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In 1994, director James Cameron wrote a 114-page scriptment for Avatar Cameron said his inspiration was "every single science fiction book I read as a kid", and that he was particularly striving to update the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series. The premise of a paralyzed man whose mind is remotely controlling an alien body is very similar to Poul Anderson's 1957 short story Call me Joe - similar enough for there to have been calls by some for Anderson to receive some form of credit.In August 1996, Cameron announced that after completing Titanic, he would film Avatar, which would make use of "synthetic", or computer-generated, actors.The project would cost $100 million and involve at least six actors in leading roles "who appear to be real but do not exist in the physical world".Special effects house Digital Domain, with whom Cameron has a partnership, joined the project, which was supposed to begin production in the summer of 1997 for a 1999 release. However, that was not to be, due to the special effects he wanted running the budget up to $400 million, which made the film impossible to be made
