Spiegel Stuff: Will James Cameron’s Billion-Dollar Avatar Gamble Pay Off?

Vanity Fair

ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY and AWARD NEWS FROM HOLLYWOOD, compiled by REBECCA KEEGAN

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

It's Tuesday, and I've decided to rebrand myself as a morning person.

Hello from Los Angeles, where we're shooting four James Cameron movies at once, welcoming Edie Falco back to the tube, and buying thigh-high boots to wear to the Pretty Woman musical.

BACK IN BLUE

In April 2008, I stepped into a windowless warehouse in Playa Vista, California, to find James Cameron in a hockey jersey and jeans, doing something elite directors don't do—holding a camera. "Why can't I see anything?" Cameron said to his crew, a group of a dozen or so huddled over computers in the corner. "Oh, oh, oh, I'm in the monster's head." The set was Avatar, and Cameron's then cutting-edge camera was pointed at what looked to me to be an empty soundstage. In reality, it was an early version of the sparse performance-capture environments that have come to dominate Hollywood filmmaking over the last nine years. On Monday, Cameron returned to the monster's head, so to speak, as production finally began on four Avatar sequels set to be shot concurrently at a facility in Manhattan Beach. The price tag for the next four installments in the Pandora-set franchise will be a record $1 billion, per Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. As V.F.'s Yohana Desta writes, if anyone can justify that budget, it's Cameron, who still holds the record for highest-grossing movie of all time with Avatar's $2.79 billion global box office. But the director and his home studio, Fox, are taking a major gamble that audiences will have an appetite for that much of Avatar's tall, blue heroes, the Na'vi, and their alien world. It's not just the technology that has changed since Pandorans stormed the box office: Avatar arrived in theaters before the Marvel and DC cinematic universes dominated, before Star Wars fired back to life, and before Game of Thrones made prestige TV safe for dragons. On the upside, Fox will have plenty of time to stoke audience interest in the alien world Cameron is building in Manhattan Beach; the first of the four sequels isn't due until December 18, 2020.

Cameron directs Avatar in 2009.

From Entertainment Pictures/Alamy Stock Photo.

TODAY'S THE DAY

V.F.'s Katey Rich writes:

Several months into her daytime-friendly rebrand at NBC, Megyn Kelly launched her own morning show on Monday with a bold statement, especially for a woman who became famous as a Fox News host and presidential-debate moderator: "The truth is I am kinda done with politics for now," she told the studio audience, at the start of a debut episode that featured an interview with the cast of Will & Grace and a "surprise" bouquet delivered by her husband. As Emily Jane Fox wrote for Vanity Fair, Kelly has chosen to walk away from politics at a time when television—and much of the American population—are more invested in politics than ever. One question remains: "Will people who are exhausted by the current political circus tune into a morning-news program hosted by someone who built her television career as a conservative talking head as they drink their morning coffee?"

CHUNG CHUNG

V.F.'s Hillary Busis writes:

Celebrities: they're just like us! As multiple Emmy winner Edie Falco recently told V.F.'s own Julie Miller, she was floored by Sarah Paulson's performance in 2016's The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. The difference between us and Falco, though, is that Paulson didn't just inspire her to give Marcia Clark some slack; her turn in the true-crime series prompted Falco to take up a similar role on another splashy show inspired by a real-life Hollywood murder. The actress's answer to American Crime Story, a new branch of the Law & Order franchise called Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, features Falco as attorney Leslie Abramson, who was tasked with defending Lyle and Erik Menendez—two privileged young L.A. dwellers who were ultimately convicted of killing their parents. As Falco explains, "I was only peripherally aware of this case while it was going on. In my head, it was about these two spoiled kids from Beverly Hills who killed their parents for the money. I learned how vastly wrong I was, and how much more there was to the story—about the abuse these kids endured from a very young age by their father. That was completely new to me."

OH, PRETTY WOMAN

V.F.'s Yohana Desta writes:

At long last, new details about the upcoming Pretty Woman Broadway musical have finally been revealed. Based on the 1990 rom-com of the same name, the Great White Way adaptation will debut in spring 2018 at Chicago's Oriental Theatre, then head to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre in the fall. Directed by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell and produced by Paula Wagner, it will feature original music and lyrics by duo Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. The book was written by Garry Marshall, the late director who helmed the film, and original screenwriter J.F. Lawton. And who, might you wonder, will play the lead role of Vivian, the gold-hearted prostitute inimitably portrayed by a young Julia Roberts in the film version? That honor goes to actress Samantha Barks (Éponine in the silver screen Les Mis). Meanwhile, Tony-winning actor Steve Kazee will play Edward, Richard Gere's original role, the lonely millionaire who falls for Vivian.

LATE-NIGHT CONFESSION

V.F.'s Laura Bradley writes:

On Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel responded to a report that his team had been in contact with Chuck Schumer for months, after the talk-show host came out against Republicans' health-care repeal following his newborn son's heart surgery. Plenty of right-wing outlets ran with the report as a sign of sinister collusion between the media and the Democratic Party. So rather than brush it off, Kimmel decided to confess: "Here's what happened," Kimmel said during his monologue Monday night. "My wife and I were worried about health care. We didn't like what the Republicans were doing, so we decided to have a baby with congenital heart defects. And then once we had that going for us, I went on TV, I spoke out and we may have stopped Cassidy-Graham. I still can't believe we pulled it off, but we did!" In reality, a source told The Daily Beast that Schumer "provided technical guidance and info about the bill, as well as stats from various think tanks and experts on the effects of [Graham-Cassidy]" to Kimmel.

That's the news for this sunny Tuesday in L.A. What are you seeing out there? Send tips, comments, and suggested Kylie Jenner baby names to Rebecca_Keegan@condenast.com. Follow me on Twitter @thatrebecca.