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Considering the phenomenal success of Avatar, a sequel or sequels was a given, so no one was really that surprised when writer-director James Cameron revealed that he was filming Avatar 2 and 3 back-to-back. What was surprising, was when he hinted in May that he might be making plans for a fourth Avatar movie and said that he is "not interested in developing anything" outside of Avatar. Was Cameron going to alter his plans for an Avatar trilogy just to squeeze in another movie? And, what about the Battle Angel Alita adaptation that he said would have to be pried from his "cold dead fingers" before he would let it go? Apparently, Cameron won't be altering anything, revealing to MTV that the fourth Avatar would be a prequel to the trilogy. And, as for Battle Angel, producer Jon Landau said in a separate interview that he is "sure" we will get to see it...someday.
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Sequels to Avatar, writer-director James Cameron's 2009 blockbuster environmental parable and ode to 3-D, were officially announced in 2010, after Twentieth Century Fox decide they wanted to add to Avatar's almost $3 billion worldwide box office take, contractually locking down Cameron before he could run off and make something that didn't take place on Pandora.
What Fox didn't expect is for the sequels to take so long. With Avatar 2 expected for release in Christmas 2014, followed by Avatar 3 in 2015, production was supposed to start later this year. It still hasn't started. The first sign that the sequels might take more time than originally planned arrived last June when Cameron revealed that Avatar 2 and 3 were still in the script phase. The latest update suggests that Avatar 2 may be more likely to arrive in 2016, two years behind schedule.
more on the delay >> Posted 01.11.12 by Ryan -
It was recently announced (though thoroughly anticipated) that director James Cameron's next project would be the sequel Avatar 2, which won't see theaters until December 2014. That gives Cameron plenty of time to work on the script. What the sequel will be about is unknown, though several rumors have spread around the internet. Avatar producer Jon Landau sought to dispel those rumors while talking to Empire, particularly the rumors that set Avatar 2 in the oceans of Pandora.
Water will be a part of the movie, but it won’t be all of the movie. There’s been a lot of rumors that it’s an underwater movie — it’s not. Just like the Floating Mountains, and the Na’vi's interaction with the mountains, were a part of Avatar, it’ll be the same type of thing.
Who came up with that rumor, anyway? >> Posted 11.14.10 by Ryan -
There's more Avatar on the way, but unfortunately for fans of the 3-D extravaganza, it won't be on the big screen. MTV writes that James Cameron is at work on a novel, which would act as a prequel to the story seen in the highest-grossing movie of all-time.
Avatar producer Jon Landau outlined some details about the project, which would mark Cameron's foray into the world of novel writing.
It would be something that would lead up to telling the story of the movie, but it would go into much more depth about all the stories that we didn't have time to deal with — like the schoolhouse and Sigourney [Weaver's character] teaching at the schoolhouse; Jake on Earth and his backstory and how he came here; [the death of] Tommy, Jake's brother; and Colonel Quaritch, how he ended up there and all that.
Landau also indicated that Cameron is interested not only in telling more story, but also fleshing out the Pandora universe and delving further into the mythology.
He hopes the novel will be out at the end of this year. If it's a success, who knows how many spin-offs and re-hashes could result. Remember the endless series of Star Wars novels?
Posted 02.17.10 by reelz -
With James Cameron's epic sci-fi adventure Avatar set to hit theaters in less than a month, production crews are still rushing to complete some scenes. Producer Jon Landau told the Wall Street Journal that around 30 minutes of the movie are still not done yet, with crews working around the clock on issues from sound mixing to special effects. In part, Landau says, the 11th-hour changes are being driven by Cameron's own ever-more-exacting standards.
Every shot we get back raises the standard for what follows.
Amid all these hectic, last-minute adjustments though, one key aspect of the final edit has been locked in. Despite widespread rumors that the movie would run more than three hours, the studio is now saying that, in part due to the constraints of Imax technology, the film will clock in at a more modest 150 minutes.
Posted 11.21.09 by reelz -
More footage from James Cameron's new sci-fi epic Avatar was screened at Fantastic Fest last night. While largely extended versions of scenes that were shown earlier at Avatar Day, there were two completely new clips. One of a chopper touchdown in the jungle and another of Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and Jake (Sam Worthington) on the branch of one of the 1,000-foot trees that the alien Na'vi inhabit. For those not concerned about spoilers, MarketSaw has a detailed play-by-play.
New hi-res photos from the movie, including some amazing close up shots of the Na'vi, have also been released. Some of the pics have been out there before, but not like this. You can see the pores in the skin. Pretty impressive, considering it's all CGI.
Finally, during an interview with the French magazine Le Film, producer Jon Landau offered up a tantalizing hint about what might be in the sequel.
If the public likes Avatar, [a sequel is] a possibility. After all, here we are exploring the surface of the planet Pandora. The interior remains to be seen.
Posted 10.01.09 by reelz -
Earlier today, Empire posted a new featurette for the Avatar game, which director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau developed with Ubisoft in conjunction with the upcoming movie, due on December 18. In it, Cameron speaks about the uniqueness of the project.
