While this screenplay does not match the movie exactly (I’ve read through a half dozen scenes already) it is pretty close and was probably the original screenplay written prior to the start of filming, the thing that struck me as most interesting was the fact that a 152 page screenplay script is the basis for a 2 hour and 40 minute movie. Compared to the likely size of Avatar as a work of printed fiction, 152 pages was a bit unexpected. (I don’t know much about screenplays, but I would not have thought that they would be so condensed.)
http://www.foxscreenings.com/media/pdf/JamesCameronAVATAR.pdf
The fact that scenes change only makes sense when you consider that on paper something looks like it will flow as desired, but once you actually begin to cast your characters and have them act out the parts you realize that certain scenes just won’t give you the results that were desired when the screenplay was written.
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