Random Movie Trivia - Avatar

Here is the next edition in our weekly Random Movie Trivia post.  Enjoy:

Avatar

• Sigourney Weaver said that she based her character on director James Cameron for this movie.
• James Cameron wanted to release this movie in 1999, but the special effects budget at that time would have cost $400 million and no studio would touch it, so it was shelved for 9 years until special effects technology could catch up.  I wonder if it would have become the all-time highest grossing movie if it came out in 1999.
• This movie still ended up being the highest-budgeted movie ever made at $280 million at its release.
• Sigourney Weaver's avatar is seen wearing a Stanford t-shirt in the movie, her alum mater.
• Jodie Foster was considered for the role of Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver).
• The movie is 40% live-action and 60% CGI.
• Though it is never stated in the movie, in one scene a video screen shows that it is the year 2154 and the movie takes place over a 96-day period.
• This is not the first movie to use the term "Unobtainium".  In The Core, the vessel's hull used to drill into the Earth is made of unobtainium.
• First James Cameron science fiction movie that does not mention or involve nuclear weapons.  Also, this is the first movie directed by Cameron since Titanic which came out 12 years before Avatar.
• Matt Damon and Jake Gyllenhaal were the studio's choice for the part of Jake Sully but Cameron overrode that decision and cast the unknown (at the time) Sam Worthington.  Chris Pine also auditioned for the part.
• When Sam Worthington was called about doing the role, he wasn't told anything about the script nor who was directing and just thought this was just going to be another "waste of his time", which is funny because Worthington was living in his car at the time and any job would have been a good thing.
• All the animals on Pandora except the Na'vi and humans have 6 limbs.  Also, the whopping and cackling noises made by the predators on Pandora were recordings of hyenas.
• Because of Titanic's production overruns and costly delays, James Cameron elected to forfeit his director's fee if the movie flopped.
• Cameron allegedly kept a nail gun on set to use on any cell phones that rang during filming.
• Stephan Lang (he played the bad guy) hinted that he might be back in the sequels (3 of them are already in production) based on his final quote of the movie: "You think those two arrows in my chest are going to stop me from coming back? Nothing's over so long as they've got my DNA."

"Hottest blue chick since Smurfette."