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In the Vein of Avatar. . . Alec Gillis' Worlds: A Mission of Discovery
SPOILER ALERT: Warning, references to Cameron's Avatar scriptment are mentioned here
In AMZ's January 2009 Avatar news section, we had posted a highlight on Alec Gillis' Worlds: A Mission of Discovery illustrated book because of it similarity to Avatar. With the recent Avatar game concept images released, the connections between these two projects are quite intriguing. The illustrated book was published in 1995, the same year Cameron wrote the scriptment for Avatar. Was Cameron inspired by 'Worlds' to write Avatar? Which work came first, the illustrated book or Cameron's Avatar scriptment? I haven't been able to verify that.
You can read the full AMZ article on Worlds by clicking here. Here are some sample images from the illustrated book for you to see how both worlds share common attributes. You can click on the image above if you are interested in ordering the book. The scriptment spoilers below have been highlighted in red, please leave this page now if you wish to remain spoiler free. Images Source: Flicker.com.
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The book's caption reads: 'Aglow like Chinese lanterns, nightfall stimulates the bioluminescence of Caelestis Scarabaeus. This effect might be a way for members of the pod to locate each other in darkness, or perhaps they detect a chemical reaction and illumination is merely a by-product. Whatever the mechanism, three subadults hover near their elder and occassionally nuzzle close enough to insert a siphon into the valves of its flight sacs and extract hydrogen.
It appears that the adults of the pod help keep their off-spring aloft until their hydrogen-producing abilities develop. They are different from us as they can be, yet we share the same instinct of caring for the young.'
In the Avatar scriptment, there are creatures called Aerocoelenterates, gas-bags - genus MEDUSA. These are X. Medusa gigans, they are full of hydrogen and will explode like the Hindenburg."
The book's caption reads: 'Predators great and small seem to inhabit every square inch of this highly competitive ecosystem. Brooks acquires nasty parasites while wading across a stream. As grisly as this image is, the shots of the removal process are even worse and are not shown in this collection. A growing number of Worlds team members lobby to awaken Brook's wife from biosuspension and to inform her of her husband's predicament.
Others argue that as long as he is alive there is hope for rescue and that his family should be awakened when he returns home. With his internal nanotechnology failing, the question lingers: How much longer can Brooks survive?'
The remaining images below from Alec's Worlds illustrated book may have no direct similarity to the Avatar scriptment, but it would not be a long stretch of the imagination to see them fit in Cameron's world of Pandora.
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