and others, who fought for basic human rights, many of which we take for granted today, enduring bombings and beatings, jail, and eventually death, in the hopes of making the nation better for the rest of us today. >> larry: tonight exclusive inside "avatar." >> you will never be one of the people! >> larry: academy award-nominated director james cameron speaks for the first time publicly since his film made over $2 billion at the box office, making history, breaking his own record set by "titanic" and smashing another milestone just today. cameron and the cast take you behind the scenes. >> it's fascinating to see your

human self transformed into this other being. >> larry: and to pandora. >> i want you to go on this journey into this world. >> larry: 14 years in the making. the technology didn't exist to create what was in cameron's mind then. and now he's changed the way movies will be made forever. how in the world did he do it? how can he top this "avatar" triumph with a sequel? next on "larry king live." good evening. we have quite a show for you tonight. the incredible "avatar." it's been nominated for nine academy awards and the film has broken every box office record there is. "avatar's" domestic haul today surpassed "titanic's." worldwide it has broken all of the records. we welcome the man who created both films. director, screenwriter and producer of "avatar," james cameron. thanks, james. we have quite a show planned for you. screens and everything. >> i love what you have done with the place. it's gorgeous. >> larry: we've become "avatar." >> you have. you've taken over. >> larry: are you surprised at

its success? >> absolutely. that's not just sort of false humility. we thought it would be a commercial movie. we didn't think it would do half what it has done financially. >> larry: in retrospect, what did it? i know it's hard because you're so close to it. >> it's tough. i see a very similar pattern in a sense between "titanic" and "avatar," not that they're similar films. because they're not. totally different subjects. in both cases you have people going back over and over to see the film and so there has to be some kind of emotional connection to the movie that's happening. it has to be happening in all culture groups around the world because we're doing well in almost every international market. >> larry: the idea was born a long time ago, right? >> yeah. >> larry: where did it emerge from? how did you come up with this? >> kind of from my childhood really. i was just a geek movie fan when i was a kid. i loved science fiction and fantasy movies. like the ray harryhousen films and stuff like that.

i was always reading science fiction. all of these ideas were percolating for really decades. when i sat down to write this story in '95, it just all came gushing out very, very rapidly. >> larry: how do you react to those who say this is about vietnam or iraq or a fort, is it? >> good stuff. all of those interpretations are patchy, cowboys and indians. valid. i think there is some political messaging in the film. there's a strong environmental message. there is comment about the colonial period in north america and south america. >> larry: so it's fair to say -- >> absolutely. i think it would be unfair to dismiss the film as not really thinking about those things. >> larry: to create this it required monumental behind the scenes efforts. let's look at some of it.

♪ >> larry: safe to say, there's never been a movie like it. you may have changed the way movies will be made. you probably affected 3-d forever. >> we'll see. we'll see what changes. what i would like to think would happen is that filmmakers now will have permission to do a serious film in 3-d where previously it was thought of as kind of for kids, you know, maybe for animation, that sort of thing. and go make a serious dramatic film in 3-d. >> larry: disney has a movie coming in 3-d and apparently the theaters can't push it out in time because you're doing so much success, they can't get yours out and it in. >> it's an alice in wonderland.

it will come out when it's meant to. obviously it will push us out of some of the 3-d theaters. we'll just hang around longer. it will be fine. >> larry: without being too technical -- and we're going to meet your technical people. your 3-d takes us in. it doesn't throw things at us. >> part of that is just stylistic. how you direct the movie in a way. if the filmmaker is bouncing a tennis ball off your forehead throughout the whole film, you're constantly reminded that you're sitting there wearing 3-d glasses. i want you to forget you're wearing glasses. i want you to go on a journey through this world. the way we shot the 3-d, we did it to draw you into the screen and forget that there's a screen there at all. >> larry: how long did it take to make? >> about 4 1/2 years. >> larry: why? >> first two years was r&d, developing the technology and creating the world, designing everything, drawing it, paining it. and then 2 1/2 years of production. >> larry: was there ever a time during production where people

