Calling the movie ‘Avatar’ successful is an understatement. Generating over $2 billion, it is the highest-grossing movie of all time, earning nine Academy Award nominations in the process. It’s eye-popping special effects also changed the game when it came to 3D movie releases. So it’s rather surprising that a sequel hasn’t already materialized. But the process of making ‘Avatar’ was fairly grueling with disputes between director James Cameron and the studio and the film running over-budget. But rest assured, Cameron’s plans to return to Pandora (THREE more times) are still in effect.
In fact, he plans to film three sequels at the same time, to be released annually beginning in 2017. Each sequel will be written by a different writer/writing team and Cameron assures he is fine tuning those at this moment.
“I’m in the process of doing another pass through all three scripts right now. Just refining. That’s in parallel with the design process. The design process is very mature at this point. We’ve been designing for about a year and a half. All the characters, settings and creatures are all pretty much [set].”
But the innovative director admits to the struggle of following up such a successful film.
“Obviously, expectations are going to be very high on these films, especially on Avatar 2, to make sure it wasn’t just some big fluke the first time. So we’ve got to deliver. I’ve created a nice rod for my own back, so they say.”
Cameron is working with Josh Friedman on the script for ‘Avatar 2’, which is planned for release in December of 2017; Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver on the third movie, due around the same time in 2018; and with Shane Salerno on the fourth which will be out in 2019. Each movie will have its own story, rather than being one long saga sprawling over three installments.
Stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver have already signed on for the sequels and previously, Cameron confirmed that Stephen Lang would also return, even though his character (like Weaver’s actually) died in the first movie.
Are you excited to see more ‘Avatar’ movies? Is three more a good number or maybe a bit too much?
Source: Entertainment Weekly
