Fictional universe of Avatar

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In the 2009 science-fiction film Avatar, director James Cameron conceived a fictional universe in which humans seek to mine unobtanium on the fictional habitable moon Pandora. The Earth-like moon is inhabited by a sapient indigenous humanoid species called the Na'vi, as well as varied fauna and flora. Resources Development Administration (RDA―which, despite the name, is a public company which evolved from a Silicon Valley startup) scientists, administrators, recruits, support, and security personnel travel to Pandora in the 22nd century to discover this beautiful, lush world, which is inhabited by many lifeforms including the human-like Na'vi. The clan with which the humans have contact in the film lives "in a giant tree that sits on a vast store of a mineral called unobtainium, which humans want as an energy supply."^[1] Cameron has described Avatar as more "science fantasy" than true science fiction and has said that he would explain in the novel for the film why in the fictional universe the Na'vi look like humans.^[2]