Ever since the multiple “Avatar” sequels were announced, James Cameron hasn’t hidden the fact that the franchise is a completely massive undertaking. Say what you will about the quality of the first film, “Avatar” is one of the biggest franchises in the world and there’s a lot of pressure on the filmmaker to deliver the goods (and to break new ground) with the sequels. And judging by the description of the filming schedule for the “Avatar” sequels, it’s clear James Cameron is nothing if not incredibly busy.
Speaking as part of Variety’s Directors on Directors series, James Cameron talked to Denis Villeneuve about the ridiculous production schedule of the “Avatar” sequels. Yes, they’ve taken a long, long time to arrive in theaters, but it’s not because the filmmaker is sitting around doing nothing. The man has seemingly already shot more than two full films.
“[‘Avatar 2’] is fully in the can. We have a working cut that we’re filling in the visual effects within. I feel pretty confident with that film,” explained Cameron. “[‘Avatar 3’] is still a bit shadowy. It’s way too long. I haven’t really turned my energy into a disciplined cutting process on that yet. But I know I’ve got the performances. That’s the important thing. I’ve done all the capture. I’ve done most of the live-action shooting. I still owe a little bit on some of the adult characters. We were more concerned with the kids aging out.”
And it’s that last comment that leads to one of the primary reasons why Cameron decided to not only shoot one sequel for ‘Avatar’ but to actually overlap shooting of the second, third, and a bit of the fourth film at the same time.
“We mixed the schedules for ‘2’ and ‘3’ together, based on the types of scenes and the environments. I said, let’s just treat it like it’s a six-hour miniseries and we’re only going to go to Frankfurt once,” he added. “We’re going to shoot all the scenes from ‘2’ and ‘3’ at the same time. That was more or less the motif. Actor availability was an issue as well. Anything that had to be done with a specific actor, we did all the scenes for ‘2’ and ‘3’ together — and a little bit of ‘4.’ Because once again, I had to shoot the kids out. They’re allowed to age six years in the middle of the story on page 25 of movie ‘4.’ So I needed everything before then, and then everything after, we’ll do later.”
So, if Cameron is to be believed, even though we are still a full year away from “Avatar 2,” he not only has that film almost ready to go, but he’s got a rough cut of “Avatar 3” and has already shot portions of “Avatar 4.” And if the films stick to the every two years release schedule, we won’t see ‘3’ until 2024 and ‘4’ until 2026. That’s preparation, folks!
“Avatar 2” is scheduled to hit theaters on December 16, 2022.