are saying, boy, this ain't going to make it? the costs will be too high? >> look, i had to keep from putting a pistol in my mouth 20 times during the making of this film. there were times when we really thought we were off course and found out later we weren't in as bad shape as we thought. that's the nature of an experimental project. it was like the lewis and clark expedition. they had a general idea where they were going, but there's no way you could predict all the little twists and turns in the river along the way. >> larry: how did you come up with the name? >> i don't know. when i wrote it in '95 it just popped into my head that here you've got people projecting their consciousness into a fleshly body, a biological body. that's what the sanskrit word means, the taking of flesh. incarnation of a divine being in the case of the hindu religion. and although our characters aren't divine beings obviously, it's the idea of fleshly incarnation. >> larry: did you think when you have this much money, or did the studio think, we've got to have

a star. we have to have a tom cruise. >> big discussion. big discussion. i wanted the guy to be young. we were looking at younger actors. you know, when i found sam worthington, i didn't want a star. i wanted him. so then it was just a question of getting the studio comfortable with that. and ultimately they signed off, they agreed with me. >> larry: sometimes in an action film, it can overwhelm the star. where the action takes precedent. this film has an amazing balance of both. >> i think so. you know, you have to believe the people. then you'll believe the action. it works outward from the hearts of the characters really. it doesn't matter how big the action spectacle is, if you lose track of the people and what they're feeling, then you've lost the fight. >> larry: how much was shot as to what we've seen? >> good question. there was probably about another 40 minutes of the film, but we didn't complete all that up to the level that you're seeing here. probably complete that you could

watch as finished movie there's maybe another eight minutes or so. >> larry: before the one? >> no, no, oh, you mean like when we shoot on the set during day? i would do six, seven, eight takes. that sort of thing. >> larry: there's a lot of footage. >> there's always footage on the floor in any movie. >> larry: are you going to have a sequel? >> we might be persuaded. we'll have to see how much money the movie makes. >> larry: oh, yes, based on its income, i wouldn't do a sequel. why follow it up? are you already writing a script? >> i haven't thought about the story yet. although i do have a general story arc for it. we have had some technical discussions of how we would do it. >> larry: shame is you killed off a great villain. you did. >> it's a science fiction movie. nobody is ever really dead in a science fiction movie. >> larry: the inventors who made the movie are here with us. see if they can make an avatar out of me. we'll be right back. sticking to a plan matters,

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♪ >> larry: james cameron remains with us. as you notice we're all standing now because we're in front of the video wall. we have a strange looking apparatus here, too. with us is richie baynum and vince pace, the stereographer. he collaborated with james

cameron in developing this fusion camera system for use in shooting the films. you created this in stereoscopic 3-d. we'll concentrate for the moment at the wall. what are we looking at and would you give us a sense of how the images were created? >> this is a live action shot and this would have been shot with this camera right here. in fact, this was probably a handheld shot where i would have had this camera right on my shoulders. >> larry: what part did vince play in this? >> yeah, absolutely. >> i worked with jim to develop the camera about ten years ago. he wanted to build a system to do all forms of 3-d to teach us what worked and what didn't work. then you see the results when we use it on "avatar." >> larry: there was only one of these cameras? >> we had a bunch of them. >> larry: all made by sony? >> sony does the core technology and then vince's team created the stereoscopic rig which allowed us to shoot 3-d. >> larry: what was your role,

rich? >> the rubber meeting the road. we used a virtual camera, which is a slightly different camera rig than this. it's a camera that we shoot inside a volume to provide jim the directorial tools he needed. >> larry: where in ireland did you find him? >> he's a very famous animator. he worked on "lord of the rings" films and helped create the galom character. and because of his experience in doing facial reality, we invited him to be part of "avatar." >> larry: where did you find vince? >> vince and i go way back. >> back to the days of "the abyss." >> larry: what's a stereographer. >> it's someone who understands the dynamic of stereo and how to produce good images. that's what their main role is. >> larry: most people think it represents a technical revolution in filmmaking. to give you a small sense, we'll

