Writer-director James Cameron has some more light on the origins of the Avatar series, comparing himself to The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien and the man who directed the films based on those books, Peter Jackson. Speaking to Time, Cameron said he ran a “simulation” of sorts to help him come up with a plan for his Avatar series, and he used The Lord of the Rings as a formula to follow.
“I was trying to do a simulation of, OK, I’m Peter Jackson making Lord of the Rings except Lord of the Rings doesn’t exist yet, so I need to go be Tolkien and create Lord of the Rings, and then I can go be Peter Jackson,” Cameron said.
Cameron went on to say that this comparison was probably “a little bit cheeky and ambitious.” At the same time, Avatar isn’t an adaptation of a previous work, so Cameron said he “had to go do that.”