Holiday Gift Guide: The Making of Avatar by Jody Duncan and Lisa Fitzpatrick

Whether or not you liked James Cameron’s industry changing film, Avatar (and based on the box office records it still holds, you probably did), The Making of Avatar (Abrams) is likely to captivate you for hours. It’s a well-executed look at a brilliantly executed film. After all, the film was a technological marvel. Even if this were not a beautifully produced large-scale coffee table book, it would be interesting. With loads of production stills, behind the scenes photos and terrific descriptive narrative, this is one of the best “making of” books I’ve ever seen. Add to this the fact that the movie under discussion is actually super-interesting and you have a sure-fire winner.

From the very beginning, the authors take us straight to a new inside:

Sometime in the late 1970s in Orange County, California, James Cameron painted a picture of a tall, slender blue girl standing in a field of magenta grass.

To make this tidbit cooler still, a detail from that original painting -- the girl’s face -- is included in the book. This is actually a pretty good example of what makes The Making of Avatar really special. It is a consistent combination of never-before-seen facts and tidbits, combined with very good and exceedingly illustrative photos all bundled into a package that might make the Avatar fan on your holiday gift list weep.

The Making of Avatar is an epic story and a very good book.