00:00 Actually, you know what?
00:00 We didn't even try to beat them again.
00:02 It just happened spontaneously.
00:03 The Chinese government said,
00:05 all right, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
00:07 What do we want them to go see?
00:08 How about Avatar?
00:09 - Right.
00:10 (upbeat music)
00:12 - Definitely know your stuff.
00:17 - Thank you very much.
00:18 - Yeah.
00:18 - This is a masterpiece.
00:19 - Oh, thanks.
00:20 - It's a masterpiece.
00:21 I'm a parent, and so it--
00:22 - How many kids you have?
00:23 - Two boys.
00:23 - Yeah, and age?
00:24 - One's a freshman in high school.
00:26 They're 18 and 14.
00:27 - Yeah, okay.
00:28 - Freshman in high school, freshman in college.
00:29 - Right, so one's right in the crazy age,
00:31 and the other one's just coming out of it.
00:32 - But the second born is the youngest, so he's chill.
00:35 - Ah, okay, right, right.
00:37 - He's observed the madness.
00:38 - But you've been through being a father to the craziness.
00:42 - Yes, 100%.
00:42 - Right, okay, so you know what this movie's about.
00:44 - Oh, 100%.
00:45 - Right?
00:46 - Yes, it resonated in ways that I didn't expect.
00:49 - I wanted to make a movie for kids,
00:51 and by kids I mean that angsty teenage period,
00:55 which I remember so well,
00:56 and then now I've been through it with five kids,
00:58 male and female,
01:00 and seeing it from the other side of the fence,
01:04 and the only answer is you gotta lead with love, right?
01:08 If I was gonna give any kind of,
01:09 and I don't think anybody should be asking me
01:11 for parental advice, but if I was gonna give advice,
01:13 I would say you lead with love.
01:15 You start the hard conversations
01:17 when they've done something, you know,
01:19 when you've had to bail them out, or whatever it is,
01:22 or bail them out from getting in trouble at school.
01:24 You lead with no matter what, I love you.
01:27 Now, let's talk about what just happened.
01:29 - Right, right, yeah.
01:30 But the safety net, you're 100%, is that support system.
01:33 - Yeah.
01:34 - You have to lean on.
01:35 I think when the family embraces, you know,
01:36 you feel it so much in this film, that gets conveyed.
01:39 - And you know, kids are having a rough time right now.
01:42 You know, I mean, you know the stats on teen suicide,
01:46 mental illness, anxiety, depression, all that stuff
01:48 has shot up over the last few years.
01:49 Probably the pandemic had a lot to do with that.
01:52 And you know, so you go to an escapist fantasy film,
01:56 and you go, you know, 200 years in the future,
01:58 and 4.6 light years away to this fantasy world,
02:01 and you see, oh, they feel the same way I do.
02:04 - I see myself in there.
02:05 - Yeah, exactly.
02:07 - Why do you come to us?
02:08 - I just wanna keep my family safe.
02:13 - We cannot let you bring your war here.
02:22 - Outcast, that's all they see.
02:25 - Let go!
02:26 - I see you.
02:28 - People will say it's been 13 years
02:30 since you've made a film, but that's not accurate, right?
02:33 You've been working on these films this whole time.
02:35 - Yeah, well, it's been five years
02:38 of basically unbroken production, right?
02:41 So we started in September of '17,
02:43 and we made, essentially completed all production,
02:46 photography, and capture on two,
02:49 basic two and a half movies.
02:50 So two, three, first part of four.
02:53 And then we posted two, and now we're gonna post three.
02:57 And so it won't be 13 years 'til the next one.
02:59 It should, if everything works out,
03:01 it should be only another two years.
03:02 - Oh, okay, that's nice.
03:03 - So that's nothing.
03:04 - No, not at all.
03:05 - Keep up, Forest Boyd!
03:07 - I'm from North Carolina.
03:08 You shot a film called "The Abyss" in my neck of the woods.
03:11 - Yeah, your neck of the woods.
03:12 We came into North Carolina, the airport,
03:15 but we shot just over the state line
03:17 in Gaffney, South Carolina.
03:18 - That's right, correct.
03:19 I'm curious, do you wish you had this level of tech
03:21 back when you were working on, say, "The Abyss"
03:23 and "Titanic"?
03:24 - Oh, can you imagine?
03:25 So "The Abyss" worked pretty well,
03:27 and there was that really strong scene
03:28 with Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth,
03:29 Master and Tony, where they bring her back to life
03:31 and all that.
03:32 But the ending, the big ship coming out of the water
03:35 and everything, we could do that so much better now.
03:37 - Oh, I can imagine.
03:38 - I mean, it's just so, I look at it now
03:39 and it's quaint, at best.
