Interview with “Avatar” Producer Jon Landau

MakingOf: Tell us about when you get involved in a project and what draws you to a project.

Jon Landau: Well I try and get involved from the very inception of a project… I think it’s important to do that and start from the ground up. What attracts me to projects, and what I tell people we’re looking for in projects, are movies that have a themes that is bigger than their genre. To me, as an industry, we spend too much time talking about plot and not enough time talking about theme. To me, the plot people leave at the theater, but you walk away with the theme of a movie

MO: So how do you know that you have that theme? I mean its such a close collaboration with the director… Is it you and the director in a room with your writer?

(JL): I think it comes back with this initial question of ‘why?’… why are you making this movie? Why are you telling this story? If a theme does not emerged out of that answer, there is no theme there

MO: When you sat and talked with James Cameron, what was the theme that you agreed upon?

(JL): Well Jim wrote the first draft and presented it fifteen years ago, of “Avatar.” Wrapped up in that first draft was a theme about coming to an appreciation of the world around us. Wrapped up in the script was the theme of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.’ The theme in that script was about people who are the unlikeliest of heroes rising, and introducing to people the idea that there could be a hero inside each one of us.

MO:  How do you ensure that everyone really understands that theme?

(JL): Well you talk about it and you make people feel part of the process. I tell people that while Jim is considered the auteur of “Avatar,” “Avatar” (and Jim will tell you this too) was a more collaborative experience than any other movie he’s been a part of. And by making people feel a part of it, and by investing them in the story, investing them in the character… that they are a part of what we are creating helps.

MO: There’s a lot of talk about different types of producers: creative producers, executive producers. You’re a creative producer…

(JL): I don’t make a distinction between creative producers, line producers, this producer, that producer. I think its all one, because unless you understand the roles of the others, you’re not doing your job. So I tell people: there aren’t sides to a movie… there isn’t a producers side and a directors side, a producers side and the studio’s side. There’s one side, and it’s the movie’s side. And I think as a producer you have to encompass all of that.

MO: How did you become a producer? What was your path of entry?

(JL): My path of entry was starting off as a gofer… a PA on a set, and taking any job that was offered to me, but finding something in it for me to learn from. I was offered the opportunity to be a filing clerk at an accounting office at the end of a mini-series for TV, and I didn’t want to be in the accounting office, but I took that opportunity and everything that I filed I read. Now I don’t know if I was supposed to, but I read it, and I learned a lot from that experience. The more jobs you take, the more you’ll be able to see things from different perspective, and I also think that’s a very important role for a producer: don’t just think about it from your perspective, but think about it from other people’s perspective as well.

MO: Tell us what’s up next for you…

(JL): You know, what’s up next for me, and we haven’t really revealed this yet: I’m going on a Safari to Africa… that’s what’s up next for me.

MO: You’re taking a break. A much needed break. But is there anything that you’re really looking to do?

(JL): You know, we’d love to do anything from an “Avatar” sequel to “Battle Angel” to “The Dive.” So after the summer we’ll come back and figure it out.

MO: Maybe find a new theme?

(JL): Exactly.

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