On this day in 2010, Paramount Pictures released The Last Airbender in movie theaters nationwide. Adapted from Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko's 2000s animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, it was the very first live action film based on a Nickelodeon cartoon. Although Avatar had to be dropped from the title because of James Cameron’s at the time recently released (and unrelated) 2009 science fiction film. The story followed 12-year-old Aang (Noah Ringer), who along with his friends, Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), must bring peace and harmony to the world by ending the Fire Nation's 100-year war with the Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, and Air Nomads. Fans of the animated series were hyped up (and somewhat skeptical) for months leading up to the release. Yet, by the time they saw it, many of them felt betrayed by the end results of both the adaptation and movie as a whole, and quickly blamed writer/director M. Night Shyamalan for everything. So how did an animated TV franchise with such promising big screen potential end up stumbling to the ground? Rather than just jumping to conclusions, let’s take a deep dive into what exactly happened behind the scenes.
In 2006, Scott Aversano was named President of the MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies Brand division for Paramount Pictures. He was tasked with integrating the Viacom cable brands’ intellectual property and creators with the feature division at the studio as well as overseeing the label’s annual slate of films. Which included the acquisition of literary properties, development, and production of motion pictures. One property he definitely had his eye on was Avatar: The Last Airbender, which he first saw during its initial run while he was on vacation. When Scott came back to Los Angeles, he went up to MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies about doing a big screen version. However, the show was so new at the time, that executives weren't ready to start thinking about the possibilities. Yet Scott thought the series was absolutely emblematic of the kind of things that Nickelodeon as a family movie brand could bring to a film production. One of the things creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko did that he thought was exceptional and made it possible for a conversation about the movie to begin was the core idea of their central character, the Avatar, and that the Avatar was a figure who had a fully elaborated mythology that had some religious components, some philosophical components, and some Kung Fu martial arts components to it. He felt Mike & Bryan did such an exceptional job of filling out the sort of TV bible of that world that it lent enormous possibilities to a feature film. When Scott became president, he got the ball rolling, and everyone was enormously enthusiastic about the project. Brad Grey, who was running Paramount at the time, thought it would be an ideal way to bring the Nickelodeon movie brand to the forefront of his media strategy for the studio, and ATLA felt like a great property to do it with.
Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, who was big around the beginning of the millennium with his suspense thrillers, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, later came on board to write, direct, and produce. He first came across the series from one of his daughters, who was 7 years old at the time, and was also very obsessed with it. For a while, Night wasn’t paying any attention to the show at all. She later went to him about wanting to be Katara for Halloween, but he had no idea what she was talking about. When they all went to their local video store one day, his daughter noticed that the first season was on DVD, so she asked if she could get it, and so she did. After dinner one evening, Night and his family all had a marathon of the series together. He not only became a fan of himself, but he also saw its cinematic potential. Night was previously approached by different studios about a few properties such as Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Life of Pi, but The Last Airbender marked the first time he ever ended up writing and directing an adaptation of a pre-existing work. Although he did have a shared writing credit on Stuart Little directed by Rob Minkoff, which was adapted from E.B. White's classic novel.
When Shyamalan came into the process, it became clear that they were going to need producers who would be able to deliver the highest caliber film possible and also had a relationship with him. This is where Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall both came in. They had not only done The Sixth Sense and Signs with Night, but they were also just coming off of making The Spiderwick Chronicles, Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Paramount. Not to mention that they both had a long history of producing films with Steven Spielberg such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as well as the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park franchises. So they became the people Scott Aversano felt would make the greatest producers for such an enormous project as The Last Airbender. The creative team consisted of nine-time Oscar nominated composer James Newton Howard, production designer Philip Messina (who went on to do most of The Hunger Games films), three-time Oscar nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky (who went on to work with Messina again on the first Hunger Games movie), cinematographer Andrew Lesnie (who won an Oscar for his work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy), and editor Conrad Buff (who was one of the Oscar-winning editors behind Titanic).
