James Cameron’s first Avatar was essentially an advertisement for the thrilling visual possibilities of modern special effects, with some human actors playing alien cat people and other human actors playing human people who had put the brains in alien cat people bodies. There were big robots, people rode dragons by intertwining their ponytails together or something, and it all took place on a lush natural paradise covered in fantastical flora. Even with all of that in mind, though, this photo of Kate Winslet on the set of Avatar 2—before the CG work has been implemented—is a lot.
That’s Kate Winslet, a performer who is one successful Broadway show short of an EGOT, standing on a mat under water with some kind of majestic cape-wing flowing behind her. The tweet also mentions that she once had to hold her breath for over seven minutes while filming Avatar, because all of this underwater stuff apparently had to be filmed with her actually underwater (and, as we learned previously, she’s playing a “water person”). That’s despite the fact that, like the first Avatar, this one’s going to be stuffed with CG. Winslet’s not going to look like this in the movie, and you’re not going to be able to see the mat she’s standing on or the hose people standing off to the site, so why not just make the whole thing a cartoon and put CG Kate Winslet in CG water with CG hose guys monitoring her CG hoses?
The answer, of course, is simple: That’s not how Avatar does it. You want cartoon people on cartoon sets? Watch a Star Wars prequel. You want real award-winning actors holding their breath for seven minutes so they can become a cartoon, all while remembering the thrill of listening to your parents fight? Watch Avatar 2, apparently.
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In James Cameron’s defense, if anyone can out-crazy Aquaman, it’s him.
James Cameron is the Steve Jobs of movies. I don’t know what that means either.
I’m not clear which of them should be more insulted.
I know exactly what you mean, King Kong Bundy the Wrestler — and, yeah, I don’t know what it means either.
yeah, he’s a huckster salesman
Thank for the comment we needed in this situation.
If he doesn’t have an octopus on drums, then he has spent twelve years working on this movie for NOTHING
That’s a low bar. Beyond “holy shit, that was Julie Andrews??” there was nothing crazy about Aquaman. The opening shot of “Always” was crazier than Aquaman. Super Mario Brothers 2-2 was crazier than Aquaman. My co-worker frustrated ranting about how Jason Momoa didn’t take off his pants to swim in Justice League was crazier than Aquaman. That little pond at every aquarium where kids can reach in and pet starfish is crazier than Aquaman.
Bongo playing Ocotopus was pretty awesome I felt.
I think you missed the Entourage reference…
Ah, my apologies if I missed that (though my assessment still stands)
Opening shot of Always, hah! You Sir, are a scholar and a gentleman. Can’t believe anyone remembers that movie still.
Am I the only one who kinda wanted to see James Cameron make the Aquaman movie from Entourage? It seemed like the perfect mix of cheese and legit action movie filmmaking, kinda like True Lies* crossed with a MCU movie.*I feel like people have forgotten about True Lies, because Cameron hasn’t gotten around to approving the HD restoration so it hasn’t been available anywhere but out of print DVDs in over a decade (and a pretty well done fan restoration, depending on how comfortable you are with torrents). But I watched it the other day and it holds up very well.
I feel like the pre-9/11 buffoonish caricature of Islamist terrorists will look pretty dated, but I imagine the rest holds up pretty well.
which is weird because it’s on TeeVee in HD all the time so by now it would have to be an 8K disc or something.
Evidently what’s on TV is not the remaster that was done in anticipation of a blu-ray release; I’m not sure exactly how they made that but presumably it’s just a scan of some archived prints or something like that. From what I’ve read on the internet, there was a complete restoration done directly from the negatives, and it’s all complete but the studio can’t release it becuase Cameron has it in his contract that he gets to personally approve anything that gets released to home video. So once he gets done with Avatar and gets around to checking out the restoration we should get a blu-ray. In the interim there is a very good scan of a technicolor print floating out there for those who haven’t been able to see it in a while. I wouldn’t mention that becuase I’m not in favor of piracy but I make an exception for things that are out of print and plan to buy the Blu ray whenever it does get released.
I have a soft spot for that movie, but even at the time the part where he gaslights his own wife into stripping for him is…gross.
yes, I forgot to mention that. even the greasy terrorists hold up better than attempted sexual assualt!
Definitely. I bet that everyone who watched Entourage through college like I did would have gone to see an Adrian Grenier/James Cameron Aquaman movie it even if it was terrible.
I watch True Lies probably every two years or so, and as @juansmith mentions, the portrayal of the terrorists is essentially the one thing that is grating. Well, that and how Ahnold tricks his own wife during that fake seduction scene. And then messes with her head. There’s a lot of great comedy and action that definitely holds up quite well.