This is the first time I've really been involved with a game from the inception of the movie project. What they said to us was, "We want to make a game from inside your thematic ideas, outwards." ...So we figured let's build one world and create two ways of enjoying it, simultaneously: separately and in parallel.
We have to admit, the visuals are pretty stunning and the production team seems to take great pride in the work. We'll have to wait and see whether the eye candy actually translates into a quality gaming — and moviegoing — experience. See the full featurette below.
Posted 09.17.09 by reelz -
Gerrad Hall is a correspondent for ReelzChannel TV's Movie News and occasionally shares stories from the field.
We just got to see nine scenes from director James Cameron's HIGHLY anticipated Avatar along with several other members of the press. Bottom line? Pretty damn stunning! And understandable why he's taking his time to make this a ground-breaking movie.
Cameron wrote the script before filming Titanic and has kept details of the storyline quiet. Here's what we can tell you: Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation) plays Jake Sully, a 20-something, paraplegic ex-Marine. When presented the opportunity, he goes to work for a corporation that wants to mine a material called Unobtainium on the planet Pandora. Problem is the planet's inhabited by the Na'vi — 10'-tall, skinny, blue, alien-like creatures. The natives refuse to help mine the material, so the corporation creates hybrids using DNA from humans and the Na'vi. These are the avatars. Sully's estranged identical twin brother had enrolled in the program years earlier, but died. Because he has the same DNA, the corporation recruits Sully to activate and control the avatar that was created for his brother.
From here, it's an incredible journey on Pandora, which is full of monstrous creatures — one had the nose of a hammerhead shark and the body of a rhinoceros, others are amped-up, fierce versions of what seem like dogs and tigers — along with floating jellyfish-like creatures, mid-air suspended waterfalls, and vibrantly colored plants and flowers. Avatar's alternate world is a sight to behold.
Co-producer Jon Landau introduced the material, explaining why Cameron waited to make Avatar until the technology was right: He didn't want to use motion-capture (like that in Beowulf and Disney's upcoming A Christmas Carol) because he felt it lacks the letter "E" emotion. Rather, image-based technology was used here. And Cameron shot with a virtual camera, so when looking through the view-finder he would see a low-resolution version of the characters — not the actual actors.
Gotta say, we had no idea what to expect of this movie. Given the release-date extensions, and knowing the attention to detail Cameron puts in his work, we hoped not to be let down. And what we saw did NOT disappoint.
If you're going to Comic-Con, be ready to be amazed!
Posted 07.17.09 by reelz -
Up until quite recently, all the secrets of James Cameron's Avatar had been sealed up tight, but now the floodgate really have begun to open. Most of the news has focused on the highly anticipated new type of 3-D experience the movie is expected to deliver. Now, on top off all this, /Film got a chance to talk to filmmakers at length at the recent E3 gaming conference and has come up with what appears to be, more or less, the complete story line for the movie. Here's a short version.
Whereas Cameron's Titanic was built around a kind of Romeo and Juliet narrative, Avatar is a bit more Pocahontas with the alien Na'vi standing in for Native Americans, according to producer Jon Landau. One key difference, of course, is that Avatar is set on the distant moon Pandora, a place so alien and poisonous to human life that people can only enter and exploit the environment vicariously by linking their consciousness to a human-alien hybrid called an avatar.
In avatar form, the movie's protagonist Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) manages to survive in the hostile environment and overcome the species barrier with the aid of a female Na'vi (Zoe Saldana) who saves him from one of the moon's native predators. She then teaches him to appreciate the alien world and its native people.
This sets up a major conflict for Sully, who is dependent on his human colleagues for access to his avatar hybrid. Since he is controlling the avatar remotely, he can't stay connected with it forever. Thus joining the natives in their attempt to repel the invaders means that he has no way to return to Pandora or to the Na'vi he has come to love.
Posted 06.08.09 by reelz -
Midnight Update caught up with Avatar producer Jon Landau at the E3 gaming conference and got him to talk about the unusual parallel development of Avatar as a game and a movie.
Creating the world of Avatar was not just a typical matter of video game imitating film. In fact, Landau explains, it was sometimes even the other way around, with filmmakers incorporating things that had originally been developed just for the game into the movie.
Assets that they developed inspired us. And we said, "Can we use the asset you created?" And we roll it into the [movie] and up-res it a bit, so it's been a collaborative experience.
He then goes on to hint that elements that so far appear only in the game might be seen in an Avatar sequel.
There are definitely crossover elements. There are elements that we introduce in the movie that you'll see in the game. There also creatures in the game that we didn't have time to fit into the movie that they've put into the game ... that we intend to maybe use in future stories but they are going to be introduced in the game. And I think that's unprecedented.
Some lucky reporters at the conference did get an advance peek at a high-security, closed-door demo of the game -- the first full-motion, 3-D look at the world of Avatar. Most found the creatures impressive and none have said anything so far to dampen the enthusiasm for seeing more.
Posted 06.04.09 by reelz