James Cameron first feature film since 1997's "Titanic". It is composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more-advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in "The Polar Express". James Cameron had written an 80-page scriptment for "Avatar" in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing "Titanic". In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough, since at the time no studio would finance for the development of the visual
Titanic (1997 film) of retelling the sinking that seemed important in pre- and post-production, but turned out to be less important as the film evolved. "The story of the "Californian" was in there; we even shot a scene of them switching off their Marconi radio set," said Cameron. "But I took it out. It was a clean cut, because it focuses you back onto that world. If "Titanic" is powerful as a metaphor, as a microcosm, for the end of the world in a sense, then that world must be self-contained." During the first assembly cut, Cameron altered the planned ending, which had