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
Titanic (1997 film) thing". It was "not because I particularly wanted to make the movie," Cameron said. "I wanted to dive to the shipwreck." Cameron wrote a scriptment for a "Titanic" film, met with 20th Century Fox executives including Peter Chernin, and pitched it as "Romeo and Juliet on the "Titanic"". Cameron stated, "They were like, 'Oooooohkaaaaaay – a three-hour romantic epic? Sure, that's just what we want. Is there a little bit of "Terminator" in that? Any Harrier jets, shoot-outs, or car chases?' I said, 'No, no, no. It's not like that. The studio was dubious about the idea's commercial prospects, but,