James Cameron's Xenogenesis served as a major inspiration in his creation of Avatar. Earlier today we posted a detailed breakdown of how everything Cameron has worked on in his life lead to his Avatar films. The filmmaker is currently in the middle of a lawsuit because someone claims that he stole their idea and turned it into Avatar. So Cameron wrote a detailed breakdown to prove that he's been working on developing this idea almost his whole life. It's a great read and you should check it out if you haven't already.
In the report he talks about his Xenogenesis story in great detail, and there are ideas and themes offered up in what we might see in the Avatar sequels. We've got something even better now to share with you! It's the actual short film that Cameron shot for the project back in 1978 to try and get funding. It starts off showing a lot of artwork that he did for the film then moves into the live-action part of it, all with really cheesy but cool special effects. You can totally see how this idea influenced a lot of his film career. Especially stuff that influenced The Terminator, Aliens and Avatar.
Here's a little breakdown of the story:
Xenogenesis is the saga of the voyage of Cosmos Kindred, a mile-long spaceship employing a fusion ramjet interstellar drive unit. In the face of destruction of the Earth, scientists engage in a last-ditch effort to preserve a nucleus of humanity by trying to find a new planet on which to live. Cosmos Kindred carries a cyber (artificial intelligence) that has cell samples, which, under the cyber’s direction, will be developed into cloned individuals once the spaceship finds a suitable new home planet.
The central section of the Xenogenesis story focuses on the human drama of the pilot dealing with a female stowaway who has been raised by the cyber. They experience exotic, danger-filled alien landscapes on different planets that I created, on which they see bizarre flora and fauna, and take samples.