03:42 (laughing)
03:44 - You know, the last movie that really warranted 3D
03:47 was "Avatar."
03:48 There hasn't been a movie that's demanded it
03:50 since that point.
03:51 - I would push back a little bit.
03:52 "Life of Pi," Aang's film, and Martin Scorsese's "Hugo,"
03:57 and even Ridley Scott's "Prometheus,"
04:00 these were filmmakers at the top of their game
04:02 authoring in 3D.
04:04 Those are worthy films.
04:05 It's all the kind of rank-and-file conversion movies
04:08 where the filmmakers haven't cared
04:10 or the studio hasn't let them author,
04:13 actually shoot in 3D.
04:15 They're not that good.
04:16 And I think it's hurt it.
04:18 But we also gotta put it in perspective.
04:21 When "Avatar" came out, there were 6,000-ish
04:24 digital 3D screens in the world.
04:28 There's now 120,000 3D-enabled digital screens in the world,
04:32 60,000 alone in China.
04:34 So it's much more ubiquitous, it's much more available,
04:39 it's much more accessible, and it's much less important.
04:42 - Right. - Right?
04:43 Much less important.
04:43 I mean, people will make choices.
04:45 Nobody's gonna go to see a movie because it's in 3D.
04:48 They're gonna go see a movie
04:49 because of all the other reasons they wanna see.
04:51 The film.
04:52 And if they like 3D, it's available,
04:53 and if they don't, see it in 2D
04:55 and it'll still be beautiful.
04:56 - Absolutely. - You know?
04:58 (dramatic music)
05:00 - The way of water connects all things.
05:05 Before your birth,
05:06 and after your death.
05:10 - I was lucky enough to interview Guillermo del Toro
05:12 this past week for "Pinocchio."
05:14 He mentioned he got in trouble for tweeting his reaction
05:16 to "Avatar." - He got in trouble?
05:18 Oh, look, I'm so grateful.
05:19 - He got scolded a little bit.
05:20 - He was the first reviewer.
05:22 You can't, look, nobody can tell Guillermo what to do.
05:25 He's just so enthusiastic.
05:27 You know, he's so enthusiastic about film.
05:29 He's one of my dearest friends.
05:31 And hopefully that wasn't the only reason he tweeted on it.
05:35 - He told us about a barbecue that you guys were at
05:37 where he had just finished "Kronos."
05:38 - Yeah. - He was about to.
05:39 - That's in '91. - Oh my gosh, yeah.
05:41 - That's in '91. - Going back to it.
05:42 - Yeah, we've been pals since then.
05:43 - Well, your creature design reminded me very much
05:46 of stuff that he would put into his films.
05:47 - Sure, absolutely.
05:48 He and I both love the creature design.
05:50 We both love, we know all the artists.
05:52 - Right. - You know.
05:54 He does the same thing I do when he's doing a film.
05:56 He surrounds himself with the best artists he could find.
05:59 He's celebratory of their work.
06:01 He's a good artist himself.
06:02 He's a great artist himself.
06:03 - Sure. - He could do it himself.
06:05 But he loves to work with a team, and so do I.
06:08 I do the same thing, you know,
06:09 I do the same thing when I'm making these "Avatar" films.
06:11 - Right, before they kick me out of here,
06:13 did you send a note to Kate and Leo
06:15 when "Avatar" passed "Titanic" at the box office?
06:17 - No. - No.
06:18 (both laughing)
06:19 But when "Titanic" beat "Star Wars,"
06:23 George Lucas put an ad in the trades.
06:25 - Yes.
06:27 - And then when, what was it, not "Infinity War,"
06:30 the end game, beat "Avatar,"
06:34 we put an ad in the trades celebrating them.
06:37 And, you know, it's just the fact
06:40 that movies can make that kind of money.
06:42 - Sure. - That people care enough
06:44 to go to the movie theater.
06:45 That was so celebratory of what they were able to do.
06:48 - Right. - You know?
06:49 And then we kinda snuck in, actually, you know what?
06:52 We didn't even try to beat them again,
06:54 it just happened spontaneously.
06:55 The Chinese government said,
06:57 "All right, time for everybody to go back to the movies.
06:59 "What do we want them to go see?
07:00 "How about 'Avatar'?"
07:01 - Right, right. - Boom.
07:02 All right, everybody, go to the movies this week.
07:04 - Right, and they all came from that.
07:06 - Yeah.
07:07 (dramatic music)
07:10 - Wherever we go,
07:14 this family is our fortress.
07:19 (laughs)
07:21 (dramatic music)
07:24 (bells chiming)
07:26 (bells chiming)
07:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments