Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
http://chud.com/articles/articles/21969/1/PROJECT-880-THE-AVATAR-THAT-ALMOST-WAS/Page1.html
An interesting article summarizing the scriptment of James Cameron's Project 880, the story that would eventually become, or be reduced to, Avatar. From what the article describes, Project 880 was much more complex and interesting than the streamlined final product, and explained a lot of things that are left vague in the movie, or just didn't make a lot of sense (it's not as back and white). For those that have seen it, if Avatar's story seemed simple and dumbed-down, it's probably because it's in fact a simple and dumb-dumbed version of all that was going on in the original scriptment (which is much more Cameron-like, it explains a lot about why the movie is like it is, literally and figuratively). It's drastically different in a lot of ways, and I wish we had gotten this movie, but as the article alludes to, it probably wouldn't have been possible to make a viable movie out of this script AND maintain the visual experience of Avatar as it is, it just would've been too long and too costly. Probably the right choice since, while that story was certainly better, it'd wouldn't have set the movie apart and made it special like the visual experience Avatar delivered. Anyway, it's a big article covering a lot of details (the first half of the summary covering Earth, the trip to Pandora, and the environment and additional wildlife there is most interesting), but if Avatar's plot left you wanting, it's worth a read.
An interesting article summarizing the scriptment of James Cameron's Project 880, the story that would eventually become, or be reduced to, Avatar. From what the article describes, Project 880 was much more complex and interesting than the streamlined final product, and explained a lot of things that are left vague in the movie, or just didn't make a lot of sense (it's not as back and white). For those that have seen it, if Avatar's story seemed simple and dumbed-down, it's probably because it's in fact a simple and dumb-dumbed version of all that was going on in the original scriptment (which is much more Cameron-like, it explains a lot about why the movie is like it is, literally and figuratively). It's drastically different in a lot of ways, and I wish we had gotten this movie, but as the article alludes to, it probably wouldn't have been possible to make a viable movie out of this script AND maintain the visual experience of Avatar as it is, it just would've been too long and too costly. Probably the right choice since, while that story was certainly better, it'd wouldn't have set the movie apart and made it special like the visual experience Avatar delivered. Anyway, it's a big article covering a lot of details (the first half of the summary covering Earth, the trip to Pandora, and the environment and additional wildlife there is most interesting), but if Avatar's plot left you wanting, it's worth a read.