Avatar (marketed as
James Cameron's Avatar) is a 2009 American
epic science fiction film directed, written, produced, and co-edited by
James Cameron, and starring
Sam Worthington,
Zoe Saldana,
Stephen Lang,
Michelle Rodriguez, and
Sigourney Weaver. The film is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush
habitable moon of a
gas giant in the
Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the mineral
unobtanium, a
room-temperature superconductor. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of
Na'vi – a
humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to a
genetically engineered Na'vi body with the mind of a remotely located human that is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.