This project apparently ended up moving forward without either Mike nor Bryan even being consulted about it. In a podcast interview from 2014, Konietzko revealed that "A) We didn't want it to be done at all. Before anyone was attached, we didn't want it. And then B) If it was going to be done, we wanted to do it, but they weren't going to let us. C) When they attached Night, we just thought, 'Well, this is what we've been dealt. We'll just offer help when it's asked of us, and if it's not, we'll stay out of the way.' In the beginning, it was more positive and we offered help, but then we had a big falling out." When the film was in its earliest stages, Mike and Bryan met with Night, and they all semmed very excited to get things going. They even got to film an interview together, which especially showed the latter's enthusiasm for the animated series.
In 2006, Scott Aversano was named President of the MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies Brand division for Paramount Pictures. He was tasked with integrating the Viacom cable brands’ intellectual property and creators with the feature division at the studio as well as overseeing the label’s annual slate of films. Which included the acquisition of literary properties, development, and production of motion pictures. One property he definitely had his eye on was Avatar: The Last Airbender, which he first saw during its initial run while he was on vacation. When Scott came back to Los Angeles, he went up to MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies about doing a big screen version. However, the show was so new at the time, that executives weren't ready to start thinking about the possibilities. Yet Scott thought the series was absolutely emblematic of the kind of things that Nickelodeon as a family movie brand could bring to a film production. One of the things creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko did that he thought was exceptional and made it possible for a conversation about the movie to begin was the core idea of their central character, the Avatar, and that the Avatar was a figure who had a fully elaborated mythology that had some religious components, some philosophical components, and some Kung Fu martial arts components to it. He felt Mike & Bryan did such an exceptional job of filling out the sort of TV bible of that world that it lent enormous possibilities to a feature film. When Scott became president, he got the ball rolling, and everyone was enormously enthusiastic about the project. Brad Grey, who was running Paramount at the time, thought it would be an ideal way to bring the Nickelodeon movie brand to the forefront of his media strategy for the studio, and ATLA felt like a great property to do it with.
Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, who was big around the beginning of the millennium with his suspense thrillers, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, later came on board to write, direct, and produce. He first came across the series from one of his daughters, who was 7 years old at the time, and was also very obsessed with it. For a while, Night wasn’t paying any attention to the show at all. She later went to him about wanting to be Katara for Halloween, but he had no idea what she was talking about. When they all went to their local video store one day, his daughter noticed that the first season was on DVD, so she asked if she could get it, and so she did. After dinner one evening, Night and his family all had a marathon of the series together. He not only became a fan of himself, but he also saw its cinematic potential. Night was previously approached by different studios about a few properties such as Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Life of Pi, but The Last Airbender marked the first time he ever ended up writing and directing an adaptation of a pre-existing work. Although he did have a shared writing credit on Stuart Little directed by Rob Minkoff, which was adapted from E.B. White's classic novel.
When Shyamalan came into the process, it became clear that they were going to need producers who would be able to deliver the highest caliber film possible and also had a relationship with him. This is where Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall both came in. They had not only done The Sixth Sense and Signs with Night, but they were also just coming off of making The Spiderwick Chronicles, Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Paramount. Not to mention that they both had a long history of producing films with Steven Spielberg such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as well as the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park franchises. So they became the people Scott Aversano felt would make the greatest producers for such an enormous project as The Last Airbender. The creative team consisted of nine-time Oscar nominated composer James Newton Howard, production designer Philip Messina (who went on to do most of The Hunger Games films), three-time Oscar nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky (who went on to work with Messina again on the first Hunger Games movie), cinematographer Andrew Lesnie (who won an Oscar for his work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy), and editor Conrad Buff (who was one of the Oscar-winning editors behind Titanic).
This project apparently ended up moving forward without either Mike nor Bryan even being consulted about it. In a podcast interview from 2014, Konietzko revealed that "A) We didn't want it to be done at all. Before anyone was attached, we didn't want it. And then B) If it was going to be done, we wanted to do it, but they weren't going to let us. C) When they attached Night, we just thought, 'Well, this is what we've been dealt. We'll just offer help when it's asked of us, and if it's not, we'll stay out of the way.' In the beginning, it was more positive and we offered help, but then we had a big falling out." When the film was in its earliest stages, Mike and Bryan met with Night, and they all semmed very excited to get things going. They even got to film an interview together, which especially showed the latter's enthusiasm for the animated series.
