The COVID-19 pandemic has been wreaking havoc on the film industry for weeks now. We’ve seen film release dates delayed for months (and in some cases a full year). And films that were already in production are finding themselves on hiatus, as studios figure out a way to begin filming again while not risking the health of every crewmember involved. That means folks like James Cameron, who is working on sequels to the 2009 film, “Avatar,” are left at home trying to keep busy.
Speaking to Empire, the filmmaker explained how the pandemic is affecting the production on the “Avatar” sequels, and as you might expect, filming can’t restart until he figures out how they can do so safely in New Zealand.
“It’s putting a major crimp in our stride here,” Cameron said. “I want to get back to work on ‘Avatar,’ which right now we’re not allowed to do under state emergency laws or rules. So it’s all on hold right now.”
He added, “We were about to shoot down in New Zealand, so that got pushed. We’re trying to get back to it as quick as we can.”
Thankfully, Cameron revealed that filming could begin in New Zealand in a couple of months, considering how well the country has handled the COVID-19 pandemic. But until then, there’s not much else the filmmaker is able to do other than edit.
“We’ve got everybody – everybody at Weta Digital and Lightstorm – working from home to the extent that that is possible,” he revealed. “But my work is on the stage doing the virtual cameras and so on, so I can do a bit of editing, but it’s not great for me.”
It’s unclear if the pandemic will force a release date change for the first “Avatar” sequel, which is expected to arrive in December 2021. Already, the film will arrive in theaters more than a decade after the first film, so if folks have to wait a few extra months or even a year, what’s the big deal?