We’ve been wondering what the status is on James Cameron’s Avatar franchise ever since the director said he’s in the “Avatar business” now and doesn’t plan to make any movies that don’t fall under that banner for the time being (except for documentaries).
Now Showbiz411 has an interview with Sigourney Weaver, and not only is she going to appear in the sequel, but she confirmed to them that Cameron plans to direct three Avatar sequels at the same time and she’ll be in all three. Read on for more.
Here’s the quote:
Sigourney Weaver confirmed tonight that James Cameron is shooting “Avatar” 2, 3, and 4 all at the same time, all with her, and starting this fall…then she films “Avatar” 2, 3, and 4 with James Cameron. That’s right: they’re making three sequels to the blue 3D phenom all at the same time. Weaver says she has no idea how long it will take, or how it’s going to work. “I just show up,” she said.
Granted, there’s not a specific quote from Weaver that confirms Cameron’s plans to us, which is why I put the word “could” in the title of this piece. But it would certainly make sense. The technology developed for the first film was in such an experimental phase at the time, considering Cameron and his team were the ones who invented it. From a production standpoint, if they have the scripts ready for all three sequels, it only makes sense to film them Lord of the Rings-style and get the whole thing over with, allowing more time to make the effects pop in post-production (because let’s face it – Avatar isn’t exactly groundbreaking storytelling, it’s the visuals people are after).
It’s been a couple of years, and while they’re busy planning the designs and actually writing the scripts for the sequels, they’ve still got some time before the movie enters production. Producer Jon Landau said a 2014 release date for Avatar 2 is unlikely, so we’ll probably see the return to the oceans of Pandora in 2015 with the following sequels released each year after that.
