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James Cameron recently turned 71 as he brought his third Avatar film, Fire and Ash, to the finish line.Cameron first began developing Avatar more than 30 years ago. He started working on the first film in earnest 20 years ago. Production on Fire and Ash, which ran concurrently with 2022’s The Way of Water, got underway eight years ago.By any measure, Avatar is one of the largest undertakings ever by a filmmaker. It’s maybe the only project that could make Titanic look like a modest one-off. Cameron has dedicated a huge chunk of his life to it. Now, as he prepares to unveil the latest chapter of his Na’vi opus on Dec. 19, Cameron is approaching what he calls a crossroads.“As you get older, you start to think of time in a slightly different way,” Cameron says from his 5,000-acre organic farm in New Zealand. “It’s not an infinite resource.” This image released by Disney shows Lo’ak, played by Britain Dalton, left, and Tsireya, played by Bailey Bass, in a scene from “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” [Image: 20th Century Studios/Disney via AP] Two more Avatar films are already written and have release dates, in 2029 and 2031. Right now, though, Cameron is focused on completing Fire and Ash, which is almost guaranteed to be the biggest movie of the fall. To get Avatara franchise already worth $5.2 billion in worldwide ticket salesback in the minds of moviegoers, The Way of Water will also be rereleased on October 3.“As I told the brass at Disney, we’re right at the glide slope to land right on time for delivery,” Cameron says. “The first film was a nightmare. Movie two was hectic. But here, I keep having to pinch myself because it’s all going well. The film is strong.”There may be no filmmaker more at the nexus of past and future blockbuster making than Cameron. Avatar: Fire and Ash will arrive as Hollywood is reconciling itself to a new theatrical normal. In a movie industry of shrinking ambition, Avatar, an original spectacle that once was the wave of the future, is already beginning to look like an endangered species.In a recent interview, Cameron reflected on his history with Avatar and what’s next for him, including a planned adaptation of Charles Pellegrino’s Ghosts of Hiroshima. For Cameron, most of his work is likely to touch on one of what he calls “the big three”: Nuclear weapons, machine super intelligence, and climate change.Avatar, a family saga that grows more complicated and darker in Fire and Ash, relates to the latter. The films are environmental parables, set in a verdant faraway world. Sustainability, community, connection to naturethese are some of the pillars of Cameron’s life right now, in the movies and outside them.“I’m just a humble movie farmer,” he says, smiling, “who’s also a farmer farmer.”AP: When you decided to embark on Avatar, was it more likely that if you didn’t, you’d spend your time mostly away from movies, doing deep-sea exploration and other things?Cameron: It was sort of: Do the Avatar saga or follow my interests more. I knew that Avatar would be all-consuming, and it has been. When I set down that path, a reasonable projection was eight to 10 years to get it all written, and do movie two and movie three together and get them out. But it’s actually turned out to be more than that. It was a major commitment and decision to make for me as a life choice. But the Avatar movies reach people, and they reach people with positive messaging. Not just positive about the environment, but positive from the standpoint of humanity, empathy, spirituality, our connection to each other. And they’re beautiful. There’s a kind of magnetic draw into the film. It almost feels like it’s being pulled out of the audience’s dreams and subconscious state.AP: Avatar began as a dream, didn’t it? FILE From left, Sam Worthington, director James Cameron, Zoe Saldana, producer Jon Landau, and Sigourney Weaver pose with the award for best motion picture drama for “Avatar,” at the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards on January 17, 2010, in Beverly Hills, California [Photo: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File] Cameron: I was 19. I was in college, and I had a very vivid dream of a bioluminescent forest with glowing moss that reacted to your feet and these little spinning lizards that floated around. It’s all in the movie, by the way. The reason it’s in the movie is because I got up and painted it. That later became the inspiration, just a few years later, for a science-fiction script. I said, “Hey, I got this idea for a planet where everything glows at night.” We wrote that in, and it never went away.Years after that, when I was the CEO of Digital Domain, I wanted to push Digital Domain to be able to create CG worlds, CG humanoid creatures using performance capture. I just threw the kitchen sink into the treatment called Avatar. So it came from almost a Machiavellian reason. I was trying to drive a business model for the development of CG. Of course, the answer I got from my technical team was: “We are not ready to make this film. We may not be ready for years.” But it still served that inspirational purpose, which was: Well, how