James Cameron Cut 10 Minutes of Gun Violence From 'Avatar 2'

There has been much talk about the three-hour runtime of the long-awaited film "Avatar: The Way of Water," but it would have been longer if director James Cameron did not cut at least 10 minutes of gun violence from the film.

During an interview with Esquire Middle East, Cameron explained his reasons for removing portions of the film, saying that he is no longer interested in fetishizing guns in his action scenes given the rampant gun violence in the United States.

"I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action," Cameron 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."

Earlier in the interview, Cameron admitted there were films that he was not sure he would make in today's current climate.

"I look back on some films that I've made, and I don't know if I would want to make that film now. 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," he said. "What's happening with guns in our society turns my stomach."

Cameron also stated that he was "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."

"Avatar: The Way of Water" has topped box office charts around the world but Cameron had to fight to protect the artistic integrity of the film. In an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, he recalled shutting down 20th Century Fox executives when they tried to battle him over key sequences in the 2009 hit film "Avatar."

Cameron explained that the studio wanted him to shorten the film and trim the movie's flying sequences, but he shrugged the requests off by reminding the execs that he directed "Titanic," which paid for a large portion of the 20th Century Fox studio lot.

"I think I felt, at the time, that we clashed over certain things," Cameron said.

"For example, the studio felt that the film should be shorter and that there was too much flying around on the ikran — what the humans call the banshees. Well, it turns out that's what the audience loved the most, in terms of our exit polling and data gathering. And that's a place where I just drew a line in the sand and said, 'You know what? I made 'Titanic.' This building that we're meeting in right now? This new half-billion dollar complex on your lot? 'Titanic' paid for that, so I get to do this.'"

Cameron added that he felt positive about the creative decisions he made for the film.

"It's such an intense process when you're editing a film and you have to fight for every frame that stays in," he told the Times.

"I felt pretty good about the creative decisions that were made back then. We spent a lot of time and energy improving our process in the decade-plus since. But there's certainly nothing cringeworthy.

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