look at a side-by-side comparison of a scene involving zoe saldana. watch. >> i trusted you. >> trust me now, please. >> you will never be one of the people! >> he tried to stop them. >> please. please! >> larry: okay, richie. explain animation in that scene. >> it's interesting because, well, that was actually -- that was a pivotal moment. the night we shot that, zoe very much set the bar from an acting standpoint. and we had to meet that. i think this is probably the best scene in the movie as far as being indicative of a process being improved by adding -- we added hd cameras for reference all around the actors to make it in some way a sympathetic process for the animator. as opposed to an empathetic process. >> larry: you did the left-hand side of the screen. and vince you were doing what

there? >> that's richie and jim and i'm more involved in live action. >> larry: you held this camera on your shoulder? >> absolutely. yeah. >> larry: you did? >> absolutely. i love to operate myself. >> larry: was it heavy? >> it's not too bad. about 28 pounds. you can run with it. walk with it. crouch down with it and so on. there was somebody off camera operating the focus with this device. >> larry: i thought directors used cameramen. >> yeah, he does the lighting. i like to operate the camera myself. >> larry: in all your movies? >> yes. since "titanic." >> larry: you're a camera freak? >> i'm a camera freak. >> larry: is he tough to work for? >> let's be honest, jim likes to do it all. >> larry: he's a control freak. >> it's a nice directorial style for the likes of me. jim knows what he wants. as opposed of showing something and reacting to it. he very much has a clear visual when we get into it and this seemed to be based on whatever we did with visual however we got there technically was about

telling the story and getting the best possible performance. >> larry: do you like working for him? >> absolutely. but he forces us to be transparent in the production process. that's the real challenge. you work so hard to be invisible. it works out really well. >> larry: james cameron created unforgettable roles for women. sigourney weaver tells us what it's like to be one of them next.

>> get away from her, you bitch! >> i'll be back. >> get out.

>> open your eyes. ♪ >> larry: those were clips from some of james cameron's blockbusters including "aliens" which starred sigourney weaver, she's part of the cast of "avatar" too. i talked to her earlier today from paris. take a look. sigourney weaver is in paris. your character, by the way, in this film is human but also a na'vi avatar. what was your reaction the first time you saw yourself blue skinned and alien looking? how did you feel when you saw that? >> i realize i've never been tall enough. ten feet is really the right size. i think it's a beautiful blue.

it's fascinating to see your human self transformed into this other being. i'm not quite used to it yet. because my avatar looks a lot like me, and i haven't quite gotten used to that yet. it still amazes me really. >> larry: are you surprised at its success? >> you know, i have to say you can never underestimate jim cameron, but also when i read the script, which was in 2006, i thought it was the most ambitious script i ever read. it totally took me to another world, which i think moviegoers adore. and the story was such a classic story of this young man who finds a new life, finds something to fight for. several of us have double lives.

we have our human lives and then we have our lives on pandora, as our avatars. there was so many fantastic ingredients in this story that i really thought it would be tremendously successful especially in the hands of jim cameron. >> larry: we have another look in the making of this film. a scene involving her, sam worthington's character, jake. and their na'vi avatars on pandora. watch. >> you just figured you would come out here to the most hostile environment known to man with no training of any kind and see how it went? what was going through your head? >> look at this one. run? don't run? >> run. definitely run. >> larry: wow. when you were making it, did you realize -- i mean, was it hard to do physically? >> actually, the performance

capturer which had us running around in these black leotards with cameras on our heads and green dots on our faces, jim made sure that i think we felt very at ease with all of it. we were in a big empty space. there were a lot of technicians and computers on the side, but the experience of working on the scenes with each other was like early rehearsal on a stage really. he also had -- he'd invented this magical camera where you could actually look in his lens and see what you would look like as your avatar in the rain forest in pandora. that was so extraordinary. that was the most science fiction thing in this whole experience was somehow that our experience was so simple as actors. we just connected to each other. we played the scenes. jim was right there with us. directing us. and then somehow the computers managed to transform all of it

into this other worldly experience for the audience. it was really fun actually. >> larry: sigourney, you're used to science fiction. "aliens" previously. used to james cameron. is acting acting or is science fiction different? >> i guess i don't really think of these stories. i've done five now. the four "alien" movies and this one. and to me, they're great stories. a lot about character and adventure and courage and survival. being smart and going for it. to me i don't really think of them as science fiction. they do take place in the future. they do take place in another world. i guess i grew up reading stories like this, you know. king soloman's mines and things like that.

