AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER TRIVIA!!!

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A couple weeks ago, I had the chance to check out one of the most anticipated films of the year - Avatar: The Way of Water. Last week, my review for the long, long, long awaited sequel appeared in the Examiner. And, now I will compile up some interesting tidbits for The Way of Water!!

• According to James Cameron, the Avatar sequels were such a massive undertaking that he divided the four scripts between the writing team of Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman, and Shane Salerno. Cameron delves further explaining the story process: "I think we met for seven months and we whiteboarded out every scene in every film together, and I didn't assign each writer which film they were going to work on until the last day. I knew if I assigned them their scripts ahead of time, they'd tune out every time we were talking about the other movie."

• According to James Cameron, Kate Winslet performed all of her underwater stunts herself.

• Kate Winslet broke Tom Cruise's underwater filming record from Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) of six minutes with a record of seven minutes and 14 seconds.

• James Cameron seriously considered shooting the entirety of the Avatar sequels in a higher frame rate by stating, "The 3D shows you a window into reality; the higher frame rate takes the glass out of the window". The industry standard is 24fps, and higher frame rates are at least 48fps, 60fps, or 120fps. He later opted out of this route, stating in an interview that as groundbreaking as the format is for cinema, moviegoers have always been used to a specific way to view films and altering that in any way would simply take the audience out of that experience. Instead, only certain scenes will utilize HFR technology.

• There is a 13 year gap between the first Avatar film and this film, giving it one of the longest development times as it was announced almost immediately following the first film's success.

• Edward Norton turned down a role after finding out he'd be playing a human, being more interested in playing a Na'vi. James Cameron, who still wanted to work with Norton, eventually had him cast as Nova in Alita: Battle Angel (2019).

• The release date has been pushed back to 2022. According to James Cameron this is because all upcoming sequels are being filmed 'back to back', similar to Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy.

• This sequel was announced in December 2009. Originally, James Cameron wanted to release it in 2015. After that was delayed to December 2016. After that to December 2017. In April 2016, Cameron announced a delay the release to December 2018. In March 2017, Cameron announced that the release finally wouldn't be in December 2018. In April 27 2017 was announced that the release would be on December 18 2020. In May 2019, Disney announced that the release finally would be on December 17 2021. In July 24 2020, Disney announced it would postpone the film due to the Covid19 pandemic to December 16, 2022.

• This is the seventh film in history to cost $300 million or more, after Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Justice League (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

• James Cameron's first sequel since Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991).

• Spiders mother's identity is revealed in the tie-in comic as Paz Socorro, a Scorpion pilot killed during the assault on the Tree of Souls.

• RogerEbert.com critic Brian Tallerico notes that some of the themes in the film echo themes from earlier films directed by Cameron, including Titanic, Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). For example, the film asks whether you should run and hide from a powerful enemy or fight their evil, similar to the Terminator films. The film also invokes themes of environmentalism and colonization.

• Avatar: The Way of Water entered production and started preliminary shooting on August 15, 2017, with Manhattan Beach, California, as the main shooting location. Principal photography started on September 25, 2017, simultaneously with Avatar 3 (2024).

• The Way of Water is the first of four planned sequels to Avatar. Avatar 3 started filming simultaneously with this film in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. Cast members from previous films including Worthington, Saldaña, Lang, Weaver, Pounder, Curtis, Ribisi, Moore, Rao, Gerald, Dalton, Bliss, Champion, Bass, and Geljo have all been announced to return while Oona Chaplin and David Thewlis will be playing new characters.