The biggest movie in theaters right now is indisputably James Cameron’s Avatar 2. The movie that takes audiences back to Pandora utilizes groundbreaking moviemaking technology that is especially made to be watched in 3D following the first Avatar being a groundbreaking movie for 3D. We certainly didn’t know or expect that Brendan Fraser and Seth Meyers were connected to that experience all along.
When Brendan Fraser recently guested on Seth Meyers’ late night talk show, the pair reminisced about working together back in 2008 on Journey to the Center of the Earth, another 3D movie that apparently has a major connection to James Cameron science fiction adventure films. As Fraser shared:
[Journey of the Center of the Earth] was the tip of the spear for 3D tech as we see it now in theaters. Because the cameras we used were the ones that James Cameron kind of beta tested with [Journey to the Center of the Earth]. We put them underwater and dropped them off helicopters and then he took them to New Zealand and shot Avatar with them.
The 2008 movie had Brendan Fraser leading Warner Bros’ big summer movie based on the Jules Verne book of the same name. And as the actor explained, the 3D movie was sort of the guinea pig for the cameras James Cameron would go on to use for Avatar as far as the camera technology goes. Seth Meyers had a small part in the film as another professor who shuts down the lab of Fraser’s character before he goes on his storied adventure with a young Josh Hutcherson as his nephew.
During the interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers, the host joked that people talk about both Journey to the Center of the Earth and Avatar the same way, of course riffing off the fact that Cameron’s movie would become the highest-grossing movie of all time, whereas their movie was not among the biggest hits of Brendan Fraser’s career thus far, with his role in The Mummy movies still being his biggest hit. The franchise would go on to continue with one more film in 2012, with Dwayne Johnson replacing Fraser as the lead.
During the talk show appearance, Meyers thought back to their shared movie by showing a clip of his 3D moment, where a tape measure was pointed to the audience for a jump-out effect. Check out the interview segment below:
While Journey to the Center of the Earth is not talked about as much as Avatar, it’s certainly interesting to know that it actually was a stepping stone to the 2009 hit. Following Avatar’s massive 3D rollout, James Cameron has shared which films did the most with the format, naming Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus among his personal favorites.
Avatar: The Way Of Water, which you can decide to view in 3D in theaters, crossed $1 billion before 2023 began, making for an impressive debut for the holiday release. The Avatar sequel is still playing in theaters if you’ve yet to experience James Cameron’s latest film experience.