James Cameron Only Wants to Make Avatar 2, 3, and Possibly 4
Posted 05.07.12 by Ryan
After writer-director James Cameron released his massively successful Avatar in 2009, fans wondered if he might squeeze in his long-gestating adaptation of Battle Angel between the planned sequels of Avatar 2 and Avatar 3. Depending on which Cameron you believe, Battle Angel might still have a future with the director and occasional "king of the world."
Just last month, Cameron told MTV that Battle Angel "would have to be pried out of my cold dead fingers," before stating that he can "see the good the Avatar franchise can do in terms of keeping a world audience cognizant of our relationship with nature, but doing it in an entertainment context and so ultimately I think there's more good to be done there than with Battle Angel." While Cameron hasn't officially canceled Battle Angel, his most recent comments seem to indicate that he has. In an interview with The New York Times, Cameron revealed that he is strictly "in the Avatar business."
I’ve divided my time over the last 16 years over deep ocean exploration and filmmaking. I’ve made two movies in 16 years, and I’ve done eight expeditions. Last year I basically completely disbanded my production company’s development arm. So I’m not interested in developing anything. I’m in the Avatar business. Period. That’s it. I’m making Avatar 2, Avatar 3, maybe Avatar 4, and I’m not going to produce other people’s movies for them. I’m not interested in taking scripts. And that all sounds I suppose a little bit restricted, but the point is I think within the Avatar landscape I can say everything I need to say that I think needs to be said, in terms of the state of the world and what I think we need to be doing about it. And doing it in an entertaining way. And anything I can’t say in that area, I want to say through documentaries, which I’m continuing.
This may be on of the first time Cameron has spoken of Avatar existing outside of a trilogy. In June of last year, Cameron said that Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 would be shot back-to-back and will "complete a three-film story arc," though it appears Cameron may have ideas for more installments as well.
When audiences will get to see those sequels is unknown, with producer Jon Landau revealing in January that Avatar 2 is still "four years away," likely in 2016. For those curious about the state of Avatar 2's progress, Cameron revealed that the sequel is still in the visual effects stages and "by the way, writing."
We’ve spent the last year and a half on software development and pipeline development. The virtual production methodology was extremely prototypical on the first film. As then, no one had ever done it before and we didn’t even know for two and half years into it and $100 million into it if it was going to work. So we just wanted to make our lives a whole lot easier so that we can spend a little more of our brainpower on creativity. It was a very, very uphill battle on the first film. So we’ve been mostly working on the tool set, the production pipeline, setting up the new stages in Los Angeles, setting up the new visual effects pipeline in New Zealand, that sort of thing. And, by the way, writing. We haven’t gotten to the design stage yet. That’ll be the next.