i guess i just think of them as great classical stories and they happen to take place in the future. so i think they're cool to do as well as to watch. >> larry: i tell you who would have loved this. one of the most creative people i have ever known or heard about, your late great father pat weaver. he would have loved this. >> i think he would have been blown away by the experience of seeing "avatar" and how ambitious it is and how satisfying it is as a movie, as an entertainment, as an experience, frankly. but thank you. that's sweet of you. >> larry: thanks, sigourney. >> my pleasure. >> larry: what was it like to work with her, jim? >> sigourney is -- well, first of all, she's a little humble there talking about the acting process. for her the acting process is all consuming which is what

makes her great in a fantasy or science fiction context. and she just gets better on every take. usually i'm satisfied by take six, but she wants to go -- she'll tell me. she doesn't ask if she can have another take. she tells me we're doing another take. >> larry: an evening with "avatar" is what we're doing on "larry king live." you've never seen our show like this. we'll be back with more. ♪ throughout our lives, we encounter new opportunities. at the hartford, we help you pursue them with confidence.

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♪ the thing we were worried about most was this. this is where movies live and breathe in the tight close-up. the part we had to create during the making of this film was the facial image based performance capture technology that allowed what the actors did to 100% translate to what you see the characters doing. we came up with this idea that we would have a little boom and on the end of that boom there would be a tiny camera and image the face while the actor was working. so it captured every nuance of how their lips moved and how facial muscles moved and how their eyes moved. >> larry: joining us now from new york is stephen lang. he's one of my favorite actors. he plays the head of security for the company that's mining pandora. the names is miles quaritch. did you km up with that name, camer cameron? >> i did. >> larry: do you like that name? >> yes, i did.

it has a few barbs to it. >> larry: do you like being villainous? >> i think it's always fun to play the villain, particularly a villain like this that has a lot of department to him. back story. he's half an inch from being a hero. >> larry: that's right. basically he should be the good guy, right? he's the american. >> in another time and another place and conflict, he would be the hero. >> larry: he's, of course, as we've said, the baddest of bad guys. do you want to see for yourself? watch this. >> you're on pandora, ladies and gentlemen. respect that fact. every second of every day. if there is a hell, you might want to go there for some r & r after a tour on pandora. out there beyond that fence, every living thing that crawls, flies or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubes. >> larry: what was that accent, stephen? where is he from?

>> that's a -- that's a marine accent. it's been my experience that the jarhead clan has their own vernacular, almost has their own accent. it's a bit of virginia in there. a little tidewater, virginia. maybe a few other things as well. it's made up. >> larry: you remember the movie "a few good men" with jack nicholson playing that incredible part. stephen lang did it on broadway and he was incredible with that great line, right, you wouldn't know the truth. >> you can't handle the truth. >> larry: yeah. do you have fun doing people like this? >> absolutely. i mean, i like any character that's got a strong dynamic and charismatic personality. also jim cameron gives you an awful lot to do, physical tasks, working with the weaponry, working with the amp suit. it's so much easier than acting

as it were when you have a physical task. >> larry: how did you cast him, jim? >> stephen came in. he did one audition for me and just blew us away. he had the part before he walked out the door. you know, i mean, i was prepped. his stage play that he had done previously, his one-man show, "beyond glory" and played a number of military characters and came in so ready to show me this guy. i was kind of shocked after the reading to find out what a nice guy he was. what a sweet affable guy. because quaritch is all business. >> larry: he has what you would call presence. >> absolutely. >> larry: your character is the human guy in the movie. did you like him, stephen? do you have to like him? >> that's a great question. the answer is, look, if i don't love him, who will? that's how i feel about it. and i did. as i say, there's so many of the qualities that he personifies are good qualities.