According to a member of an Avatar forum by the name of Kyatto (who claimed to have worked on the film behind the scenes), M. Night Shyamalan really did know show and what he was doing. His initial script was about 9 hours long, and his second draft was almost 3 hours. Which is actually typical as most original drafts for movies are way longer than the final product. The screenwriter writes everything they want to get out of their heads and then go back in to weed out what’s not needed and rewrite stuff to take things like montages and other editing processes into account. However, the producers, who are actually in charge of at least 80% of production, including casting, weren't as familiar with the animated series.
Legally, they're the ones who are the head of a movie production, not the director, who must align his vision to theirs. While Night was also one of the producers, he still had a duty to make long, careful consideration, and decisions with the others. With multiple producers heading up a big budget film, visions will get compromised, more so than the animated series with only Mike and Bryan producing. The producers must also sell the movie to the studios, their real end-customer. While most people like to believe otherwise, the studios are entitled to ‘improve’ these visions, because they are ultimately the ones financing the film and distributing it to the movie-going public. Night’s ego persona didn’t help nor his previous reputation on his recent films at the time, so he went about justifying the executives’ decisions the wrong way (which he may or may not have been persuaded to).
Nicola Peltz auditioned for the role of Katara in July 2008 through her mother’s connections with the producers. She wore a kimono for the audition, to which Night joked that she just woke up and came in with her pajamas (her audition was apparently subpar at best). The connections Nicola’s parents had with the producers became stronger after that. Her dad was at a human rights fundraiser with Marshall and Kennedy in October 2008 and at an arts center fundraiser with Shyamalan's family in November of that year. While Night did mention in interviews leading up to the film's release that he would not have made the movie without her, that was likely for promotional purposes. In having to cast Nicola, they had to cast a guy who could pass as her brother, Sokka. Thus Twilight alum Jackson Rathbone came in, and apparently gave a pretty good audition. For the main character of Aang, Noah Ringer submitted a video of himself doing martial arts with a shaved head. He was the only one who openly auditioned and was chosen based on talent. Although throughout the process, Noah needed extra help because he was a more experienced martial artist and had never acted before in his life. Plus, a lot of the movie was green screened, so he was talking to air a lot of the time. Experienced adults have a hard time doing that, let alone an inexperienced child.
Since they had two unknown kids and a guy who played a minor character in The Twilight Saga cast in a multimillion dollar tentpole studio film, Paramount needed a name to make it more commercially viable. Jesse McCartney was originally announced for the role of Prince Zuko, but then controversy arose due to the fact that four white kids were cast as what are supposed to be Asian and/or Indigenous characters. While several white performers actually voiced Asian/Indigenous characters in the animated series, it was an easier thing to get away with for a while because in animation, they're not casting with their eyes, they're casting with their ears. Jesse ended up getting replaced at the last minute which he said in a 2020 interview with People magazine was for "political reasons."
Even then, the producers still needed a name in the cast, but it couldn’t be another caucasian. Paramount wasn't willing to finance the movie without someone as marketable as Jesse, even if they would've only been counting on his popularity at the time as a teen pop star. Meanwhile, Dev Patel, a trained actor and martial arts practitioner who had just come off of his breakout role in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, was willing to sign on. Had he not signed up at the last minute, Paramount would have pulled the plug just like Warner Brothers did with Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain when Brad Pitt walked out shortly before principal photography was about to begin in 2002 (before it was eventually resurrected and released in 2006 with Hugh Jackman in the starring role). In getting Dev, they had to make the rest of the Fire Nation match by casting Indian/Middle Eastern actors. So therefore, The Last Airbender accidentally ended up becoming a white savior movie.
In a March 2020 interview with Bustle, Giancarlo Volpe, who was a storyboard artist and director on the original series, said "where they sort of went wrong was that the characters and casting weren't really right. I thought that was unfortunate. I've said this multiple times: if there was ever any doubt that Avatar took place in sort of a mythical Asia or mythical China... it absolutely did. Don't let anyone tell you differently. And to cast it differently was an odd choice." I will say that if I was charge of casting this movie, I would've done something similar to what was done with the Harry Potter films by casting Asian/Indigenous child/young adult actors with a blank slate for the child/young adult characters, and find more established Asian/Indigenous actors for the adult roles. Like maybe we could've had Ken Watanabe as Admiral Zhao, Wes Studi as Master Pakku, and/or Michelle Yeoh as Avatar Kyoshi.
