With the not particularly Earth friendly DVD and BluRay release of “Avatar” set for Earth Day tomorrow, James Cameron has drummed up the best support possible for the film’s home video debut by talking about the sequel.
While both Cameron and producer Jon Landau have, until now, been cagey on just where the inevitable “Avatar 2” will go it appears Pandora’s oceans will be next area to get a dose of explosions, new age mumbo jumbo and eye-popping 3D. Speaking with the LA Times Cameron revealed, “We created a broad canvas for the environment of film. That’s not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system. And we expand out across that system and incorporate more into the story – not necessarily in the second film, but more toward a third film. I’ve already announced this, so I might as well say it: Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment – a different setting within Pandora. And I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest. I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well.”
Wait, what’s that? A third film? We guess with this film now the most financially successfully movie of all time, making a trilogy doesn’t seem all that surprising. That said, while we didn’t particularly care for “Avatar,” Cameron is the last guy who would phone in a sequel. Regardless of what you think of his films, he always tries to push himself further on his next project and we’re not surprised he’s already thinking of two more “Avatar” films and how the story and universe will unfold within them.
Heading from the rainforests to the oceans seem like the logical next step for Cameron and his Pandora world. It’s a milieu he’s already comfortable and familiar with, having explored the world underneath in films like “The Abyss” and the documentaries “Ghosts Of The Abyss” and “Aliens Of The Deep.”
So when might we see “Avatar 2”? Probably not for awhile. “Avatar” took nearly three years to complete from the start of principal photography, with Cameron working until the last minute to get the film completed. Our guess is that its a way off. While filming in 3D will have moved ahead by some measure by the time filming starts Cameron admits that a long production is likely saying that he aims “to do what we did before at half the price and in half the time. Again, that’s an impossible goal, we won’t accomplish that, but if we can reduce by 25% in both categories, we’ll have really accomplished something.” So yeah, even if he were to start on January 1, 2011 on this project it wouldn’t be until, reasonably, late 2013 until we saw anything.
But in case you missed “Avatar” and don’t want to see it on your TV screen at home for the first time (or you want to see it again for some reason) Cameron confirmed that the film will hit IMAX theaters again in August saying, “We’re working on finishing an additional six minutes of the film — which includes a lot of Weta work — for a theatrical re-release in August.” So get your Na’vi body paint ready.