do we get ready?AP: Ghosts of Hiroshima would be your first non-Avatar feature as director since Titanic in 1997. What do you think when you hear that?Cameron: It’s inteesting. As I said earlier, “Avatar” has been all-consuming. In the process, we’ve developed many new technologies. I enjoy the day-to-day process with a team. I’ve surrounded myself with really intelligent, really creative people who enjoy the process of the world building. We enjoy leveling up in our working process. It’s a long, steady state thing where I’m not having to create a new startup, build a team and then disband that team the way the movies cycled for me back in the ’80s and ’90s. Now, I’m at a kind of a crossroads where I have to decide if I want to keep doing this.Four and five are written. If we’re as successful as we might potentially be, I’m sure the films will continue. The question for me will be: Do I direct them both? Do I direct one of them? At what point do I pass the baton? How pervasive do I want it to be in my life? This image released by Disney shows a scene from “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” [Image: 20th Century Studios/Disney via AP] AP: When do you think you’ll decide?Cameron: I’m not going to make any decisions about that until probably Q2 of next year, when the dust has settled. And there are also new technologies to consider. Generative AI is upon us. It’s going to transform the film business. Does that make our work flow easier? Can I make “Avatar” movies more quickly? That would be a big factor for me.AP: You’ve said the movie industry needs to use technological advances to bring down budgets. Is that the way forward?Cameron: The theatrical business is dwindling. Hopefully it doesn’t continue to dwindle. Right now, it’s plateaued at about 30% down from 2019 levels. Let’s hope it doesn’t get cannibalized more. In fact, let’s hope we can bring some of that magic back. But the only way to keep that magic alive and strengthen it is to make the kinds of movies people feel they need to see in a movie theater. Unfortunately, those movies are not getting greenlit as much as they used to be because studios can’t afford them. Or they can only afford to take the risk on certain blue chip stocks, so it doesn’t allow new IP to get launched. It doesn’t allow new filmmakers to come into those genres.I’d like to see the cost of VFX artists come down. VFX artists get scared and say, “Oh, I’m going to be out of a job.” I’m like, “No, the way you’re going to be out of a job is if trends continue and we just don’t make these kinds of movies anymore.” If you develop these tools or learn these tools, then your throughpoint will be quicker and that will bring the cost of productions down, and studios will be encouraged to make more and more of these types of films. To me, that’s a virtuous cycle that we need to manifest. We need to make that happen or I think theatrical might never return.AP: I do sometimes feel watching movies like “Lawrence of Arabia” or “Titanic” that these are monuments of a bygone era.Cameron: I would love to think that we’ve been building a new monument for the last three or four years. And I think there will always be a market for the new monument builds. The streamers kind of cannibalized the theatrical market with the promise of a lot of money to attract top filmmakers and top casts, and then that money has all retrenched back. The budgets aren’t there. Everything is starting to look like it’s driving toward a mediocrity. Everything starts to look to me like a typical network procedural, or at least that could be an end point within just a couple years.Unfortunately, the economics of streaming expanded rapidly and then contracted rapidly. Now, we’re betwixt and between models. It’s cannibalized theatrical and, at the same time, it’s not delivering the budgets to do the kind of imaginative, phantasmagorical filmmaking.AP: “Avatar” has basically unfolded as a family saga. It seems like in these films, what you’re most interested is spirituality and human connection.Cameron: The “Avatar” films, and certainly the new one “Fire and Ash,” do exactly the same thing. In a way, they cast us in a good light. The humans in the story are the bad guys. But really what it’s saying is that the attributes we value our interpersonal and intercommunity connections, our spirituality, our empathy in the movies they reside in the Na’vi. But of course we as the audience take the Na’vi’s side. So they seem a kind of aspirational, better version of us. In a sense, it’s still empowering and reinforcing certain values and ethics and morals.Now, it’s a little more challenging in movie three because we show Na’vi who have kind of fallen from grace and are adversarial with other Na’vi. I think one of the reasons “Avatar” has been successful in all markets around the world is because everybody is in a family or wishes they were in a family. They have their ties. They have their tribes. They have their connections. And that’s what these films are about. What would you risk everything for?AP: Does that apply to Ghosts of Hiroshima as well? You’ve spoken about it like a tragedy of disconnection.Cameron: “Ghosts of Hiroshima” is about testing our