As Shyamalan is a man of Asian descent, he felt his pronunciations of the names, Aang, Sokka, and Iroh, as well as the word Avatar, were more ‘authentic’ to how they're originally pronounced. When ATLA first came out, a lot of people (especially those with an anime background) used “ee-roh” for “Iroh”, “ahng” for “Aang”, “soh-ka” for “Sokka”, etc. But when the show became watched enough and the westernized names were heard enough, most people stopped using the original Asian pronunciations. Although if you came to the series hearing Asian names pronounced differently, it does throw you off. To some Asians, the pronunciations of the names are offensive in the cartoon, and to fans of the show, the pronunciations in the movie are offensive because they’re not accurate to the source material. Maybe John Travolta should try pronouncing those names. In response to that particular difference, Dante Basco, who voiced Zuko in the animated series, felt that if they were going for authenticity regarding the character names, then why were the actors playing them white?.
Obviously, a story about people manipulating elements couldn’t be believably done with in camera practical effects, so the studio had to rebudget and give most of the money to Industrial Light & Magic for post production. ILM was rushed despite most of the movie’s look being left up to them. Under the supervision of Pablo Helman (who was recently Oscar nominated for the de-aging effects work in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman), they apparently had novice directors hired by the producers to oversee that process. Keep in mind that there are way more people working on a live action film than just an animated series, so it’s difficult to keep tabs on every last detail. Sadly at that point, Night was just tired of arguing with the overheads, gave up, and collected his paycheck.
Originally, Paramount wasn’t planning to release The Last Airbender in 3D at all. Yet as 3D was becoming so huge because of James Cameron’s Avatar, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and the first How to Train Your Dragon, the studio decided at the last minute to spend two whole months converting the movie into 3D just like the at the time recently released remake of Clash of the Titans. In order to make The Last Airbender’s intended release date of the Fourth of July weekend, Paramount ended up cutting 30 minutes worth of footage in order to save time and money on the post-converted 3D. Thus, the reason why the movie's running time ended up being 1 hour and 35 minutes long, not counting the eight minute end credits sequence. The most notable scenes that were cut included plot points about Katara’s missing necklace and the Kyoshi Warriors (with actress Jessica Jade Andres cast as their leader, Suki). To fill in the gaps, Nicola Peltz was brought in to record some additional voice over narrations. In fact, a friend of mine did a YouTube video on what he speculated would be the opening to the film from having seen certain shots from the trailers and commercials as well as after having read the movie novelization. Yet, all of those shots didn’t even end up making the final cut.
Legally, they're the ones who are the head of a movie production, not the director, who must align his vision to theirs. While Night was also one of the producers, he still had a duty to make long, careful consideration, and decisions with the others. With multiple producers heading up a big budget film, visions will get compromised, more so than the animated series with only Mike and Bryan producing. The producers must also sell the movie to the studios, their real end-customer. While most people like to believe otherwise, the studios are entitled to ‘improve’ these visions, because they are ultimately the ones financing the film and distributing it to the movie-going public. Night’s ego persona didn’t help nor his previous reputation on his recent films at the time, so he went about justifying the executives’ decisions the wrong way (which he may or may not have been persuaded to).
Nicola Peltz auditioned for the role of Katara in July 2008 through her mother’s connections with the producers. She wore a kimono for the audition, to which Night joked that she just woke up and came in with her pajamas (her audition was apparently subpar at best). The connections Nicola’s parents had with the producers became stronger after that. Her dad was at a human rights fundraiser with Marshall and Kennedy in October 2008 and at an arts center fundraiser with Shyamalan's family in November of that year. While Night did mention in interviews leading up to the film's release that he would not have made the movie without her, that was likely for promotional purposes. In having to cast Nicola, they had to cast a guy who could pass as her brother, Sokka. Thus Twilight alum Jackson Rathbone came in, and apparently gave a pretty good audition. For the main character of Aang, Noah Ringer submitted a video of himself doing martial arts with a shaved head. He was the only one who openly auditioned and was chosen based on talent. Although throughout the process, Noah needed extra help because he was a more experienced martial artist and had never acted before in his life. Plus, a lot of the movie was green screened, so he was talking to air a lot of the time. Experienced adults have a hard time doing that, let alone an inexperienced child.