you can't doubt his courage, you can't doubt his commitment, you can't doubt his sense of mission. his job is to keep people alive. i think he's very frustrated by the fact that the mission is an impossible one. he's a very -- he's a straight line and a ridged angle in an environment of fluidity and circular environment. it's a very, very tough job, i think. he also moves me -- sorry. >> larry: go ahead. i'm sorry. >> no, i say i find him a very moving character as well. because just as an actor, you ask yourself what has brought him to this point of darkness, his point of view, his world view is so cynical. how did he get there? jim and i talk about that and answer those questions and that gives me plenty to work with it seems to me. the one thing that he's missing for sure, it's completely gone, is any sense of humility.

and humility is a characteristic that is common to any heroic figure. any character. and quaritch has none. >> larry: well said. by the way, if you're one of the three or four people that haven't seen this movie, stephen lang is great. michelle rodriguez, also known as trudy chacon is here. she's next as we continue our behind the scenes look at the film that has now broken every box office record on record everywhere. "avatar." more next. i was active, eating healthy. i thought i was in great shape. so i was surprised when my doctor told me i still had high cholesterol. that really hit me, and got me thinking about my health. i knew i had to get my cholesterol under control. but exercise and eating healthy weren't enough for me. now i @%ust my heart to lipitor. (announcer) when diet and exercise are not enough, adding lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39 to 60%. lipitor is backed by over 17 years of research.

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♪ >> you should see your faces. >> larry: what was it like to go flying around like that and were you flying around? >> no. we were actually stabilized, but it was on a rig that had a bit of movement to it. had a hydraulic system. i was in an actually cockpit, right? to what was that? was that a black hawk? >> it was based roughly on that. >> larry: is it harder to act when the technical aspects are so overwhelming? >> see, you know what was so wonderful about coming on board of this film and being a live action character where i'm human the entire time is that i hopped on board two years after they did all of the hard work. >> larry: you came in late? >> yeah, yeah. i wouldn't call it late, but yeah. i came into the game after he had manifested the entire planet

of pandora. all of its foliage. all of the nutrients. the movement of the helicopter was already premeditated. whenever i had a question about, you know, what that green screen outside of the cockpit window consists of, i would tap him on the shoulder and be like, can you help me out here? and i would go to a screen and he would play it out for me. it was all done. >> larry: how about the physical aspects? was there a lot of that for you? >> i got a bit of training. i got to work with modified guns. that they hooked up for most of the military there. i got to fly in a chopper across los angeles. >> larry: wow. >> he let me hold the stick and everything and actually fly in the air so i could get used to maneuvering. >> larry: what was it like when you saw the finished product? >> i was just -- i can't really -- marvelous. you know? >> larry: blown away?

>> yeah, blown away. i have no words for it really. >> larry: how did you cast her, james? >> well, actually, michelle was my dream choice for the character. i kind of had her pictured in my mind when i wrote her. because i didn't want to tell her that when i met her, when i interviewed her. i didn't really interview her. i spent the whole time trying to convince her to do the movie and telling her why it was a great idea. >> larry: why didn't you want to do it? >> little did he know that i would serve the guy coffee for a year, if i could afford it. my lifestyle is a bit more than an assistant. i love your work. i think you just are incredible at translating yourself in multiple formats, you know, from sound to music to imagination. the guy gets it. >> larry: did have you to learn any technical things? >> i spent most of my time geeking out with jim asking him questions about his perspective

of the universe itself. >> she's very curious. >> yeah, i'm very curious. as far as my character goes, there really wasn't much technique to her. she's a pretty simple type of personality. she just follows her heart. >> larry: she's driven. >> yeah, very driven. >> larry: we're getting an unusual look t an extraordinary movie tonight. it's now officially today the number one box office ever worldwide and domestic. he broke his own record did james cameron. this is a congratulatory day for him. we'll be right back. more than the medicines in tylenol or aleve. the medicine in advil is the #1 doctor recommendation for joint pain. relief doesn't get any better than this. advil.