Yeah and will watch it bomb on stream only
This is all the more humorous because in Entourage, James Cameron directed an Aquaman movie.
Did Kate Winslet offend Jim Cameron during the press tour for Titanic or something? The pieces are beginning to fall into place. Maybe this entire Avatar experience has really just been history’s most convoluted and over-priced attempt to blamelessly drown an actress in a cape. That would explain… just so many things.
Cameron: “Okay, yeah, so I guess it’s like…I dunno…aliens, but…blue and…cats? Yeah, cats, people love cats. On dragons. Versus the army. In space. But it’s like a love story too. And a commentary on colonialism. And because it’s me the studio will give us the most insane CG budget, so it takes place on a different planet…how many films? As long as we make it to two, I don’t give a shit, it won’t look as suspicious if something happens while filming a sequel. But let’s call it four to be safe, I need to fund another ocean expedition.”
I thought he already almost killed her in the water during Titanic.
He obviously serves the Drowned God and just loves trying to kill people via drowning
Much like a sequel to Avatar, he waited an inordinate amount of time to do something he, and only he, really cared about.
you joke, but if anyone alive would do it…
James Cameron’s Mission Impossible : Hold my beer.
I feel like I have been reading about the making of the sequel(s) forever. And now the theater landscape has completely changed for the foreseeable future, so now I’m wondering if the movies will even make a profit.
You have been reading about them forever. Avatar came out 11 years ago. In that span, 21 of the current 23 Marvel Studios movies were released.
Avatar 2 won’t be out for at least two more years, by which point as many as 8 more Marvel films will have been released.
I guarantee you they will make a profit. I can’t wait to pay for the privilege of shitting my pants in a movie theatre!Ok, seriously though, the story of the first one was absolute dog shit and I don’t care to see it more than once, but watching it in 3D Imax was an experience that was well worth whatever I paid for it. Whenever we actually get a vaccine (fingers crossed), I’m watching the Bond movie and this.
But there is no novelty going in… unless they do some crazy ‘4D’ shit and spray you with water during scenes or something, uhhh this is gonna be a generic ass CGI bore fest. The first movie ONLY had the 3D gimmick going for it.
This. I don’t think I’ve ever been so thrilled watching a movie, and certainly not one this formulaic.
Unless he’s got some next technology under his sleeve for this one, it won’t be as exciting as the first one. A big part of why it was so exciting is that we had never really seen anything like that. Now 3D movies are (well, were) a dime a dozen. Unless he goes full VR I can’t imagine this being a fraction as novel and exciting as the first one was.
Man, you articulated that so well. It was my first 3D movie and my first IMAX movie and I was so blown away by how he used the two novel media to really pull you into the world. The visual scope was beautiful.
Robot Chicken actually had a good line about the Avatar sequels “It’ll never come it, it’s the Chinese Democracy of movies” I mean, Chinese Democracy did eventually come out but it’s a good line anyway.
there is a deep irony to the fact that cameron took so long the theatre industry might not exist when he’s done.
This is Cameron we’re talking about here. He and his brother will probably design and build new technologies to overcome the technical and medical difficulties brought about by covid, thus saving movie theaters from possible extinction.Then when he wins an extra oscar for it, he’ll ask for a moment of silence for all the covid victims, then scream that movie theaters are back, baby, and HE’S THE KING OF THE WORLD! Because, this is Cameron we’re talking about here….
All this work for a movie that a lot of people don’t care about.
And that a heck of a lot more people… do care about, or will when it opens.
Agree to disagree. The first movie was a puff piece that accomplished little more than a really expensive and time-consuming commercial for 3D televisions.
That the finished (multi-million dollar) product failed to produce any sort of interesting story to tell, after it’s absurd elevator pitch of “JAMES CAMERON’S BRILLIANT EPIC MASTERPIECE: SO GRAND IN SCOPE AND SCALE, HE HAD TO WAIT FIFTEEN YEARS FOR MODERN MOVIE-MAKING TECHNOLOGY TO CATCH UP TO HIS FANTASTIC VISION” basically says it all.
There was no depth to the characters, the story was juvenile, and the premise was as basic as you can get. “UNOBTAINIUM”. Enough said. Somewhere this guy’s polishing an audio rendition of his farts in the shower IN GLORIOUS DOLBY 7.1 SURROUND, that I’m willing to bet “a lot of people care about”.
If James Cameron wants to render an entire alien world in 4k graphics, showcasing all of his crazy otherwordly ideas and creatures, but can’t be bothered to waste his efforts on any aspect of the story outside of the circumstances governing central conflict, then he should just do a mock-up discovery channel documentary on his fictional alien world and market it like that. Narrated by Patrick Stewart or something. THAT, I would actually watch.
