“Avatar: Fire & Ash” is heading to theaters this December with two more live-action installments expected to come from James Cameron (has already started shooting scenes for “Avatar 4” while making “Fire & Ash”) but is already talking up the idea of even more “Avatar” stories, this time in the animated medium.
While speaking with the folks over at Empire Magazine, Cameron recently revealed that he is speaking with the brass over at Disney about possibly making an animated anthology feature/series (for theatrical or streaming) to help flesh out the Pandora lore with a project that could be similar to “The Animatrix.”
“I said, ‘Look, I want to do an animated anthology series that’s essentially in the world, but stories that you wouldn’t have expected from that world,'” Cameron teased of a potential animated anthology project. “There might even be an animated feature in there, it might be a feature for streaming, or a theatrical feature.”
“A good early example is ‘The Animatrix,’ where they went afield in ‘The Matrix’ world,” said Cameron. “These are all great examples for how we can add texture and baroque detail to the world of Avatar.” Adding that these possible animated stories could, he says, deliver “backstory on characters and tangential stuff that happened off-camera within the movies. Who first landed on Pandora? The first expedition. You could go anywhere you want.”
“The Animatrix” did some ambitious heavy lifting coming out around the time of the two feature film sequels, exploring the origins of the human/robot war along with various side quests with other characters, some new and some from the sequels. A bunch of the segments were offloaded to Japanese anime studios (MadHouse‘s “Program” being a huge standout) and directors to handle the animation, not unlike what has been done with “Star Wars: Visions.”
Let’s not expect this to come together anytime soon, as Cameron is busy and it’s very early days on the animated spinoff. “We haven’t done much with that yet,” Cameron conceded on the project’s current development status. “We’re still gathering our stories and that sort of thing, and I’ve got to find the boutique filmmakers, the animators, that want to do it.”
Cameron is also trying to put together other projects beyond “Avatar” with the WWII Japanese-set atomic bomb drama “Ghosts of Hiroshima” and the fantasy action flick “The Devils.” More recently, it was announced by singer Billie Eilish that Cameron is shooting a 3D concert project using footage from recent shows in Manchester, England.
Before the anthology project morphed into “Love, Death & Robots,” Cameron nearly got involved in Tim Miller (made “Terminator: Dark Fate” with Cameron) and David Fincher‘s “Heavy Metal” revival as director of a segment; perhaps, he could end up seeking folks who had been involved with the acclaimed Netflix series to help out on this animated project as we suspect multiple directors could be recruited for it such as Robert Rodriguez, who directed “Battle Angel: Alita” (a sequel is still on the table).
This expansion shouldn’t be all that shocking given that “Avatar” already has a theme area/ride at Disney Parks and has seen multiple video game adaptations. “Fire & Ash” arrives in theaters on December 19.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
