12 Supposedly Unfilmable Films That Actually Got Made

6. Avatar (2009)

Why It Was 'Unfilmable': James Cameron's idea for Avatar can be traced back to 1994, when the director wrote a treatment for an effects-heavy epic inspired by the science fiction literature of his childhood. In 1996, Cameron announced he would film Avatar after he finished Titanic. But the technology wasn't available, and the project as it stood at the time was scrapped. As Cameron disappeared from the world of fiction filmmaking, choosing instead to make underwater IMAX docs, it looked as though Avatar might just remain on the backburner for good. How It Got Made: Cameron was just biding his time, waiting for the technology to catch up with him (and not the other way around). When it finally caught up, Cameron had the task of convincing financiers to back his quirky original property. That worked without a glitch (upwards of $237 million spent in all), then Cameron got to using advanced mo-cap technology and revolutionary on-set pre-vis software to make his vision a reality, before spending almost two years in post-production to get the effects right. The result was a technical marvel, albeit one that's been oft-derided since its record-breaking box office blitzkrieg.