empathy boundaries. Somebody needed to be empathetic to the fact that a nuclear weapon was going to be used against human beings. And I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of should the bombs have been dropped, who was right, who was wrong. But I do want to remind people of what these weapons are capable of doing against targets. It’s unfathomable.There were three bombs in 1945. One was used as a test and two against people. There are now 12,000 and they range in power from 100 to over 200 times the energy that was generated at either one of those two bombings. We’re in a very precarious world right now. And because of all the geopolitical challenges internationally more nuclear powers, more saber rattling, unaccountable leadership in Russia and America right now I think we’re in as precarious a situation as we were in the Cuban missile crisis era. By Jake Coyle, AP Film Writer
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Thrifting is still in fashion for fall. Thats according to Pinterests annual fall 2025 trend report. The company surveyed users from January 2025 until March 2025 and found secondhand shopping dominating everything from fashion to home decor as we head into the new season. Gen Z are driving the trend, now accounting for more than half of Pinterest users. With their well-documented love for thrift and vintage finds, searches for dream thrift finds are up 550%, while searches for vintage autumn aesthetic are up 1,074%. Just as Pinterests male audience is booming, they are also embracing the trend. Searches for secondhand outfits for men have jumped 31%. Specifically they have their eye on vintage watches: searches for vintage luxury watch jumped by 82% and best luxury watches for men are up by 55%. The data backs this up. The global secondhand market is set to reach $367 billion by 2029, according to ThredUps 2025 Resale Report. A recent report by EY found that the global secondhand apparel market is growing three times faster than the overall apparel industry, with 36% of consumers buying secondhand more than ever. Its not just clothes people are looking for. Searches for secondhand kitchens and secondhand decor have also skyrocketed by 1,012% and 283%, respectively. At a time where tariffs are expected to increase the price of goods and skyrocketing costs of living have consumers seeking out a good deal, it’s unsurprising that a renewed focus on thrifting is one way consumers are indulging their shopping habit without breaking the bank. To capture the momentum, and make sure they arent losing potential customers to popular secondhand platforms like Facebook marketplace and eBay, Pinterest is rolling out the Thrift Shop. Rather than a stand-alone storefront, the new e-commerce feature curates items from vintage and thrift sellers across the platform and lets users build wishlists around their finds. The first experience of its kind on Pinterest, the Thrift Shop launch is slated to run from 20th August to 26th September. It further demonstrates Pinterests continuing evolution from virtual vision board to full-blown shopping destination.
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Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issueseverything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor. Here’s a roundup of answers to four questions from readers. 1. Am I old-fashioned about employee lateness? I feel it is non-negotiable thatexcept for cases of emergency, sick kids, or traffic jamsemployees should be at work on time the vast majority of days. This means getting to work about 10 minutes early in time to hang up a coat, use the bathroom, etc., and be at ones desk when the hour begins. I feel like most employees and many managers do not so much care about this or, if they do, they dont say anything to late employees. I have worked with colleagues who regularly show up 10-20 minutes late and no one seems to care. Im not talking about flex-time jobs. Are my standards old-fashioned? Green responds: Not just old-fashioned, but genuinely out-of-date! In lots of jobs, it just doesnt matter if youre at your desk at 9:00 or 9:10 because it has zero impact on the results you get. There are other jobs where it does matterfor example, if an employee covers the phones or has client appointments starting right at 9 a.m.but increasingly jobs that can move away from that (which, again, isnt all of them) are doing so. The only relevant question is: Does it affect the persons work or someone elses work? If yes, then it’s a reasonable expectation of the job and you need to address the lateness and the specific impact its having. But if the answer is no, then youre adhering to an outdated idea of what excellent work should look like. And hassling an excellent performer over 10 minutesor for using the bathroom or chatting with a colleague before they sit downis a good way for managers to demonstrate that they dont value the right things and send them in search of a manager who does. 2. Should I offer my employees resume advice? We will be promoting someone on my team to a low-level management position to free up some of my time. Three current employees applied, submitting resumes (which we require