Avatar's James Cameron Compares Himself To JRR Tolkien And Peter Jackson

Writer-director James Cameron has some more light on the origins of the Avatar series, comparing himself to The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien and the man who directed the films based on those books, Peter Jackson. Speaking to Time, Cameron said he ran a "simulation" of sorts to help him come up with a plan for his Avatar series, and he used The Lord of the Rings as a formula to follow.

"I was trying to do a simulation of, OK, I'm Peter Jackson making Lord of the Rings except Lord of the Rings doesn't exist yet, so I need to go be Tolkien and create Lord of the Rings, and then I can go be Peter Jackson," Cameron said.

Cameron went on to say that this comparison was probably "a little bit cheeky and ambitious." At the same time, Avatar isn't an adaptation of a previous work, so Cameron said he "had to go do that."

This isn't the first time that Cameron has shared this story. In 2022, Cameron spoke about how he had to convince the powers that be to sign off on his plans for an ambitious series of Avatar films despite no source material existing like Jackson had for his adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

"'I don't want to just do a movie and do a movie and do a movie. I want to tell a bigger story,'" Cameron said he recalls telling film financiers at the time. "I said, 'Imagine a series of novels like The Lord Of The Rings existed, and we're adapting them.' Now, that was great in theory, but then I had to go create the frickin' novels from which to adapt it."

In the end, it worked out for Cameron. 2009's Avatar ($2.92 billion) remains the highest-grossing movie in history, while 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water ($2.244 billion) is No. 3. Another film written and directed by Cameron, Titanic ($2.443 billion) is No. 4 all time.

Thanks to the box office success of The Way of Water, Cameron is moving ahead with his planned sequels, including Avatar 3, Avatar 4, and Avatar 5. The third Avatar movie will, for the first time, introduce evil Na'vi characters. "I want to show the Na'vi from another angle because, so far, I have only shown their good sides," Cameron said.

The Way of Water is nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including overall Best Picture.