Since they had two unknown kids and a guy who played a minor character in The Twilight Saga cast in a multimillion dollar tentpole studio film, Paramount needed a name to make it more commercially viable. Jesse McCartney was originally announced for the role of Prince Zuko, but then controversy arose due to the fact that four white kids were cast as what are supposed to be Asian and/or Indigenous characters. While several white performers actually voiced Asian/Indigenous characters in the animated series, it was an easier thing to get away with for a while because in animation, they're not casting with their eyes, they're casting with their ears. Jesse ended up getting replaced at the last minute which he said in a 2020 interview with People magazine was for "political reasons."
Even then, the producers still needed a name in the cast, but it couldn’t be another caucasian. Paramount wasn't willing to finance the movie without someone as marketable as Jesse, even if they would've only been counting on his popularity at the time as a teen pop star. Meanwhile, Dev Patel, a trained actor and martial arts practitioner who had just come off of his breakout role in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, was willing to sign on. Had he not signed up at the last minute, Paramount would have pulled the plug just like Warner Brothers did with Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain when Brad Pitt walked out shortly before principal photography was about to begin in 2002 (before it was eventually resurrected and released in 2006 with Hugh Jackman in the starring role). In getting Dev, they had to make the rest of the Fire Nation match by casting Indian/Middle Eastern actors. So therefore, The Last Airbender accidentally ended up becoming a white savior movie.
In a March 2020 interview with Bustle, Giancarlo Volpe, who was a storyboard artist and director on the original series, said "where they sort of went wrong was that the characters and casting weren't really right. I thought that was unfortunate. I've said this multiple times: if there was ever any doubt that Avatar took place in sort of a mythical Asia or mythical China... it absolutely did. Don't let anyone tell you differently. And to cast it differently was an odd choice." I will say that if I was charge of casting this movie, I would've done something similar to what was done with the Harry Potter films by casting Asian/Indigenous child/young adult actors with a blank slate for the child/young adult characters, and find more established Asian/Indigenous actors for the adult roles. Like maybe we could've had Ken Watanabe as Admiral Zhao, Wes Studi as Master Pakku, and/or Michelle Yeoh as Avatar Kyoshi.
As Shyamalan is a man of Asian descent, he felt his pronunciations of the names, Aang, Sokka, and Iroh, as well as the word Avatar, were more ‘authentic’ to how they're originally pronounced. When ATLA first came out, a lot of people (especially those with an anime background) used “ee-roh” for “Iroh”, “ahng” for “Aang”, “soh-ka” for “Sokka”, etc. But when the show became watched enough and the westernized names were heard enough, most people stopped using the original Asian pronunciations. Although if you came to the series hearing Asian names pronounced differently, it does throw you off. To some Asians, the pronunciations of the names are offensive in the cartoon, and to fans of the show, the pronunciations in the movie are offensive because they’re not accurate to the source material. Maybe John Travolta should try pronouncing those names. In response to that particular difference, Dante Basco, who voiced Zuko in the animated series, felt that if they were going for authenticity regarding the character names, then why were the actors playing them white?.
Obviously, a story about people manipulating elements couldn’t be believably done with in camera practical effects, so the studio had to rebudget and give most of the money to Industrial Light & Magic for post production. ILM was rushed despite most of the movie’s look being left up to them. Under the supervision of Pablo Helman (who was recently Oscar nominated for the de-aging effects work in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman), they apparently had novice directors hired by the producers to oversee that process. Keep in mind that there are way more people working on a live action film than just an animated series, so it’s difficult to keep tabs on every last detail. Sadly at that point, Night was just tired of arguing with the overheads, gave up, and collected his paycheck.
