Avatar: The Way Of WaterMovie 2022
Avatar: The Way of Water is a 2022 American epic science fiction film directed and produced by James Cameron. He co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver from a story the trio wrote with Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. Distributed by 20th Century Studios, it is the sequel to Avatar (2009) and the second installment in the Avatar film series. Cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, and Matt Gerald reprise their roles from the original film, with Sigourney Weaver returning in an additional role.[6] New cast members include Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, and Jemaine Clement. It follows a blue-skinned humanoid Na'vi named Jake Sully (Worthington) as he and his family, under renewed human threat, seek refuge with the aquatic Metkayina clan of Pandora, a habitable exomoon on which they live.
Avatar: The Way of WaterMovie | 2022
After repeated delays in the expected release schedule, Avatar: The Way of Water premiered in London on December 6, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 16, 2022. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances, direction, emotional weight, worldbuilding, visual effects and technical achievements but criticized the plot and lengthy runtime.[10] The film was a major box office success, breaking multiple records, and grossing over $2.310 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 2022, the highest-grossing film of the COVID-19 pandemic era and the third-highest-grossing film of all time. Organizations like the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute named it as one of the top ten films of 2022. Among its many accolades, the film was nominated for four awards at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won for Best Visual Effects. Three further sequels are in production, with the next film set to be released on December 20, 2024.
On July 31, 2017, it was announced that Wētā FX had commenced work on the Avatar sequels.[131] The film heavily features underwater scenes, actually filmed underwater with the cast in performance capture.[96][97] Blending underwater filming and performance capture being a feature never accomplished before, it took the team a year and a half to develop a new motion capture system.[130][129] In December 2022, Wētā FX's VFX producer David Conley describe Avatar 2 as the biggest visual effects project that the company had ever undertaken, totalling nearly 3.3 billion thread powers. To cope with the huge amount of data, Wētā used the services of cloud storage company Amazon Web Services.[132]
In July 2022, Empire revealed the runtime was "around three hours" at that stage in production.[140] In November 2022, the film's runtime was revealed to be 192 minutes (3 hours 12 minutes).[1] In the Empire interview, Cameron stated, "I don't want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours... I've watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row. Here's the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it's okay to get up and go pee."[141][142]
Avatar composer James Horner was originally reported to score music for the franchise, before his death in a plane crash in June 2015.[144] In December 2019, Simon Franglen, who had previously worked with both Cameron and Horner as record producer and arranger since 1997's Titanic, including on Avatar (notably completing Horner's score for 2016's The Magnificent Seven after his passing), was reported to write music for the film.[145] Landau confirmed his involvement in the project in August 2021, while also associating with the forthcoming Avatar sequels.[146][147] Horner's score will be reused in the film, in addition to the original themes produced by Franglen.[147] The scoring for Avatar: The Way of Water officially began on July 29, 2022.[148] The soundtrack album was released on December 16, 2022, by Hollywood Records.[149][150] An expanded score album, featuring 10 more tracks from the original score, followed four days later.[151]
In November 2022, it was reported that the film would feature an original song titled "Song Chord" which will be performed by Franglen and Zoe Saldaña.[152] The following month, it was announced that Canadian singer the Weeknd would contribute an original song, "Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)", to the film, produced by Franglen and Swedish supergroup Swedish House Mafia.[149][153]
Disney extensively promoted Avatar: The Way of Water across multiple media platforms, including merchandising, consumer products, theme parks and advertising.[154]At the 2022 CinemaCon,[155] the new title for the sequel was officially announced and the first teaser trailer was debuted at the event,[156] along with four new first look images, showing off the adventures of the Na'vi on and off the coasts of Pandora.[6] It was theatrically showcased at the premiere of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,[157][158] and was later released online on May 9.[159] The teaser finished its first 24-hour online window with 148.6 million views,[160] including 23 million from China alone, according to Disney and 20th Century.[161][162] Grant Ridner of GQ commented "The trailer features minimal dialogue and primarily focuses on shots of the cerulean Pandora and its residents, as well as indigenous flora and fauna."[163] However, Stuart Heritage of The Guardian criticized the teaser saying that "There isn't a trace of premise here, or character, or any real action to speak of. Instead, we're given a minute and a half of nice-looking scenery. It's like being held hostage to look at someone's holiday photos."[164] Louis Chilton of The Independent also felt that the trailer "feels rather too much like a tech demo, or the trailer for a long-gestating video-game sequel".[165]
In June 2022, the teaser was edited by Disney ahead of the theatrical screenings of Pixar's Lightyear, where sequences featuring Sully holding a rifle and few guns were edited. According to Russ Burlingame of Comic Book Resources, the trailer was edited due to "public sentiments to avoid glorifying gun violence" as Lightyear released after the Robb Elementary School shooting incident,[166] while TheWrap's Drew Taylor opined that the change was made on the request of Motion Picture Association for attaching the trailer with PG-rated films.[167] New set photos were released by Empire on June 30, showing Kate Winslet and Cliff Curtis in their Na'vi forms,[168] and subsequent photos were released on the following day, showing Sigourney Weaver as Jake and Neytiri's adopted teenage Na'vi daughter, Kiri.[13] Though the film was not promoted at the San Diego Comic-Con event, Lego released four new sets from the franchise as a part of the promotions.[169]
Eight minutes of the film's footage were showcased in 3D at the D23 Expo on September 10, 2022.[170][171] McFarlane Toys had launched several action figures based on the characters and creatures, which were unveiled at the event.[172] The collections were officially released on October 1.[173] A second excerpt from the film was shown during the credits of the Avatar re-release on September 23, which evidently varies in different versions and screenings.[174][175] The official trailer was released on November 2 at Good Morning America.[176][177] New poster characters were released on November 21, and the second and final trailer was also released then.[178][179] An 18-minute clip of "never-seen-before" footage from the film was exclusively released at the CCXP convention on December 2.[180] The footage features independent storylines surrounding Jake's character and events occurring several years since the first film.[181]
Disney initiated the environmental global campaign, "Keep Our Oceans Amazing", to support the Nature Conservancy in the conservation of marine habitats and animal species.[154][182] A concept art book titled The Art of Avatar: The Way of Water, written by Tara Bennett with foreword by Robert Rodriguez, was made available for pre-order in October 2022, and was set to be released simultaneously with the film.[183] Another book titled, Avatar The Way of Water: The Visual Dictionary by Joshua Izzo is also set to be released with the film.[183]
Avatar: The Way of Water's world premiere was held on December 6, 2022, at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London.[185] The film began rolling out in theaters in some countries on December 14, 2022,[186] and was theatrically released in the United States on December 16, with distribution by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through the 20th Century Studios label.[187][188][189] The film is the first in the series to be released under Disney, since its acquisition of both 20th Century Studios and the rights to Avatar in 2019.[190][191] The film was released in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, and IMAX 3D formats. Select showings also had support for a dynamic high frame rate of up to 48 frames per second.[192] The Way of Water, alongside the forthcoming sequels, was released in Dolby Vision.[52] The Way of Water is one of the widest releases ever given for a Disney film, debuting on over 12,000 screens in the United States and Canada and 40,000 internationally.[193]
The film was subjected to eight delays, as the crew took more time on the writing, pre-production and visual effects process. Initially in late-2010, the film was scheduled for release in December 2014.[9] By mid-2013, Cameron originally intended Avatar 2 to be released in December 2015,[64] which was subsequently delayed to 2016 and then to 2017.[66][65] In April 2016, Cameron announced four Avatar sequels which would be released in December 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023;[69] but, in March 2017, he stated that this film would not be released in 2018, due to extensive production and the visual effects process.[195] 041b061a72