Later today we’ll be publishing an interview with Avatar producer Jon Landau that discusses tomorrow’s big Avatar: Extended Collector’s Edition on Blu-ray. Before that goes live, I wanted to share one of the topics covered in the interview that relates to a “what might have been” scenario had James Cameron not chosen to immediately work on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3.
Interviewer Jason Krahn asked Landau if Cameron ever was close to accepting Sony’s offer to direct a big-budget Cleopatra film shot in 3D and (potentially) starring Angelina Jolie. “I think he was definitely,” responded Landau. “Jim looked at that and saw probably one of the greatest woman characters in history, a fabulous actress of today and a world he’s fascinated by. I tell people Jim is an explorer, and he explores the future and he explores the past. It would have given him a great opportunity to do something that he loves which is a love story to really explore the past and then get something out of it. It was a serious consideration.”
Ultimately Fox and Pandora reeled Cameron back in and we’re left to wonder “what if” he had chosen to direct Angelina in Cleopatra. It seemed like the perfect match, didn’t it?