James Cameron's Planned Avatar Novel: A Movieline FAQ

With its box-office-supremacy streak snapped and Inglorious Basterds making a significant push in the Best Picture race, Avatar had spent an alarming few days off the center of the cultural radar. No longer! James Cameron has confirmed his plans to not only novelize his blockbuster, but to write the damn thing himself. Why? "There are things you can do in books that you can't do with films," he told the WSJ, adding, "I told myself, if it made money, I'd write a book." Good for him -- but what does it all mean? That's just the first of several burning questions you'll ask -- and we'll attempt to answer -- in the latest Movieline FAQ.

What would it be about?

When pressed for details about the book, Cameron wasn't nearly as forthcoming as his producer Jon Landau was last week. For starters, it's not expected to be a straight novelization, but rather a prequel covering things he and Cameron "won't have time to do [...] in the movie, or maybe in sequels":

But hasn't Avatar already stolen the back stories of half the science-fiction literature ever published?

Ah-ah -- I think you mean "allegedly stolen." Anyway, it's a good point. Ever since anyone knew what it actually was, Avatar rip-off accusations comparisons have been a dime a dozen on the Internet. The book may very well be Cameron's way of distancing himself and his billion-dollar property from their spiritual antecedents, showing that no, the alien race of Pandora has nothing to do with the Nave civilization of Soviet-era sci-fi, or mid-century American short stories, or whatever.

Surely it won't override Avatar's eerie parallels to Delgo?

Don't be daft. Of course it won't.

How does this affect the Avatar screen franchise?

Is that you, Rupert Murdoch? I hate to answer a question (especially one of yours) with another question, but seriously: If Cameron's not going to take a break from Avatar entirely, then why wouldn't he just get on with writing the follow-up's script? On the one hand, he might be doing just that; Landau does mention above that Cameron's screenplays generally start in "novella" form. On the other, I doubt he'd spoil a prequel/sequel/whatever to history's most successful film by first squandering the story in print. Obviously, he's the King of the World, Avatar is his baby, and he can and will do whatever he wants. But it'd be great if that admission, "I told myself, if it made money, I'd write a book," applied instead to a big, ballsy, tell-all memoir. Or maybe a prequel to that Martini Ranch video that describes in detail what the hell he was thinking.

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