Could’ve fooled me.
And that a heck of a lot more people… do care about, or will when it opens.I’m skeptical of this claim. I’m not saying it’s false, but… I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. The Avatar craze lasted for all six months, way back in 2009/10. Even r/Avatar has a grand total of 7.1k members. There just doesn’t seem to be a persistent fan community.Meanwhile, The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra have only ballooned in popularity. At least on the internet, it’s become what people think of when you say “Avatar.” I literally googled “reddit Avatar” and the first result wasn’t r/Avatar, but r/TheLastAirbender, coming in at a massive 868k members.Granted, this is all just a slice of the larger world. And maybe the marketing campaign for the Avatar sequel will be that damn good. But for all the millions they’re sinking into this project, it sure seems risky when the fanbase ain’t confirmed.
Where are these people?
Right here. Hello!
Ehh when we are talking over 7 billion people on the planet, I am going to say the MAJORITY of those 7 billion give no shit about Avatar 2 the Avataring :shrug: there is no point in guessing how this movie will do until it is out
1989’s The Abyss wasn’t exactly a hit either and the underwater scenes so traumatized Ed Harris to the extent that he refuses to talk about them to this day. And that’s from a guy who has experienced a lot of physical discomfort while filming, so hardly a fragile flower. Apparently, it is just incredibly lucky that nobody has died yet during Cameron’s underwater filming.
I don’t think we’ve heard anything at all suggesting Cameron’s underwater shooting of Avatar has been dangerous, have we? We’re much more likely to hear that too now. I dunno what happened with Ed Harris and it sounds bad, but that was over 30 years ago (yes, I know, we’re all so old) and I think a reasonable person would hope that Cameron learned something since then.
In fairness Abyss might just be the most insane undertaking in modern film making. The underwater stuff taken in isolation is tricky enough but you can see where they were coming from considering where technology was at in 1988. Then add in a tank the size of a nuclear plant’s primary reactor containment vessel (mainly because that’s what it was), a shoot that was effectively outdoors(!), depths that could require decompression if they weren’t careful on time, sets submerged for months plus the lighting and crew needed to work sets that big… honestly stunned that no-one got killed, much less that they actually finished the movie.
I want to hear more about this and about James Cameron’s underwater penchant. But I am too lazy to Google.
I loved that movie back in the day. I haven’t watched it in years and years so I don’t know how it holds up, but the effects were top notch at the time and the whole “aliens at the bottom of the ocean” idea blew my mind.
First, love the Sneetches reference.As box-office unpredictable as Cameron is, there’s one thing that can’t be said about him: “he half-asses his movies.” The amount of prep work and attention to detail this guy puts into his movies is astonishing, like actually working to develop the technologies needed to make the movies he wanted to make (Abyss being an example of developing and proving the tech for T-1000; another being the 3D cameras for Avatar). If he can’t make it with the technology that exists, he’ll be part of the creation of that technology, THEN he’ll make the movie, maybe a decade after he started.Plus he basically came onto the set of Aliens basically unknown and had to work super hard to earn the respect of people who worked under Ridley Scott and just saw him as a kid. Talk about trial by fire. I don’t know much about him as a human being, but I respect the hell out of James Cameron as a filmmaker.
Particularly the director’s cut is worth seeing these days. The Abyss (and to a lesser degree Aliens) were butchered in the theatrical release because studios (pre-LOTR) thought genre movies much over two hours were insane. So there was a lot of backstory cut out of both movies when they were shown in theaters which made their stories needlessly confusing.
Aliens to a much much lesser degree. The stuff that was cut wasn’t horrible but was largely unnecessary. We didn’t need to have it spelled out how a facehugger got back to the colony and the sentry guns were gratuitous military porn (and I say that as someone who is fine with military porn). The scene where Ripley finds out about her daughter would have been good to leave in, and the brief shot inside Hadley’s Hope showing kids playing would have given the horror an extra punch when we find out the whole colony was taken. But again, neither was necessary. The Abyss on the other hand, I totally agree.
I saw it in the theater with my dad while we were on summer vacation. It was awesome for 12-13 year old Rogue for two reasons: the movie itself was crazy good, and that my dad had a running joke about mispronouncing the name itself. So of course we’re at the ticket counter and he of course says the name wrong. I start laughing, he looks incredibly embarrassed, and the ticket lady looked at us like were were morons. As for how it holds up, it’s one of those movies I think I only watched again once, when I was still a teen. I have no desire to ever watch it again, don’t want to ruin my memory of it.
Both Harris and Cameron almost drowned filming that movie. Form what I remember Harris had a malfunction with his air tank, and in Cameron’s case the PA that was supposed to be monitoring/changing his air tanks while he was directing scenes at the bottom of their giant dive pool went on break and while he was off the tank ran out.
