by STEVE POND and DREW TAYLOR
photographed by JEFF VESPA
13 years after Avatar broke records, James Cameron is back and his franchise is bigger, bolder and wetter than ever. The director and his team break down their massive undertaking.
As soon as James Cameron finished work on the first Avatar movie in 2009, he gathered his department heads, told them they’d remain on the payroll for an additional two months and asked them to prepare a white paper on what they’d need if there was ever a sequel. “And then we went off to a resort for three days and sat at a big round table and worked out the problem of how to make this better,” Cameron said.