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>> i'm don lemon. here is a look at the headlines. the top story now. the mid-atlantic will be digging out for days from a powerful winner storm. up to two feet of snow blankets of the region. no one was hurt. maryland has 30 inches on of snow and has declared a state of emergency. heavy rain sends tons of mud rampaging down a hillside and damages homes north of los angeles. at least 41 houses have been seriously damaged and 500 more have been ordered evacuated. no injuries reported. a foot of debris settled in some homes.

two small planes collided in the air near boulder, colorado, airport saturday. an i-reporter sent in this video. one of the planes was pulling a glider. the pilot of the fwlider was football detach a land safety. the u.s. military is activity searching for an american civilian who disappeared last month in baghdad. video surfaced on a website showing the missing american. cnn has not confirmed the man's identity. cnn, keeping you informed. the most trusted name in news. ♪

>> larry: by the way, richard baynum and vince pace, the two geniuses behind mr. cameron, we heard from them earlier. i just want to establish who you are looking at in case you're just joining us. joining us now is joel david moore. he plays dr. norman spellman in "avatar." your character is human but he's also a na'vi avatar? >> yes. >> larry: you had to work with a performance capture helmet. explain that. what was it like? >> you know, like sig said earlier, it's a lot like going back to blackbox theater. going back to the root of acting. you don't have to worry about lights and camera angles and if you're blocking someone else. you can get back to two people and acting. i think that's good. >> larry: learning and speaking the na'vi, the language of the people, was another challenge for you obviously.

what was that like? >> we spent three or four months before we started shooting just learning the language. we'd meet with a couple people, and they would tell me what to say. it's such a beautiful language because it's borrowing ideas from a lot of different languages. so you can't point to it and say it sounds just like this thing or just like that. >> larry: you invented a language? >> we did for the film. paul firmer, the head of the linguistics department at usc, actually created the language for us. it's actually a grammatically correct language. >> a lot of this is interesting because people ask me to say things in na'vi, as if we understand the entire language. i want to get these books on tape that they're talking about just to figure it out. we had to learn what we had to say in the movie. but again, it's beautiful to listen to.

and in the movie i'm fluent in the language so i'm teaching sam's character, jake solely, how to speak the language throughout. i got a one up on him. >> larry: vince, were you there for the whole making of it? >> no, i wasn't, larry. i specialized on the l.a. portion in preparation for the film. >> larry: what about you richard? >> i was fortunate enough to be in it from beginning to end. >> larry: did he involve himself with you? >> he ran the technical side of the set. so this is before michelle was around. but he told me what to do. these two guys, really, were the guys i listened to all day long. it's a good place to be in. >> larry: was there any training to do this part? >> well, yeah. we had to learn the language. obviously i never -- i had to learn to use a gun. and that was something this guy really likes teaching. so we were out in new zealand and they're amazing guns because you can talk a little bit about this, they're not normal. >> larry: what do you mean, they're not normal?

>> they're made-up weapons. we had to create these new weapons like you do on any science fiction film. i like to make sure that their gun technique is good. we don't have to teach michelle anything because she's done enough of these hard girl gun parts. she knows what to do. joel was a cherry. we had to put him through boot camp. >> i'm left handed. he had to switch me from being a left-handed to a right-hander. that's how the military would teach you to shoot. >> larry: you can't be a left-handed gun shooter? >> you can be a left-handed na'vi because the na'vi had to learn to shoot with the bow left-handed. >> larry: did you get to sympathize? >> absolutely. i'm on the same ride that jake and sig. as an anthropologist i came there to study this beautiful species. part of the ride is -- we're in a way peacekeepers but part of the ride is understanding the beauty that they are. this relationship that they have between animal and plant.