I bet that kid was so fired.
Maybe, but then again, he was probably union and possibly taking what was essentially a mandated, and probably scheduled break. No way in hell he should have just walked off with somebody’s life literally on the line, but there’s a decent chance their job was protected under contract.
I always liked that movie too. I bet that scene with his wedding band was a very hard days work.
Hot Take: Kevin Smith’s Tusk was secretly a movie about James Cameron, and will be considered ahead of its time by the year 2030.
It’s common knowledge that Kate Winslet herself nearly drowned during the filming of Titanic, now here Cameron is trying it again 20 years later – it’s starting to seem like the dude has some kind of a kink for drowning people.
Interesting that she came back to working with Cameron.
It’s interesting. If it can be released in theaters, it could be another huge hit like Avatar – if they can sell it as another *state of the art, totally novel experience* film. But without the box office, as pretty every release in the last year has seen, this will be just another movie to stream in quarantine.
is that what avatar was?because i thought it was a hot, blue mess of half-baked ideas and recycled “Noble Indian” revisionist Western concepts of the 1960s not the same movie?
He’s James Cameron, he gives zero damns about what people care about.
But this was discussed over in the Titanic article last week – that was a catastrophe (over budget, delayed, horror stories from the set) that was going to flop and became the biggest film ever made. Then Avatar was going to flop – it was too much money spent on an indulgent niche story about CGI blue cat people – and that became the biggest film ever made. At the moment I can’t imagine people counting the days until Avatar 2 but history has taught us to never rule Cameron out.
And The Abyss (which is a much better film than Avatar) tells us that Cameron doesn’t always hit a box office home run.
Neither of those were a sequel though. Plus: Titanic had the love story, the actors and the performances going for it. Avatar was a technological novelty with forgettable characters and a story no one can remember beyond “blue alien Pocahontas.” Avatar 2 loses the novelty and it’s been ten whole years!
I remember when he said he was making Aliens… folks were like “why is he following up on a perfect horror movie? This is going to be terrible.” Terminator 2 “now he’s just copying himself, Arnie is getting old, this is going to be terrible.” Titanic… “this is going to be terrible.” Avatar… “blue people in 3D? Has he lost his damn mind?”
He has an uncanny knack for knowing how to deliver crowd-pleasing hi-tech films that shouldn’t work as well as they do.
I love the Abyss but in some ways it’s because it feels like a more personal, scaled down project for him. But those set pieces are magnificent. You feel like you’re underwater, in a tight space, an inch away from drowning.
SECOND-biggest release ever. Even for 2020 dollars, Avatar comes in second based on overall first-run income. If you throw in the re-release of Avatar, then yes, biggest ever. But Endgame remains the champeen heavyweight of box office for first run.
Much like the past-tense mention of Titanic becoming the biggest film ever, I thought it was clear I was talking about the release itself. In 2009/2010 it became the biggest film of all time.And not by a bit. It overtook the previous champion (Titanic, ironically) by a billion dollars. At that point in history no other film had hit the two billion mark – and in the decade since only three others have done so on their original release alone (Titanic went past the milestone with the 3D re-release) but Avatar did it and then took an EXTRA $700m on top of that. Avengers finally beat it (and deservedly so in my eyes) but by $7m – and that total includes the Avatar re-release which only took about $10m. Not only that but Endgame was the culmination of a mega-franchise with a massive global fanbase. Avatar was an original film. To me, Endgame is an incredible film and deserves all of its success. I adore that film and I think its definitely the better of the two. But that doesn’t take away from the incredible, unprecedented box office accomplishments of Avatar – something that can’t be denied no matter what one may think of the film itself. If anything, disliking the film makes its success even more fascinating.
No need to imagine, I’ve been counting down the wait for ages! I’m so excited!
I thought I wouldn’t care, but I really wouldn’t mind watching an Avatar sequel right now in IMAX 3D. The first one was such a visual treat, and I miss movie theaters so much.
Yeah, it was derivative and Cameron’s dialog keeps getting worse, but it delivered what it promised. I think no one does large scale action better than Cameron and the final battle is a goddamned masterpiece. Despite it taking place in the air across a huge area, on the ground, with animals and ships and mechs, you always know where you are and what is going on. He moves people and things in the frame beautifully. And the 3D wasn’t 3D House of Pancakes, it was more a window you wanted to dive into rather than things flying at you.
I guess I’ll speak up as one of the people who is really excited about this movie. The first one was an incredible theater going experience, is visually stunning, created a new and beautiful world, and tells a compelling story. I don’t buy the argument that it’s a rehash of Dances with Wolves or Ferngully, it’s a new story that shares some themes with other stories. But I’m fairly confident that is the case with almost every movie made today.
