Before changing the landscape of visual effects with his 2008’s Avatar, which went on to break several records at the box office and is now one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. James Cameron didn’t fully commit to the technology before witnessing its potential in Brendan Fraser’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.
The Fraser-led movie, which did decent numbers at the box office helped Cameron in understanding the potential of the new technology, which would later help him in pushing the boundaries of 3-D and visuals. And after 13 years, the director will once again achieve new landmarks through its sequel, which would also become a huge force at the box office.
Brendan Fraser’s Journey to the Center of the Earth acted as a prototype for James Cameron’s Avatar
During a Q & A session with Anthem, Brendan Fraser opened up about his experience about working on 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Whale actor would then proceed to refer to the movie as a beta test for James Cameron’s Avatar, who visited the sets of their movie. As the technology that they tackled in Fraser’s movie was later going to be used in crafting Cameron’s Avatar. Fraser explained the situation by stating,
“When James Cameron visited our set, he wasn’t bragging when he declared it as his prototype. That made some people on the crew go, ‘Huh? We thought we were the innovators here.’ In reality, the cameras belonged to James and he used Journey to the Center of the Earth as a beta test for Avatar. That’s a fact,”
Apart from doing good numbers at the box office. Journey to the Center of the Earth also helped Cameron in witnessing the potential of the new technology that’d help him in crafting one of the biggest movies of all time. And it seems that the technology which was used in Eric Brevig’s movie was the factor that allured Fraser into joining the movie in the first place.
Brendan Fraser starred in the movie because of its ground-breaking technology
Although The Mummy actor shared that initially he wasn’t too captivated by the idea of the movie and considered passing the role. The new technology that was going to be used for Journey to the Center of the Earth was too alluring for Fraser to resist and eventually agreed to star in the movie. The actor expressed his enthusiasm for the movie by stating,
“I’m not just saying this for bragging rights—I swear to god—but Journey to the Center of the Earth was the first live-action 3D feature film stocked in a digital format,”
But even though Journey to the Center of the Earth did good at the box office and did warrant a second movie. However, Fraser didn’t return in the sequel, as he reportedly backed away from the franchise after director Eric Brevig was fired and the movie went to Dwayne Johnson instead.
Journey to the Center of the Earth is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Source: Anthem