>> larry: stephen ought to feel bad trying to destroy them. >> right. >> larry: back with more, the salute to "avatar." don't go away. ♪ [ female announcer ] enjoy a complete seafood dinner for two

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♪ >> you have a strong heart. >> larry: that, of course, zoe saldana, who was brilliant. sorry she couldn't make it today. one more clip from "avatar," a dramatic moment involving sam's character and the na'vi's life in harmony with nature. watch. [ speaking na'vi ]

>> that's right. you're mine. >> larry: how did you decide on blue for the color and not green? >> well, green was kind of taken by the little green men and the simpson's had yellow. pretty much blue was it. >> larry: did you have any say in this, vince? >> not at all. >> larry: did you, rich? >> no, the blue decision was made before i came on. there was a couple after orange. >> larry: what does the avatar team think about the possibility of extraterrestrial life? stephen, do you think there's life on other planets? >> no question of it. there's got to be. >> larry: no question? >> absolutely. >> larry: what do you think, jim? >> absolutely. i think we'll find life in the solar system. not like on pandora with intelligent beings. >> larry: do you all think that?

does anyone think? >> i have to agree. just too many dimensions other than what we see here to smell and to know, but i agree. >> larry: we asked jim earlier, do all of you think there will be a sequel? >> hold your hand up if you want a sequel. your hand's not going up, vince. >> my hand's up. >> larry: everybody wants a sequel. but stephen, you were killed. >> my mantra is nothing's over while i still got my dna. but we'll -- >> larry: you could bring him back -- you can clone him. >> sure. we got genetic engineering in this story. >> larry: you can do anything. you're a manipulator. >> you? >> no, not at all. >> larry: a director is a man it manipula manipulator. you're manipulating us. >> he's a dream weaver. >> larry: but you're taking us on your trip. >> that's right. it's my world. you're all just living in it.

>> larry: is he easy to work for? michelle? >> yes. i find him incredibly easy to work for. you know, as long as you don't tick him off and you don't come to set, you know, unprepared and unprofessional, then i think that you'll have a really wonderful time working with this man. >> larry: you find him easy, joel? >> yeah, it's going to be hard to go to another movie without a director that starts the bar here because that's what's raising everything, that's what's making everybody want to come to set and give their all. >> larry: the technical people like him as well, right? >> i wouldn't say easy was the right adjective. but i would say amazing. >> larry: demanding? >> demanding, yes, but it was an amazing experience. >> larry: you want to add something? >> i think that jim has a special reverence for actors because it may be the one job aside from catering on the film set that he doesn't think he can do.

he's a lot of fun to work with. >> larry: we'll be back with our remaining moments. by the way, i'm going to go to pandora any minute now. you'll see how i look. later i will learn na'vi. when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance travelers. insurance for auto, home and business. travelers. host: could switching to geico 15% or more on car insurance? host: does charlie daniels play a mean fiddle? ♪ fiddle music

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♪ >> they sent me here to learn your ways. >> what are you saying, jake? you knew this would happen? >> yes. >> larry: that's sam worthington. he was supposed to make it for this taping. but he was in a cab without a cell phone. you found him in a car, right? >> he was living in a car when i cast him, yeah. >> larry: living in a car. >> doesn't surprise me he doesn't have a cell phone. he's surfer. he's very blue collar guy at heart. and you know, he's a very committed, very responsible actor. but you know, he kind of marches to his own drum and i love that about him. >> larry: you found him in what? >> well, no, i mean, i cast him through the normal process, you know, but he was very unknown here.

but he was literally living in his car when he got the part to, you know -- >> larry: you had to really like him then, huh? >> yeah, i mean, he wasn't a star, he wasn't well known. we had to like him for who he was and what he brought to the character. >> larry: before we leave you, we now have the big reveal. this apparently, is how i would look if i were a na'vi of pandora. watch. >> oh, come on. just can't get rid of the suspenders. >> so frightening. >> larry: okay. how does that play, vince? >> works for me, larry. "avatar 2" all the way. >> larry: what about you, rich? >> i say you were more "avatar" than na'vi. >> larry: i could have been in this film. i could have been in this movie. >> i'm thinking the sequel could go a whole different direction. >> larry: could start here. thank you all very much.