau's loss of life was as soon as a blow, Cameron telling The Hollywood Reporter, “It's like when my americans died. It's like I've got no one left to indulge in with me, or to deem me if I f–k up.”
In turn, Fire and Ash—which picks up Jake and Neytiri's narrative after the loss of life of their son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) within the previous movie—is devoted to the slack producer.
The franchise furthermore lost Oscar-nominated editor John Refoua, who labored on Avatar: Fire and Ash actual up till the final weeks of his existence sooner than his loss of life from bile most cancers in Could per chance per chance also 2023, per his wife.
The Truth About James Cameron's Mood
Cameron recalled working on the visual results for Apollo 13 with director Ron Howard, “and I just correct watched what a gigantic guy he was as soon as,” he told GQ. “I'm like, 'I'm a full a—gap when put next with Ron Howard. I possess to catch involved with my internal Ron Howard.'”
Whereas he didn't command the reputation he developed early in his profession for being dangerous on residing, he acknowledged he was as soon as extra inclined to catch upset “like twice a 365 days” today, in blueprint of every couple of weeks, as he as soon as did.
James Cameron Opinion of as Quitting Avatar
After Avatar was as soon as a raging success, Cameron admittedly wasn't sure if he wished to avoid wasting his existence on discontinuance again to produce one other one, no longer to mention four extra.
“I knew how all-drinking it may per chance possibly possibly well be,” he told GQ. “It customarily took over my existence for four years. I had no other existence for four years making the principle movie. And I thought, Manufacture I truly are looking out to achieve this again? It's the wonderful-grossing movie in history; can't I just correct mark that unhealthy and stream on?”
But he hadn't yet told the rotund narrative in his head, so he was as soon as compelled to keep up going. “And one thing else I have to say about conservation and sustainability and all of these subject issues,” Cameron added, “the pros and cons of technology and where the human mosey is headed and all that form of ingredient, I may per chance possibly well also say within that greater panorama.”
In Case Avatar: Fire and Ash Is the Closing Film…
Reckoning on the plan in which it does at the box office, “That is inclined to be the closing one,” Cameron told THR of his third Avatar movie. “There's handiest one [unanswered question] within the narrative. We may per chance possibly well also simply receive that the initiating of Avatar 3 proves how diminished the cinematic expertise is today, or we may per chance possibly well also simply receive it proves the case that it’s as solid as it ever was as soon as — however just correct for sure forms of motion pictures. It’s a coin toss actual now.”
Which approach, Disney will glance how well-known money it makes and then deem on the destiny of Avatar 4.
And in Case There's Extra Avatar…
Must peaceable he catch the greenlight, Cameron told THR, “I won't drag down the rabbit gap of exclusively making handiest Avatar for a pair of years. I’m going to figure out one other manner that functions extra collaboration. I’m no longer announcing I’m going to step away as a director, however I’m going to tug support from being as hands-on with every shrimp component of the route of.”
A extraordinary Jim, certainly.
Source credit : eonline.com
