James Cameron Gave His Fellow ‘Avatar’ Writers 800 (!) Pages Of Notes And Told Them To ‘Do Your Homework’

James Cameron is the mastermind behind Avatar, but it’s not him alone.

The director shares a co-writing credit on Avatar: The Way of Water, the movie that will make you “sh*t yourself with your mouth wide open,” with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver and a story-by credit with Jaffa, Silver, Josh Friedman, and Shane Salerno. That’s a lot of cooks in the (Satu’li Canteen) kitchen, and the recipe is 800 pages long.

“I set down and just made a bunch of notes for six months. Literally, just every day sitting at my desk, talking about the world, the characters, trying to fill in what happened the day after Jake woke up in a Na’vi body, and just was carrying the story forward. I knew I had certain goals in mind,” Cameron told Screenrant about working on the sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all-time. On his first day of colloborating with the other writers, “I plopped down 800 pages of notes, single spaced,” he said. His message to them:

“Do your homework, and then we’ll talk.”

If James Cameron was a substitute teacher, he would not be the kind of sub who puts on a movie and calls it a day. Unless the movie was Avatar, of course.

Avatar: The Way of Water opens on December 16.

(Via Screenrant)

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