Summary
Disney+ has announced a two-part documentary, Fire and Water: Making the Avatar Films, offering fans an unprecedented look at the human craft behind James Cameron’s revolutionary blockbusters. The documentary is set to premiere on November 7, ahead of the theatrical release of the third film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, in December.
The film provides a deep dive into the painstaking process behind 2022’s Oscar-winning Avatar: The Way of Water. The documentary’s trailer highlights the groundbreaking technology, focusing on the perfection of underwater performance capture. As Cameron teases, “As much as we use computers and technology, Avatar is made by an incredibly talented team of people who bring every expression, every emotional beat and the entire world to life.”
The documentary reveals the extreme lengths the cast went to for authenticity, including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, and Kate Winslet learning to free dive in a massive, state-of-the-art 680,000-gallon water tank to deliver their performances. This unfiltered access showcases the emotional core of the motion capture work, a process Saldaña says gives actors “the most empowering form of acting.” The documentary is a powerful celebration of the human element at the center of the world’s most successful visual effects franchise.
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