M. Night Shyamalan plans to complete Airbender trilogy

Good news Avatar fans (fans of the cartoon that is), The Last Airbender director M. Night Shyamalan is in it for the long run! I guess we can decided whether this is actually ‘good news’ after we see the film this summer, but I’ve been quite impressed with all the trailers that have been released up until now, so hopefully M. Night doesn’t disappoint.

In an interview with UGO the director spoke about the film and it’s sequels. He mentioned he wants to make a small film before making the follow-up, and he sees the trilogy as one big arc, comparing it to The Lord of the Rings.

- The Last Airbender is very much the first in a planned trilogy. Night compares it to Lord of the Rings in that it is all one story not, “more adventures” with your favorite characters. The three films will mirror the three seasons of the series, with some tweaks.

- Night plans to direct all three, but before the second one he wants to bang out a smaller-budgeted thriller.

- The thriller is *not* Unbreakable 2, though he still hopes one day to get to that. And he knows Bruce Willis feels the same way.

-Night hopes the CG in The Last Airbender will be unique in that there isn’t as much quick-cutting as in commonly seen in CG-heavy films. Go back and look at his other films and you will see a lot of long takes. This means the CG is going to have to be really top notch, because it can’t be hidden away with cutting.

Last year we heard that M. Night Shyamalan was already working on the script for the second movie, so if the first film is a success it shouldn’t take too long before the second can begin production. Producer Frank Marshall said they are aiming for the trilogy to take place over 6 years, which means the films should be released around 2-3 years apart.

We can expect another trailer for The Last Airbender to be released alongside Iron Man 2 in May.