Cameron's Next Project May Not Be Avatar 2 Or Battle Angel

James Cameron's keeping his options open, according to his longtime producer Jon Landau: He may not direct an Avatar sequel or Battle Angel next. Landau also explained to us how Cameron might do underwater motion-capture for Avatar 2's ocean scenes.

We were lucky enough to get several minutes on the phone with Landau, who's doing interviews in support of the new Avatar DVD and Blu-Ray release, coming out today. And Landau, who's produced several of Cameron's films, says that the director is still trying to choose among a few different projects for his next film. He might tackle Avatar, he might tackle Battle Angel, or he might jump on "some third, as yet unnamed project," says Landau.

There are two main factors that will go into Cameron's decision-making matrix on whether to do Avatar 2 next, according to Landau:

1) Cameron and Landau will sit down with Fox and see if they can "work out a common philosophy on the next film."

2) Which film project Cameron feels has the best script. Landau repeated the thing he's said a few times before: James Cameron has only made two sequels in his career (not counting Piranha 2) and in both cases, they were as good as the original, if not an improvement. He won't do an Avatar sequel unless the same thing is true. So he'll only venture into production on an Avatar sequel if he feels strongly that the script is excellent enough.

Cameron, of course, will be writing the script for the Avatar sequel. But he already has a script in hand for the adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita anime series, co-written by himself and Shutter Island writer Laeta Kalogridis. But Kalogridis also wrote another script for Cameron, The Dive, a non-science fiction project about two real-life free divers, Francisco Ferreras and Audrey Mestre. It's "a love triangle between Audrey, Francisco and the ocean, and ultimately the ocean took Audrey's life," says Landau.

But it's also a distinct possibility that Cameron might decide to direct another, as yet unnamed, science fiction project next, instead of any of those three films.

Fantastic Voyage:

Landau and Cameron are also on board to produce a new Fantastic Voyage movie, with Paul Greengrass in talks to direct. As with the 1966 film, it would involve a scientist shrinking five of his colleagues and injecting them into his own body to cure his potentially fatal brain condition. Cameron has said he's eager to use the imagery that new medical scans give us to present a cooler look inside the human body.

We asked Landau where that stands, and he says:

First and foremost, it's not a remake. It's a new story set in that world. It's a story that deals with the issues of today, the issues of individual freedoms and rights and all of those things. And paul is not officially on board yet, but we're certainly in conversations with him, and hopefully all of that will work out. We've had an art department on, already working and doing research and pulling together some incredible visuals. And I think that's the really exciting thing about this. Truly, the greatest wonder of them all, more so than mother nature on the outside, is the miracle of life on the inside. And I think we're finding some very exciting ways to depict that.

Motion capture underwater

So since Cameron has been saying the Avatar sequel will explore the oceans of Pandora, we were wondering how exactly he could use motion-capture for swimming sequences. Sam Worthington has said that doing mo-cap for swimming in the first movie was a nightmare, because he basically had to perch on a chair and make swimming motions. (Since the motion-capture rig couldn't get wet.) So if a lot of your action takes place in the water with the Na'vi, how do you film that?

Landau responds:

Well, I think we could put people in the water, and capture it in the water. We just didn't need to do that with this one. I think you come up with a different technology [for capturing motion in the water]. I mean, there are ways to do it where it's image recognition on the [actor's] body. I think what we did on this movie is we looked at what the script called for, and we came up with solutions for those. And we'll do the same thing on the next film. And look — the answer might not be [to capture motion] underwater, but we'll come up with something that works.

How to avoid making sequels and reboots?

Avatar is one of the few big science fiction movies in the past decade that's not a remake or sequel to an existing property. How does somebody go about getting a non-franchise picture into production, without being James Cameron with a string of hits behind you? We asked Landau, and he says:

Number one, it's about having a good script — a story that makes sense. [Also], not every science fiction movie needs to be on an epic scale. Those things don't necessarily go together. You can have small-scale scifi that works. I think a great example of that is District 9, and where there's a will there's a way. I think it comes back to story and character concepts, and what is the journey you take your characters on? I hope more people do it, because what science fiction offers is the ability to be a metaphor for the world we live in.

Landau, of course, was a producer on Solaris, the 2002 film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney — which was a remake, but was also an example of this type of small-scale, more thoughtful picture. And he says this proves his point. "As long as you do something on the right budget scale for its potential, you can get those movies made. We made Solaris very inexpensively. George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh worked way below their going rates on the film, to get that movie made."

The popularity of Avatar.

Now that the movie's coming out on DVD, the flood of fan remixes and tribute videos and bizarre screencap parodies can begin. And Landau says he can't wait to see what people come up with. He's already been thrilled by how people have embraced the movie, all around the world. People will approach him and offer to send him pictures of their children putting on Na'vi plays, and he's heard about a high school that put on Avatar Day in Florida.

And he feels as though the depth of the movie's world and its lived-in quality help people to become invested in it. "We were doing an original science fiction fantasy world that had a foundation under it. We weren't just coming in there and saying, 'Here's a creature and here's a plane. We don't really know how it flies, but it does.'"

