The incredibly lush and imaginative alien world of Pandora in the Golden Globe-nominated 'Avatar' began in the mind of James Cameron, but translating it to the big screen has been a labor of love over a decade in the making. ET's own Leonard Maltin picks the brain of the Oscar-winning director, along with Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, the two lead actors who went along for the filmmaking thrill-ride of their careers.
"Sam and I gave in our tickets, we got on this ride and we just went full force with Jim, and I'm so grateful for that," says Zoe.
"It's like you're five years old playing in some James Cameron [sandbox] with a lot of toys and problem solving every day, and that to me is what I love about making movies," adds Sam.
"It was like opening up packages on Christmas morning every day we'd go into work," says Cameron.
In 'Avatar,' Sam plays an ex-Marine in a wheelchair given an opportunity to get his legs back again. Tasked to get involved in the hostilities between earth and the beautiful alien world of Pandora, he agrees to put his mind in the body of an alien "avatar" -- and finds himself falling in love with a beautiful native (Zoe) and torn between both worlds in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people.
"When I was a kid I loved science fiction; I read it voraciously, and I was an artist and I drew aliens and I drew landscapes," says Cameron. "The technology [of 'Avatar' is] enabling flights of imagination that hadn't been possible before."
The motion-capture technology to create the indigenous N'Avi characters and creatures of Pandora required a strong imagination from the actors given the limitations of the soundstage environment, so Cameron decided to take them on a little field trip to fuel their minds.
"We knew we were creating a rainforest and all this wild action, big battles with horses and this sort of thing, and doing it in this very austere environment, so I took the actors off to Kauai," he explains. "We went up into the rainforest and we rehearsed for three days in a real jungle environment just so they could have some kind of sense memory of that when they came back and were working in this gray space."
"The richness of Pandora came alive in this sort of basketball court-gray room," says Sam, who calls motion-capture technology "liberating." "You are essentially a child and you're only limited by your imagination, so you dive in," he says. "You look like you're in Cirque du Soleil with all your dots and the funny suit, but essentially you get used to it and you forget that you're wearing it."
"It was the most amazing workshop that I have ever encountered or been a part of in my entire career," agrees Zoe, who had to break through the technology to create a bond with Sam. Ironically, it was his thick Aussie accent that created the biggest obstacle.
"I think for the first month she couldn't understand a word I was saying," laughs Sam. "It was easier to understand N'Avi than to understand me."
'Avatar' opens in conventional theaters and in the IMAX 3D experience nationwide this Friday.
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