James Cameron revealed in Sept. that he spent an entire year writing an “Avatar” sequel that ended up being thrown in the trash. So what exactly was that sequel? The filmmaker finally discussed details with Total Film magazine about the canceled “Avatar” movie, including its official title: “Avatar: The Higher Ground.” The script that got thrown away came in at well over 100 pages.
“I was working with a team of writers. We had a lot of ideas,” Cameron said. “We kept trying to corral it into a box and it never quite fit. So at a certain point, I said, ‘I’ll just finish it, and see if it’s a movie.’ I did. It came out, I think, at 130 pages. It was like, ‘Man, this is a great story. This is a hell of a read.’”
“Avatar: The High Ground” got axed because “it was missing one of those critical elements about sequels, which is that it didn’t go enough into the unexpected,” Cameron explained. “It also didn’t play enough by ‘Avatar’ rules, which is to connect us to the dream world, that which has a spiritual component that we can’t even quite quantify in words. It ticked every other box, but it didn’t tick that one.”
Cameron and his team took some elements of “Avatar: The High Ground” and peppered them throughout the sequel that did end up being filmed, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” and an upcoming third “Avatar” movie. He also brought elements that weren’t used into a new graphic novel, arriving Dec. 6.
“There’s some great stuff in it,” Cameron said. “I mean, you’ve got the Na’vi fighting with bows and arrows in zero-G. I mean, I’m there! I want to see that movie. But it just didn’t achieve enough of the overall story and thematic goals that I had in mind. So we’re turning it into a Dark Horse graphic novel. You’ll be able to see that interim battle that took place between movie one and movie two.”
“Avatar: The Way of Water” opens in theaters nationwide Dec. 16.