Avatar (2009 film) Avatar (2009 film) Avatar, marketed as James Cameron's Avatar, is a 2009 American epic science fiction film directed, written, produced, and co-edited by James Cameron, and stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. The film is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the mineral unobtanium, a room-temperature superconductor. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's
The Art of Avatar contains over 200 full-color images including sketches, matte paintings, drawings, and film stills. The book details the production phase of set designs for the vistas, landscapes, aerial battle scenes, bioluminescent nights, and creatures featured in the film. Throughout the book are different interviews with the various art directors, visual effects designers, animators, costume designers, and creature designers about their roles in the production and insight as to how the pre-production artwork process worked for the film. In December 2009, "USA Today" chose the book as their #1 gift book in the Pop Culture category for 2009. The Art of Avatar