'Avatar''s Impact on the Movie Industry

As Sarah Connor put it in T2, the future is not set. Nobody yet knows if Avatar really is one of those once-in-a-generation paradigm-shifting films — like The Jazz Singer or King Kong or Star Wars — that alters the very meaning of going to the movies. But let's go out on a limb and predict that it'll at least give 3-D a boost. The cinematic gimmick has been around for ages, still requires clumsy eyewear, and, until recently, has been mostly reserved for animated fairy tales and cheesy horror movies (and Hannah Montana concert films). But Avatar may have finally changed the way moviemakers and moviegoers think about the technology. About 70 percent of Avatar's grosses have come from 3-D ticket buyers; even after you figure in higher ticket prices for 3-D showings, that's an astounding number of people. ''It establishes 3-D as a viable method to make and watch movies in a very big way,'' says Patrick Corcoran, director of media and research of the National Association of Theatre Owners. And it's getting more viable every day. Last week the first 3-D TV sets were rolled out at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and ESPN announced that it would be the first to launch a 3-D TV network. In a couple of years, if 3-D DVD players exist, you may be watching Avatar's glowing jellyfish thingies floating around your living room.

As for Cameron, it's easy to predict his future: He'll be making an Avatar sequel. Worthington has already signed on, and he jokingly e-mailed EW the following plot suggestions from London, where he's shooting Clash of the Titans: ''Jake should have abused his avatar and now be fat and unfit and demand Neytiri to get him a beer.'' Avatar's other actors seem keen on a repeat performance too, even the ones whose characters got killed at the end of the film. ''You think those two arrows in my chest are going to stop me from coming back?'' barks Stephen Lang, who plays the evil Col. Miles Quaritch. ''Nothing's over so long as they've got my DNA.'' As it turns out, Cameron has been planning a sequel all along. ''I've had a story line in mind from the start — there are even scenes in Avatar that I kept in because they lead to the sequel,'' he says. ''It just makes sense to think of it as a two-or-three-film arc, in terms of the business plan. The CG plants and trees and creatures and the musculoskeletal rigging of the main characters — that all takes an enormous amount of time to create. It'd be a waste not to use it again.''

Another trip to the Kodak Theatre also seems like a historic inevitability. There's widespread consensus in Hollywood that Cameron will score Best Picture and Best Director Oscar nominations for Avatar. He may even be the front-runner — the film has already been nominated for Golden Globe, Directors Guild, and Producers Guild awards. Naturally, there's also speculation about what sort of speech Cameron might give if he actually did win again. The irony is, this time, he could shout out that line about being king of the world and nobody would so much as snicker. Not with that Amplified Mobility Platform on his front lawn.

Performance capture: How they did it

To create Avatar's Na'vi, James Cameron and his team used a three-step process called performance capture. —Adam B. Vary, with reporting by BS

Step 1: In an L.A. warehouse, the actors, wearing bodysuits studded with tiny dots, performed each scene as if in a play. About 140 digital cameras captured the movement of their bodies. Plus, a tiny camera rigged to each actor's head recorded every subtle twitch of their faces and eyes. (For movies like The Polar Express, Robert Zemeckis reportedly did not use a distinctive set of cameras to capture facial movements.)

Step: 2: All of that data was then given to animators, who turned the actors into the Na'vi.

Step: 3: Animators studied video of the real-life actors doing each scene to make sure the Na'vi reflected every nuance of the performances.