There may be a lot of people that don’t care about it, but there’s also quite likely a huge shit-ton of people that do.
If you are still commenting about what ‘a lot of people’ care about in 2020, you haven’t been paying attention to 2020.
Speak for yourself. Not everybody thinks the same as you do.
Pardon me if I’m skeptical at the seven-minute breath hold. That would make her a near-world-record holder. “The International Association for the Development of Apnea, which records all freediving world records, does not allow the use of pure oxygen before a static apnea attempt. The current non-oxygen aided records stand at 11 minutes, 35 seconds for men (Stéphane Mifsud, 2009) and 8 minutes, 23 seconds for women (Natalia Molchanova, 2011).” (https://www.outsideonline.com/1784106/how-long-can-humans-hold-their-breath#:~:text=The%20current%20non%2Doxygen%20aided,his%20breath%2Dholding%20record%20attempts.)
Is there a record with oxygen?I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re feeding a specific mix in those tubes intended to extend the duration as much as possible.It also doesn’t say what she was doing during that time. She may well have just been training by floating face down or something that otherwise doesn’t overly exert the body.
the key phrase there is “non-oxygen aided”
There is always the possibility she is telling the truth. She may be genetically predisposed to it. If she has been training for years, I can believe it. But If I had to guess, there was some fiddling there. I have no clue how, but I assume medical staff can find ways to over oxygenate her blood temporarily. I cannot imagine that is safe in any way.
What makes you think it was non oxygen aided?It goes up to 22 minutes for men with the aid, why would they make it harder for themselves?
Not to mention, she only says her longest dive is 7 minutes. Not her longest breath hold lol
“she only says her longest dive is 7 minutes. Not her longest breath hold lol”
Reading is fun.“My longest breath hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds”
Wanna rethink that, stupid?
She literally says in the quote that it’s the longest breath hold :shrug: so either they misquoted her or she is lying, so where did you get your info from? Here is the quote “My longest breath hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds, like crazy, crazy stuff.”
LOL WUT
Holding your breath for that long is ludicrously dangerous and there’s no way the on set safety staff or insurance people would actually allow that.Like yeah, real life free and pearl divers with lifetimes of training can do that. Actors insured for millions on a carefully controlled and monitored set absolutely cannot.
I think this is like when actors brag about doing their own stunts, or when it’s a war movie and they get sent to some cosplay boot camp for rich guys going through a midlife and it was such a huge challenge that made them really understand what real soldiers go through. I’m sure it’s hard work and she probably trained to hold her breath longer than I can, but no way it was really 7 minutes.
Yeah I’m thinking she confused “holding breath” with “treading water” because that makes much more sense to do for 7 minutes.
nah man it’s not that hard. There’s some training involved, which she had. Also, if you saturate your blood with oxygen before starting you can go a crazy long time. Guinness world record for men is 24 minutes. So could an actress breathe pure O2 for a bit and then hold her breath for 7 minutes while not exerting herself? Yeah, absolutely.
Also like every single time there’s a movie with boxing and the star continually mentions during interviews that the trainer absolutely told him that he could definitely get in the ring with real boxers and win a few fights.
There are childrens boxing leagues, so technically, they could win a few fights in the ring.
To be fair, I’m sure Stallone and Crowe in their prime could pound the piss out of low-level pros and win on points. They would not be long-term contenders or title holders…but there is a difference between surviving a few bouts and maybe even winning some and being actual title holders…
Why would you be sure of that? Was Stallone more than an actor who buffed up? Was Crowe more than a guy who liked to fight? Neither qualifies someone to beat even low level pros.
I’m saying they had size and weight that with training could have made them basically competitive. I doubt either of them would be TKO’ed by the bottom tier of entry-level pros. I’ve watched a friend growing up who wasn’t particularly good work in the barely-pro level for a time and basically you could be a guy off the street and have a decent shot of winning on points.
I blame Stallone.
Or when there’s a war movie that has a 3-5 “Boot Camp” before filming they talk about how “they know they could be real soldiers”. Despite not getting the shitty pay or actual dangerous part of the whole “military experience”
Presumably she had breathed in some 100% oxygen beforehand? It’s much more doable if you do.
that seems very likely
You could free dive for 7 minutes if you trained with a pro and pre-oxygenated with pure O2 before diving. It’s not that crazy. The world record for a woman holding her breath after saturating with pure oxygen beforehand is 18 minutes 32 seconds. Men’s world record is 24:11
I mean, Tom Cruise, king of doing his own stunts, also does that for underwater scenes so who knows. I’m sure this isn’t the first time she’s had training on this. I’m willing to bet they taught them breathing techniques on the set of Titanic too, just incase anything happened.
Danny Trejo, a legit badass, calling out Hollywood stars for doing their own stunts is pure brilliance:https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=10156588681434832&ref=watch_permalinkIf you don’t want to watch, short story is that every time a star “does his own stunt”, they’re risking the entire production, including putting 100+ people out of work, and taking a job from someone that probably needs the pay a whole lot more. All so they can have a nice story for “The Tonight Show.”
hey i lost my virginity at a cosplay boot camp
You can hold your breath that much and longer if you pre-oxygenate. There’s nothing fancy about it.
But why would you do that?
So you can hold your breath longer, since it raises your blood oxygen concentration to the point where the body has no need to breathe for a good while. It’s safe in moderate amounts and is universally used in anesthesia prior to intubation.
People have held their breath for more than 20 minutes. A lot of commenters seem really salty about this claim, which would almost certainly be called out in minutes if false. It’s not as though preserving Winslet’s claim is a matter of national security. It’s as though they forget that these people have nothing but time to train.
The question is…why was that even necessary? The entire thing is being motion captured. None of the principle footage is being used for anything but basic references. So why isn’t the cast at least in partial scuba gear?
Seems doable with training and rescue divers all around.
The tweet said her record was over 7 minutes but didn’t say she did that while filming.
She said she learned to free dive for the role and that her longest time was 7 minutes 14 seconds. She did not say she held her breath that long while filming scenes. She insinuated it. I think she did that on her own with a trainer under ideal conditions and is letting fans fill in the blanks with their own incorrect assumptions that she held her breath underwater 7 minutes while acting. Actors love their extreme acting stories.
Well yeah, unless Avatar 2 is going for unbroken 7 minute shots there would be no need to hold her breath for that long. Unless it was a case of …“Lets try that again. Kate you ready to go again, we’re still rolling”“Mmmmnnnnnnnngghhhh …”“Okay. Action!”
“My longest breath hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds”
“She did not say she held her breath that long while filming scenes.”
That quote also leaves open the possibility that she wasn’t even underwater when this “breath hold” happened.
I’m shit at breath hold, but it’s actually easier with your face in the water. She would have done that breath hold in ‘static apna’, where you just float face down motionless on the surface.
The funny thing is if they just talked to a magician like Teller, they could have learned how to make it LOOK like someone is holding their breath under water for a long time while actually being able to breath normally and be completely safe.
related?
She never said those 7 minutes were continuous.
I trained myself to hold my breath for over 6 minutes on a whim over a weekend. It’s not that hard, nor is it much of an achievement by sports standards. The longest free dive breath hold is 11 minutes 35. The longest held breath on record is 24 minutes 11 seconds (with oxygen prebreathing). The only really dangerous one of these is free diving, and that’s because the pressure change makes a huge difference to physiology, and if something goes wrong you’re a couple of hundred metres under water.
From all films she did and will do this is the one thing anyone would say “lets cgi”. She and everything else will be cgi anyway.
7 minutes isn’t that big of a deal if you are in decent shape, know proper breathing techniques and have trained them, aren’t super deep down, and have a whole safety crew within a few meters. I don’t doubt that she was also allowed to bail at any point if she felt the need.
This is like Tom Hardy claiming he’d be a member of the SAS, but he’s ‘too well known’ to be sent on missions.
I think you’re overestimating both the danger and difficulty of this. Train for several weeks or even a month, pre-breathe 100% oxygen for ten minutes before the dive and this is completely believable.A girl that I used to work with did some underwater modeling and said it only took about three days to get to the point where she could do 3-4 minute breathe holds.I’ve always wanted to take an apnea class to get myself even half-ways decent at free diving just haven’t ever found the time. The instructors I’ve talked to say they can get pretty much anyone on the planet to 90 seconds breathe hold in just a few hours of training which would basically triple what I can do right now.
Have you seen some of the stunts Tom Cruise does?
Training to hold your breath for that long is neither difficult or dangerous. You would be amazed at how much time you could add to your own breath hold over a dedicated weekend.
i do it all the time for funyou niggers are just lazy
It’s really not. See that dude to her left? That’s her safety crew watching her for any sign of distress, holding a regulator with a long hose to hand her within seconds. Watch the making of The Abyss… this is nothing new for Cameron.
She didn’t say that she held her breath that long on set. It’s not even her tweet that is pairing the quote with the on-set image.
I think the 7 minutes was her time in training, not on set filming. To make a comparison, it’s like Jake Gyllenhall talking about taking a punch and getting knocked down for Southpaw; it would be from training not an on set incident.
Sigourney Weaver said she held her breath for over six minutes while filming her scenes in this movie. She is 70 years old. She trained with military divers and gulped supplemental oxygen. Seems real to me. Source: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/10/sigourney-weaver-avatar-2-stunts-weights-submerged-1234593963/
Didn’t Tom Cruise do even longer than that for one of the recent MI movies?
Just because she managed a breath hold for seven minutes doesn’t mean she did that while acting.I have no problem believing that her training culminated in her managing to do a 7+ minute breath hold. I also highly suspect that most shooting scenes didn’t go past about sixty seconds specifically due to the safety concerns. The idea is to train for a margin.
This comment got me thinking. I never would have believed holding one’s breath for more than 20 minutes was even possible:https://www.outsideonline.com/1784106/how-long-can-humans-hold-their-breath#:~:text=In%202012%2C%20German%20freediver%20Tom,19%20minutes%20and%2030%20seconds.)I know, this is someone who trained. I’m just pointing out this.
Yeah my first thought exactly. I know it’s a fantasy, but I always wish some of the more ridiculous movie promotion claims would get followed up with, “Uh huh. So since that’s obviously bullshit, could you explain why you thought making it up would sell the movie better?”
Too late for Jack Dawson though.
Cameron shoulda hired Guybrush Threepwood.
Wish I could have given more than one star, oh how I miss Guybrush!How appropriate. You fight like a cow!
Does anyone care? I don’t know a single person that wanted anymore of this.
The wooden door saved Rose from drowning onceJames Cameron decided to remove the door this time.
7 minutes, I don’t believe it
I was hoping Kate Winslet would be over the James Cameron stage of her career by now.
It’s hard to turn down those suitcases full of cash, I am sure. Doesn’t she also do smaller stuff as well between these massive projects?
Pretty sure before she signed on to giving Cameron a second chance to drown her, she used to she’d never work with him again after Titanic. Didnt she?
making your actors do tough and strenuous things just for the sake of how it looks on film is the kind of thinking that had a helicopter land onand kill actors during the shooting of “The Twilight Zone: the movie”.
method acting is one thing but directors demanding realistic shit is dangerous
If you’re getting paid millions for a couple months of work, then yeah why not take risks?
“making your actors do tough and strenuous things just for the sake of how it looks on film is the kind of thinking that had a helicopter land onand kill actors during the shooting of “The Twilight Zone: the movie”.”
Fuck you with your false equivalency bullshit.
1) James Cameron isn’t making anyone do anything. They all signed contracts agreeing to this.
2) Twilight Zone happened because the production BROKE THE LAW, asshole.
Negligence leading to death is not the same as training to do a stunt. Fuck you, fuck yourself, you fucking asshole.
You need to settle the fuck down
“Fuck you with your false equivalency bullshit.
1) James Cameron isn’t making anyone do anything. They all signed contracts agreeing to this.
2) Twilight Zone happened because the production BROKE THE LAW, asshole.
Negligence leading to death is not the same as training to do a stunt. Fuck you, fuck yourself, you fucking asshole.”
maybe this person should hold their breath for seven minutes maybe to calm the fuck down. XD
They weren’t wrong, though.
I…how the hell can someone get THAT MAD about your OP? How absolutely deranged and/or imbalanced does someone have to be? I’m guessing therapy costs are too steep?
This ‘franchise’ is gonna be awkward when it releases, the first sequel might do well, but it won’t smash any box office records. The second sequel is going to flop, Unless some how the second movie turns it all around, the best thing the first movie offered was an amazing 3D experience. The story, character and world were extremely forgettable.
I want this to flop. I don’t really know why, the whole thing just seems obnoxious.
Can I just say I love how salty the internet gets about James Cameron? Dude just cranks out one record smashing blockbuster after another and the entire internet keeps waiting for him to fall on his face but it never happens. Meanwhile Zack Snyder gives us one giant turd after another and the internet rallies to keep giving him more chances.
You’re not alone.
Look, the guy has made great stuff. Legendary. But if this whole 25 part series or whatever he’s doing with a plant planet is his Citizen Kane, he’s going to be disappointed with the results. The uncanny valley alone off-puts people to large degrees.
It’s beautiful, what are you talking about?
I’m not questioning it’s beauty. I’m saying it’s not a viable series to hold up for EIGHT PLANNED MOVIES.
WHO wants this?WHO? who beside cameroon and the people he pays?are the Studios clawing sat the door for this?i fail to understandavatar is either the best sci fi ever made or i’m just OLD and CAN’T get it
I know it’s cool nowadays to hate on Avatar, but if there’s any upcoming movie that can save the theater industry, it’s this one. I miss the theatrical experience I had watching the first one, and I definitely wouldn’t mind being transported to that world again. I just hope my cynicism doesn’t prevent me from being wowed like I was 11 years ago.
