Overview
- James Cameron said he reassessed audience reactions to The Way of Water and wrote new scenes for Fire and Ash, bringing cast back to refine material during the back-to-back production.
- Wētā FX’s Joe Letteri detailed a neural network–based facial system used to better preserve actors’ expressions, applied prominently to Oona Chaplin’s Varang.
- Letteri noted Chaplin filmed much of her performance about five years ago and that the film comprises roughly 6,800 on-screen performance instances.
- The Hollywood Reporter launched a five-episode Behind the Screen series spotlighting the film’s artisans across score, production design, VFX, editing and costumes.
- Collider reports a 195-minute runtime and a reported $400 million budget, with Cameron saying the fate of planned parts 4 and 5 depends on box-office results; the film opens Dec. 19 with early awards recognition.