Originally, Paramount wasn’t planning to release The Last Airbender in 3D at all. Yet as 3D was becoming so huge because of James Cameron’s Avatar, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and the first How to Train Your Dragon, the studio decided at the last minute to spend two whole months converting the movie into 3D just like the at the time recently released remake of Clash of the Titans. In order to make The Last Airbender’s intended release date of the Fourth of July weekend, Paramount ended up cutting 30 minutes worth of footage in order to save time and money on the post-converted 3D. Thus, the reason why the movie's running time ended up being 1 hour and 35 minutes long, not counting the eight minute end credits sequence. The most notable scenes that were cut included plot points about Katara’s missing necklace and the Kyoshi Warriors (with actress Jessica Jade Andres cast as their leader, Suki). To fill in the gaps, Nicola Peltz was brought in to record some additional voice over narrations. In fact, a friend of mine did a YouTube video on what he speculated would be the opening to the film from having seen certain shots from the trailers and commercials as well as after having read the movie novelization. Yet, all of those shots didn’t even end up making the final cut.
The Last Airbender was released in movie theaters nationwide on July 1st, 2010 (it was originally scheduled for July 2nd, but the date was moved up a bit). Despite going up against The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the film ended up coming in second place at the box office opening weekend with a gross of $40,325,019. On a production budget of $150,000,000, The Last Airbender made over $319,700,000 worldwide. I know a lot of people argue that the movie's disastrous reception was what stopped the franchise from moving forward on the big screen, but to the studios, what it really all comes down to is how much money they end up making. While the film itself did OK financially, keep in mind that another $130,000,000 was spent on advertising, which would bring a total of $280,000,000 spent on one movie. Therefore, The Last Airbender needed to make at least $560,000,000 to turn a profit. Yet, it didn’t really make enough to convince Paramount to move forward with any sequels.
Mike and Bryan have since mentioned how they gave a lot of input to the filmmakers that went nowhere as it all got pushed to the wayside. The producers probably didn’t know what they were dealing with and might've only been interested in a quick buck. Paramount apparently only wanted the final product out as quickly as possible and the money it presumably would've made them. If the whole movie was Night’s fault entirely, it wouldn’t have even gotten off the ground at all. He may not have shared any behind the scenes drama during the press tour, but keep in mind that not every piece of information you'll get from the cast and crew while they're promoting is going to be accurate.
When Shyamalan gave the Ashok C. Sani Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence lecture at NYU's Stern School of Business on April 16th, 2019, he revealed that he actually regretted taking on The Last Airbender as well as his followup, After Earth. He said “I did a couple huge, big-budget CGI movies. There has always been this inexorable pull to join the group, a constant seduction in the form of whatever you want to tally, in the form of money, or safety, ease, not getting criticized. I did these movies, and I rightfully got crushed, because they rightfully said, ‘You don’t believe in yourself, you don’t believe in your own voice, and you don’t believe in your values.’ I felt really lost. It just didn't work. There's probably something Darwinian about all this.” When Night went on to make The Visit, he made the decision to begin investing in his own productions as "an attempt to regain artistic control" after being denied final cut on his recent movies at the time, and were even taken away from him in post-production. He said “I pay for my movies now. After this 10-year period of working at studios on junk movies, I was not happy.” Seeing how more successful he's been in recent years with The Visit, Split, as well as the Apple TV+ series, Servant, turns out that he’s much better off doing smaller scaled projects as opposed to working as a director for hire on big studio films.
On September 18th, 2018, Netflix announced, in partnership with Nickelodeon, plans to produce a live action ATLA TV series with Mike and Bryan on board as showrunners. They both said in a press release “We’re thrilled for the opportunity to helm this live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We can’t wait to realize Aang’s world as cinematically as we always imagined it to be, and with a culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build upon everyone’s great work on the original animated series and go even deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building. Netflix is wholly dedicated to manifesting our vision for this retelling, and we’re incredibly grateful to be partnering with them.” This announcement fits in with a recent trend of taking properties that didn't quite succeed as a movie, but giving them another shot as a TV show.
Examples of this include A Series of Unfortunate Events, which previously adapted the first three novels of Daniel Handler’s series into one film. While it did OK at the box office upon release in 2004, plans for a sequel were put on hold for years until Netflix acquired the rights to adapt the entire saga for television, running from 2017-19. Not to mention that the first installment of author Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, was previously adapted for the big screen in 2007 under the title of The Golden Compass. Yet, the movie ended up underperforming at the box office, which led to New Line Cinema canceling any plans for further installments. The series was later given a second chance on television, running on BBC One and HBO from 2019-22. In fact, the critical disappointment of the film was actually one of the reasons why author George R.R. Martin wanted Game of Thrones to be adapted into a TV show.
