I just read a interview in the German magazine 'TV Movie'.
There is a little article about Avatar in there, TV Movie correspondent Helen Höhne always makes interviews with Directors and actors, she met Jimmy Boy and saw 20 minutes of Avatar.
Its translated into German so i'm gonna translate it back into English as good as i can:
Höhne: Mr Cameron, after your gigantic hit 'Titanic' everyone expects a new Cinematic miracle, does the movie deliver what it promises?
Cameron: The high expectations and the hype surrounding the project is a blessing and a curse at the same time. On one hand, 'Titanic' allowed me to get the funding to make 'Avatar' happen, on the other hand i have to protect my reputation, that's not easy...
Höhne: Why did it take so long to realize 'Avatar'?
Cameron: I had the idea to make 'Avatar' 14 years ago, long before 'Titanic', but the technique just wasn't ready at the time.
Höhne: Where did you get your inspiration from?
Cameron:I was a huge Sci-Fi fan even when i was a kid, i read a lot of books, draw hundreds of Aliens and UFO's. All that came together in 'Avatar'.
Höhne:Was you always gonna be a filmmaker, or did you have other plans?
Cameron:No, essentially i wanted to be a astronaut because i always dreamed of foreign planets and worlds. 'Avatar' is basically all my dreams i had when i was a child come true.
Höhne:What was the biggest challenge?
Cameron:For this movie, we combined Motion capture with life action footage for the very first time in 3D. No one every did that before. We created something entirely new.
Höhne:How would you describe 'Avatar'?
Cameron: It's a lovestory, within Ex marine Jake gets in love with a Alien warrior and discovers Pandora for what it really is: A beautiful new world, where there is a Harmonie between the ancient population and nature itself.
Höhne:The population of Pandora, the Na'vi, are blue colored, what was the idea behind that?
Cameron:Blue is my favourite color, and i think the color is very spiritual and it reminds of distant worlds. That was important to me, because Pandora is a different world, a moon, that man kind cannot breath on. That's why they have to use an Avatar, a man/Na'vi hybrid, to stay there.
Höhne:And why did you call the Planet 'Pandora'?
Cameron:That comes out of the Greek mythology. Whoever opens Pandora's box, unleashes all human evils. The only thing that's left is hope.
Höhne:The movie seems to be a huge spectacle, how do you see the future of 3D?
Cameron:Very positive. The last years showed us that the viewers love 3D, and therefore are ready to pay an extra buck. In the beginning, everyone worried about the old, traditional 3D glasses that are dated now, but even there the technique made a huge advantage over the last few years. 3D is a new, wonderfull movie experience!
Helen Höhne closing words: To be true, I've seen 20 minutes of Cameron's artificial world, and it looks very, very fake...
So basically, she was underwhelmed as well. She saw the footage in his studio in Santa Monica by the way.