Designers like vehicle designer TyRuben Ellingson (whom we interviewed here) made sure every single vehicle was actually plausible and could really fly. And creature designers like Neville Page (whom we interviewed here) concocted a whole believable ecosystem. For example, Page was working on the Hellfire wasp, an insect that we only glimpse briefly in the movie being eaten by a Direhorse. And he drew some concept art of five Hellfire wasps resting on a tree, with the five of them joined together to form a star-shaped camouflage. "This was not something we asked him to do. This was something that he just took the initiative to do."

And he says Avatar proves that you can use science fiction to talk about environmental themes without turning off viewers — as long as you don't preach. "It's not overt. There's no moment where somebody says, 'Here's the facts about the environment. Here's the facts about global warming.' Leave that to An Inconvenient Truth," says Landau. "This is storytelling. Jake Sully goes on a journey of discovery, where he chooses his path. All we are asking people to do is to open their eyes. We're not telling them how to think. We're letting them come to their own conclusions."

Cameron's love of difficulty:

James Cameron faced a lot of challenges making his early films, from budget issues on The Terminator to rebellious studio workers on Aliens. Now he's in a position where he can do whatever he wants, with whatever resources he needs — but he still creates huge challenges for himself, from the underwater filming of The Abyss to the technological challenges of Avatar.

So why does Cameron like to make things difficult for himself? Landau explains:

Look, I think Jim is the consummate definition of an explorer - that person who always needs to be going to the next frontier and he does it both in his art and his life, where he goes down and dives into the thermal vents of the ocean. He does it in his art, when he presses the technology forward and everything. That's who Jim is, and he needs that to thrive.

Avatar is out on DVD and Blu-Ray today.

Interview: Tegan Taylor - Avatar and Steven Spielberg to the Yellow Submarine

Ultra-creative and extremely resourceful make-up artist to the stars Tegan Taylor has been on the cutting edge of something fierce for over a decade now. Her meticulous work on the Oscar sensation Avatar helped put her on the Hollywood map, but it was not the first you’ve seen of her work. You may remember a small little film by the name of The Polar Express. It also won’t be the last you’ll see of her work (she has a slew of high-profile projects currently coming down the pipeline including The Adventures of Tin-Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn with Steven Spielberg at the helm).

When the make-up application trays and products on the set of Avatar were lacking in imagination, Tegan took it upon herself to create her very own line called Mo Cap FX. Creation, artistic integrity and thinking outside of the proverbial grid are a way of life for Tegan both in front of and behind the camera.

Tegan took some time out of her busy schedule to chat with me about her past and present work, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Daniel Craig and life on Mars!

Sarah Toce: You have an amazing body of work. Let’s start with The Polar Express. What an outstanding film.

Tegan Taylor: Oh, thank you! The Polar Express was the first 3-D feature that was done with the full motion-capture and face-capture system so it was quite cutting edge at the time. A big group of us were called in. I was familiar with Tom Hanks’ make-up artist [Dan Striepeke] and he brought about 50 make-up artists to test and to learn the process and out of those people, a few of them were selected for this movie. I was one of them. I was pretty intrigued by the technology. That was the first movie that we did with the facial-capture system. Since then, the technology has come quite a long way. It led us up to Avatar – which is a pretty amazing film.

Writers were excited when Avatar surfaced. We couldn’t wait to interview everyone! How were you involved with Avatar?

Avatar is amazing. I worked on it for two years. All together it took about five years for them to shoot it and edit it and all of that. It was an amazing experience and was very exciting! I was the Department Manager on Avatar. There was a whole team of make-up artists and the entire process was extremely cutting-edge.

How do you make the film look so real and authentic to life?

Going from something that doesn’t look real to something that does look real – that is the hard part. All of the action is shot with real actors doing what they would normally do. It’s just that what we do to them makes them look how they end up looking on the screen. It’s getting the technology up to speed so that what the directors and producers want it to look like comes across to the audience at the end of the project.

Can you walk us through the make-up process on a typical day of shooting?

Basically, we paint a grid on the actor’s face that consists of hundreds of specifically placed marks. Every day the actor works it has to be absolutely identical. I created my own make-up label called Mo Cap FX because on Avatar the products that I needed just didn’t exist. So I created these amazing phosphorescent glow-in-the dark paints. They are completely stable and don’t move when the actors move or sweat. The computers pick them right up and they are really cool. Because these products didn’t exist when I started Avatar, I went and had them created. That was one of the really challenging parts of my job as Department Manager. All of the tools from our brushes to the application trays are completely unique to the process. When I go to crew up my department, I have to find artists who are very skilled in fine detail. So, to the outside someone might say, “What are you doing?” but when it comes down to the work, you have to be a very meticulous artist.

These films wouldn’t be what they are without the make-up artists involved. I can’t even imagine having to work with color and make-up. I’m such a words person.