While a number of fans are excited about this project, a fair share of them are skeptical for one reason or another. Either the fact that it’s gonna be in live action has them worried given what happened last time or they just think that a remake feels unnecessary because of how much the original still holds up. In response to that, let me remind you that when a sequel series titled The Legend of Korra was originally announced, fans really didn’t want it at all because they wanted to see the adventures of Aang and his friends continue. Yet, by the time Korra debuted, nearly everyone stopped complaining. With Mike and Bryan not only at the helm, but also promising that they won't be doing a complete retread, I think they both deserve the benefit of the doubt.
I'm personally very excited about it. I always felt that if ATLA would ever be given a second chance in live action, Netflix would be the way to go given how much they believe in creator driven content. Whereas with a big budget movie at Paramount, visions tend to get compromised, and the director doesn't get to make the film the way they intended. I am glad that they're doing it as a TV show this time because now they won't have to make as many compromises to the story.
While we currently don't know how exactly Mike and Bryan plan to go deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building, I did recently re-watch the original animated series, and I was able to take note of certain aspects they previously didn't explore that I could see them doing so in the Netflix version. There are some fans speculating whether or not it will last three seasons like the original or possibly go beyond that. As for me, I imagine that there'll probably be smaller parts of the story they won't be using like the season one episode, 'The Great Divide'. What I can see them doing instead is taking the more important plot points from the original series, and elaborating on them. Similar examples of this include the 1960 film adaptation of Elmer Gantry, which only presented fewer than 100 pages of the original 432-page novel by Sinclair Lewis as well as the stage musical, Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812, which adapted a 70-page segment of Leo Tolstoy's 1,225-page novel, War & Peace. Yet unlike those adaptations, Mike and Bryan will have the advantage of doing a full-length TV series.
Update: On August 12th, 2020, Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko announced on both of their individual social media accounts that they had left the show over creative differences. They said that despite Netflix publicly announcing that they were going to support their vision, there was no follow-through on that promise. Luckily, they are now both back at Nickelodeon running a new production company titled Avatar Studios. They plan to produce content for platforms such as Paramount+ and Nickelodeon set in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe (similar to how LucasFilm is producing different TV shows set in the Star Wars universe for Disney+). Their first project will be an animated theatrical film that is set currently scheduled for release next year.
On February 22nd, 2024, Netflix's live action Avatar: The Last Airbender series will finally debut. Albert Kim, who has worked on different TV shows such as Leverage, Nikita, and Sleepy Hollow, took over as showrunner. From everything I've seen so far from the trailers to the images as well as interviews with the cast and crew, it looks like this has been put together by fans of the original animated series who were really eager to get it right this time. I hope it proves to be successful all around.
Mike and Bryan have since mentioned how they gave a lot of input to the filmmakers that went nowhere as it all got pushed to the wayside. The producers probably didn’t know what they were dealing with and might've only been interested in a quick buck. Paramount apparently only wanted the final product out as quickly as possible and the money it presumably would've made them. If the whole movie was Night’s fault entirely, it wouldn’t have even gotten off the ground at all. He may not have shared any behind the scenes drama during the press tour, but keep in mind that not every piece of information you'll get from the cast and crew while they're promoting is going to be accurate.
When Shyamalan gave the Ashok C. Sani Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence lecture at NYU's Stern School of Business on April 16th, 2019, he revealed that he actually regretted taking on The Last Airbender as well as his followup, After Earth. He said “I did a couple huge, big-budget CGI movies. There has always been this inexorable pull to join the group, a constant seduction in the form of whatever you want to tally, in the form of money, or safety, ease, not getting criticized. I did these movies, and I rightfully got crushed, because they rightfully said, ‘You don’t believe in yourself, you don’t believe in your own voice, and you don’t believe in your values.’ I felt really lost. It just didn't work. There's probably something Darwinian about all this.” When Night went on to make The Visit, he made the decision to begin investing in his own productions as "an attempt to regain artistic control" after being denied final cut on his recent movies at the time, and were even taken away from him in post-production. He said “I pay for my movies now. After this 10-year period of working at studios on junk movies, I was not happy.” Seeing how more successful he's been in recent years with The Visit, Split, as well as the Apple TV+ series, Servant, turns out that he’s much better off doing smaller scaled projects as opposed to working as a director for hire on big studio films.