I’m really interested to see where Noted Door Expert James Cameron is going with this.
Retiring to make wooden boats after taking a severe unprovoked beating from a mysterious producer.
I mean he’s only made billions for the studios, I wouldn’t let him near a camera either.Fucking clickbait.
The Avatar movie series is so out of my brain that I thought this was about Netflix Avatar: The Last Airbender series which looking up is actually going to be delayed after the creators left in August.
Can someone explain, why the fuck are we filming people underwater? There is literally NO PART of that shot that will be used for anything but reference. Robert Downey Jr. must be sitting at his home laughing his ass off at this, thinking… Ok Kate, he’s punking you! In the Avengers movie I drove by the studio and waved and they got what they needed! #PearlDiving #DeepBreath
No. A lot to deal with is the fact that at no point in the last year and a half has this asshole had time to take a break from sequels that no one gives a fuck about and approve the HD remaster of The Abyss (and also, if anyone cares, True Lies). WTF, Cameron? Covid didn’t open up any free time for you? Take a weekend. Watch a good movie. I promise the blue people everyone forgot about half a decade ago will be there when you get back.https://www.filmstories.co.uk/features/true-lies-the-abyss-and-the-blu-ray-4k-problem/
1) You can’t easily replicate how you move underwater while you are not in the water. The physics involved is just totally different.
2) This was probably also done for the cape. Computers have an extremely difficult time simulating how cloth behaves. Pixar spent years and years trying to get the physics of cloth right for Ratatouille, which was the first time in the history of computer animation that clothes was animated separately from the character model. It would be much easier to film a cape moved underwater by a human actor than to simulate it.
so why not just make the whole thing a cartoon and put CG Kate Winslet in CG water with CG hose guys monitoring her CG hoses?Because James Cameron is making fucking *CITIZEN KANE RETURNS* in his head, and no one can tell him otherwise.
I really hope we are talking Ishtar levels of failure here. Like enough that they realize a 3rd movie would make more sense direct to streaming dumped on the backside of Netflix.
10 years of his life on Avatar so it can bomb on streaming lol
If 2020 wasn’t already on a non-stop sweeps week of shark jumping episodes, then I’d say “Kate Winslet Confirmed as Part Dolphin” would be the moment when it jumped the shark.
They probably meant that she held her breath for a total of 7 minutes over the course of many takes lol
The original Avatar was shite, pure and simple… barely entertaining, a preachy plot, and cringe-worthy special effects. It’s status was buoyed simply by the spectacle of it all. The sequels will not have this advantage.
I am beyond geeked for more Avatar movies.
So cool she did it…ok but why? I mean what in that shot is going to make the movie. 99% of it is going to be digitally replaced so why risk her like that to begin with. It would have been different if the whole scene and her were dressed for the screen but they are not.
I don’t understand why they didn’t just use a stunt-woman wearing a green re-breather and did facial replacement over the re-breather. It would have been less dangerous, arguably cheaper, and give him the opportunity to have longer takes under water.James Cameron: He’s a legend in his own mind.
“My longest breath hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds, like crazy, crazy stuff.”
Oh good, now you can make room for Jack on that GD closet door.
| so why not just make the whole thing a cartoon and put CG Kate Winslet in CG water with CG hose guys monitoring her CG hoses? I’ve been saying this since obviously fake CGI became a big thing in Spider-Man (2002)
Soooo… basically it’s going to be Smurfs versus Snorks in the next movie?
I call total BS on 7 mins 14 seconds. Especially if she had to move. Lying face-down in a pool, doing static-hold maybe, but no, Kate, you’re talking out of your arse.
Maybe SHE should have been the one in the water instead of Jack.
underwater filming and james cameron? I would nope the hell out of that.
It honestly seems like the pivotal reason these movies are being made – beyond the money, but there are lots of movies that make a shit-ton of money without going THIS far -is that James Cameron wants everyone to know James Cameron did it.
Why not have a breathing tube and remove it in post? I’m genuinelly asking, I assume the idea crossed the minds of everyone involved, but she already has a lot of motion capture crap, why not remove one more?
So.. does she show her boobs again or what?
Considering how Avatar 1 with its utterly predictable series of cliches that made up its “plot” was boring as hell, who cares?
Just looking at that picture gives me anxiety. That’s a big “No, thank you” from me.
Big whoop! I can hold my breath underwater for ten minutes.
“…and it all took place on a lush natural paradise that he stole from William Roger Dean covered in fantastical flora…”There. FIFY
Still not as good as Guybrush Threepwood.
Jesus. You want a margarita with all that salt?
Already looks better than your usual MCU, DC, and Star Wars crap.