Hollywood director James Cameron revealed he removed 10 minutes of gun battles from the forthcoming Avatar sequel. “What's happening with guns in our society turns my stomach,” he claimed.
In an interview with Esquire Middle East, James Cameron also addressed the gun culture of his adopted nation, New Zealand.
“I'm happy to be living in New Zealand where they just banned all assault rifles two weeks after that horrific mosque shooting a couple of years ago,” he told the publication.
Cameron explained the reason he removed the scenes from Avatar: The Way of Water.
“I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action,” he said. “I wanted to get rid of some of the ugliness, to find a balance between light and dark. You have to have conflict, of course. Violence and action are the same thing, depending on how you look at it. This is the dilemma of every action filmmaker, and I’m known as an action filmmaker.”
Cameron expressed some regret at the depiction of guns in his Terminator films.
“I look back on some films that I’ve made, and I don’t know if I would want to make that film now,” he said. “I don’t know if I would want to fetishize the gun, like I did on a couple of Terminator movies 30-plus years ago, in our current world. What’s happening with guns in our society turns my stomach.”
The movie Avatar The Way of Water is still packed with action in its over three-hour running time.
The sequel has had a difficult time in the theaters, particularly in China, where the film has not been going over well with audiences.