On September 18th, 2018, Netflix announced, in partnership with Nickelodeon, plans to produce a live action ATLA TV series with Mike and Bryan on board as showrunners. They both said in a press release “We’re thrilled for the opportunity to helm this live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We can’t wait to realize Aang’s world as cinematically as we always imagined it to be, and with a culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build upon everyone’s great work on the original animated series and go even deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building. Netflix is wholly dedicated to manifesting our vision for this retelling, and we’re incredibly grateful to be partnering with them.” This announcement fits in with a recent trend of taking properties that didn't quite succeed as a movie, but giving them another shot as a TV show.
Examples of this include A Series of Unfortunate Events, which previously adapted the first three novels of Daniel Handler’s series into one film. While it did OK at the box office upon release in 2004, plans for a sequel were put on hold for years until Netflix acquired the rights to adapt the entire saga for television, running from 2017-19. Not to mention that the first installment of author Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, was previously adapted for the big screen in 2007 under the title of The Golden Compass. Yet, the movie ended up underperforming at the box office, which led to New Line Cinema canceling any plans for further installments. The series was later given a second chance on television, running on BBC One and HBO from 2019-22. In fact, the critical disappointment of the film was actually one of the reasons why author George R.R. Martin wanted Game of Thrones to be adapted into a TV show.
While a number of fans are excited about this project, a fair share of them are skeptical for one reason or another. Either the fact that it’s gonna be in live action has them worried given what happened last time or they just think that a remake feels unnecessary because of how much the original still holds up. In response to that, let me remind you that when a sequel series titled The Legend of Korra was originally announced, fans really didn’t want it at all because they wanted to see the adventures of Aang and his friends continue. Yet, by the time Korra debuted, nearly everyone stopped complaining. With Mike and Bryan not only at the helm, but also promising that they won't be doing a complete retread, I think they both deserve the benefit of the doubt.
I'm personally very excited about it. I always felt that if ATLA would ever be given a second chance in live action, Netflix would be the way to go given how much they believe in creator driven content. Whereas with a big budget movie at Paramount, visions tend to get compromised, and the director doesn't get to make the film the way they intended. I am glad that they're doing it as a TV show this time because now they won't have to make as many compromises to the story.
While we currently don't know how exactly Mike and Bryan plan to go deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building, I did recently re-watch the original animated series, and I was able to take note of certain aspects they previously didn't explore that I could see them doing so in the Netflix version. There are some fans speculating whether or not it will last three seasons like the original or possibly go beyond that. As for me, I imagine that there'll probably be smaller parts of the story they won't be using like the season one episode, 'The Great Divide'. What I can see them doing instead is taking the more important plot points from the original series, and elaborating on them. Similar examples of this include the 1960 film adaptation of Elmer Gantry, which only presented fewer than 100 pages of the original 432-page novel by Sinclair Lewis as well as the stage musical, Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812, which adapted a 70-page segment of Leo Tolstoy's 1,225-page novel, War & Peace. Yet unlike those adaptations, Mike and Bryan will have the advantage of doing a full-length TV series.
Update: On August 12th, 2020, Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko announced on both of their individual social media accounts that they had left the show over creative differences. They said that despite Netflix publicly announcing that they were going to support their vision, there was no follow-through on that promise. Luckily, they are now both back at Nickelodeon running a new production company titled Avatar Studios. They plan to produce content for platforms such as Paramount+ and Nickelodeon set in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe (similar to how LucasFilm is producing different TV shows set in the Star Wars universe for Disney+). Their first project will be an animated theatrical film that is set currently scheduled for release next year.
On February 22nd, 2024, Netflix's live action Avatar: The Last Airbender series will finally debut. Albert Kim, who has worked on different TV shows such as Leverage, Nikita, and Sleepy Hollow, took over as showrunner. From everything I've seen so far from the trailers to the images as well as interviews with the cast and crew, it looks like this has been put together by fans of the original animated series who were really eager to get it right this time. I hope it proves to be successful all around.