even for internal applications). All three resumes have some very obvious problemsirrelevant jobs given a ton of space, high school coursework given a lot of space six years after finishing college, a highlights section that redundantly lists information from further down the page, and other problems like these. In this case, it doesnt matter much; we know all the candidates well and are aware of their accomplishments and qualifications, but I hate to see someone using a resume that makes them look like a weaker candidate than they are. Would I be out of line to make a one-time offer to help improve their resumes? My thought was to wait until the hiring process is finished, then phrase it as, Would you be interested in getting feedback on your resume? It wasnt a factor in this case since we already knew you so well, but if you would like me to I will go through it as though youd been an outside candidate and help you polish it up. I dont want to be presumptuous or make them think theyre being encouraged to leave. But I want to be supportive and give them advice while Im in a position to give it. Ive got a close working relationship with all of them, and feedback on writing and presentations are already a major part of how we work together. Green responds: Yes, do it! Your wording is good. Id just add, I want to be clear that I hope you wont go anywhere anytime soon, but realistically we all move on at some point, and I since Ive got your resume in front of me now, I wanted to offer that kind of support. 3. Are cotton clothes less professional? Im a mid-40s woman in the biotech industry. Many years ago, I made the decision to avoid buying synthetic fabrics due to the large environmental impact of synthetics and fast-fashion. I find myself buying a lot of items made from cotton since its a natural fiber. One day I was talking with a European colleague about where we shop and she looked at me and said, I have never worn a t-shirt in my life, I think implying that my tops look like t-shirts because they are made of cotton. I noticed that she was wearing head-to-toe polyester. I feel like the clothing I choose looks cute and classic, not very trendy, but still flattering. Have my personal ethical choices forced me to wear clothing that looks too casual? Green responds: Its true that some cotton tops can read as less professional and more t-shirt-ish. Not all of them. There are lots of professional-looking cotton tops (hello, cotton button-downs!). But our norms around professional dress do include an odd convention where the same top can look less professional in cotton than in synthetic fabrics. It depends on the top, and it depends on the specifics of the fabriclike whether its t-shirt fabric or something more structured or with a different drape. It also depends on the office; in many offices this would be a complete non-issue, while in others it might matter more. And as for why this is even a thing, its one of those inexplicable conventions that has its roots in something other than logic. My guess is its probably very old and rooted in the fact that cotton used to cost less. In any case, if your shirts arent cut like t-shirts and dont drape like t-shirts, I think youre fine. 4. How to check on collaborators during a natural disaster Whats the best phrasing to check in with someone who may be dealing with fires, floods, or other increasingly frequent natural disasters? In my case, I hadnt heard from a collaborator in over a week. Her city had been recently hit by a hurricane, and I didnt know if her organization or home had been affected, but she is in a leadership position on my project, so I needed her feedback before I could move forward. I sent a brief message checking if shed seen my previous email, but I feel like this is going to keep happening. Can you give us some scripts for checking in with collaborators whose worlds may literally be on fire? Green responds: A good basic formula is to acknowledge the situation, express empathy, explain what you need, and make it clear that you understand if events are getting in the way. For example: Hi Jane, I hope youre doing okay! Ive been following the hurricane that hit your area and I hope you and your family are safe. I wanted to check with you about (project details). If you have your hands full with whats happening in your area right now and need to push this back, I of course understand! If you actually cant push back the thing very easily, adapt that wording at the endyou need to acknowledge that they might not be able to do it right now regardless, but you can tweak the wording to whatever fits. For example: Id been planning on finalizing this by Friday since we want to distribute it at the board meeting the following week, but if that just cant happen right now, let me know and wel figure it out. Depending on circumstances, you might need to add, If I dont hear from you in the next few days, Ill figure youve got your hands full and will work on alternate plans. Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager. By Alison Green This article originally appeared on Fast Company‘s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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