[Laughs]. One of my jobs on these types of movies is to work in conjunction with the visual effects artists – the computer guys – and they are extremely technical. In a traditional movie, there would just be the make-up artist and they would send the actor out on the stage and that’s that. In this process, I actually work in conjunction with the computer people to make sure that I am meeting their needs as well. It drives some people a little crazy, but I’ve just learned that I have to do it and it works. You know, that’s our jobs as women – we have to please everybody!

How was it working with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson on The Adventures of Tin-Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn?

Well, that experience was amazing! Working with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson in the same room! It was like a dream come true. Then you throw in James Cameron and Michael Bay! Daniel Craig was one of the lead actors and he was amazing! He was really hot! Andy Serkis was also one of the actors and he was in Lord of the Rings. Jamie Bell was also incredible.

Where else can we see your work?

The Polar Express was the first movie that I did and then I jumped onto Monster House, A Christmas Carol and Beowulf. What I’ve got coming up is The Adventures of Tin-Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Then there is Mars Needs Moms! which was directed by Simon Wells and stars Seth Green and Joan Cusack. I’m also in pre-production for Yellow Submarine which is going to be directed by Robert Zemeckis. That one should be start later this year. Every one of them is very different and they are all going to be very cool! Yellow Submarine is in the development phase right now and is based off of the Beatles’ cartoon by the same name and it will include some great Beatles’ music!

Digital makeup begins to shine

"Avatar" digital makeup artists used a more advanced computer system along with miniature head-mounted cameras to capture the nuances of the actors' faces.

Most people don't think of makeup as a cutting-edge discipline, but in the aftermath of "Avatar," it has gained recognition as a critical component of performance-capture technology.

Lots of attention has been lavished on the film's breakthrough editing, which digitally stitched together performances from different takes, and on its cinematography, which seamlessly combined live-action and CGI. But it was "digital makeup" that helped make possible the human-like facial expressions and emotions of Pandora's inhabitants.

The technique isn't new, but "Avatar" advanced it to a new level. The film's makeup department head, Tegan Taylor, has used it on films dating back to 2004's "The Polar Express." By now she's built up enough experience to qualify as the makeup queen for 3D performance capture.

Unlike traditional film makeup, which prepares actors for photography, Taylor prepares them for their roles by applying hundreds of reflective dots onto their faces, allowing their emotional expressions to be fed into the computer software that renders the animated images.

Her art has evolved. On "Polar Express" she and her team painstakingly applied hundreds of reflective beads on each actor's head to help capture facial data. "Avatar" used a more advanced computer system along with miniature head-mounted cameras to capture the nuances of the actors' faces. For that film Taylor replaced the beads with a phosphorescent paint she had to invent. "Nothing existed on the market," she says.

No sooner was "Avatar" complete than Taylor ported the same techniques to "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," a 3D opus helmed by Steven Spielberg set for release in late 2011. The film is now in post-production, with Weta Digital handling the digital fx, as it did for "Avatar." Weta topper, Peter Jackson, is a producer of the film, along with Spielberg, and is in line to helm the sequel.

"Weta was in the room with us," says Taylor, referring both to "Avatar" and "Tintin." "My job as department head was to make sure all their needs were being met." She also had to balance Weta's requirements with the concerns of "high-profile actors like Sigourney Weaver, making sure she is comfortable and the products I'm using are compatible with her skin. That's one of the fine lines we walk."

Taylor, who trained as a traditional makeup artist 20 years ago, continues to develop her own digital makeup products - or "potions," as she calls them. "In between 'Avatar' and 'Tintin,' I slightly altered them, changing the consistency for longer-lasting results," she says. "I found paints with fluorescent and black-light properties that glowed in the dark."

Taylor just completed her work on Simon Wells' "Mars Needs Moms" and is in tests for Robert Zemeckis' "Yellow Submarine."

Zoe Saldana Gives James Cameron Demands For 'Avatar 2'

We all know there’s going to be an Avatar 2 even if James Cameron hasn’t committed to it yet. Zoe Saldana expects to return to the role she innovated as Na’Vi warrior Neytiri. She just needs a few things from Cameron before she can do it again.

“He already knows how I like to approach it,” Saldana said. “I need at least 6 to 7 months of training and stuff to get into Neytiri again and whatever’s going to happen is going to happen.”

Saldana spent four years learning and practicing the motion capture performance style as well as the basic skills for a nature native. She’ll keep that experience, but it still requires prep time.

“It does take training,” she said. “It’s not something that I can just turn on and off. Everything is a learned skill. The same way it took me like 2 to 3 months to channel Aisha, you know Neytiri is going to take her time as well. I mean, there are people we are kind of incarnating. It takes a little bit of preparation.”

Right now, Saldana has nothing but time to prepare. Who knows when Cameron will start writing Avatar 2, let alone shooting it. “The good thing that we all know about Jim is - it’s not so good sometimes because we sometimes have to wait like 10 years for it – but by the time he does come around, he gives you something that sort of changes your life or at least touches it in such a way. So I do know that Avatar 2 is going to be just as great as the first one because Jim’s the S-H-*-T.”