The film franchise that
went from being the most secret project in Hollywood to a billion dollar
juggernaut in just twenty days of release is now about to go into
overdrive.
In
fact, James Cameron intends to follow the couple for another two
films. "I have a trilogy-scaled arc of story right now, but I haven't
really put any serious work into writing a script," he said. The
next two films, however, won't replicate the four years of
production time that Avatar took to perfect its motion-capture
technology and computer-generated environments and beings. "Part of what
we set out to do is create a world and create these characters,"
Cameron said. "From the time we capture and finish the capture, it's
literally nine to 10 months to get the CG characters working, to get
their facial musculature working. ... So now we have Jake, we have
Neytiri. Sam can step right back into it, the characters will fit them
like a glove, and we'll just go on. So a lot of the start-up torque that
had to be done for one movie really makes more sense if you play it out
across several films."
"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"
Sigourney Weaver briefly stated that despite her
characters death she
would return; There her mind is essentially uploaded to this naturally
occurring
supercomputer, while her body is left to expire. "I'm not allowed to say
anything," she repeated. "But
if you look at the footage, I go somewhere, right?"
According to Avatar Producer Jon Landau there are two
main factors that
will go into Cameron's
decision-making matrix on whether to do Avatar 2 next,
according to Landau:
1) Cameron and Landau will
sit down with Fox and see if they can
"work out a common philosophy on the next film."
2) Which film project Cameron feels has the best script.
Landau
repeated the thing he's said a few times before: James Cameron has only
made two sequels in his career (not counting Piranha 2) and in
both cases, they were as good as the original, if not an improvement. He
won't do an Avatar sequel unless the same thing is true. So
he'll only venture into production on an Avatar sequel if he
feels strongly that the script is excellent enough.
He might tackle Avatar, he might tackle Battle
Angel,
or he might jump on "some third, as yet unnamed project," says Landau.
Update:
James Cameron expects to release his next 3D film in three to four
years, and it may be the Avatar sequel that News Corp executives
have previously said they have discussed with him.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Cameron told the All Things
Digital conference on Wednesday that his next movie could also be
"some other big film" that uses 3D. He wants to push 3D technology
to new levels with whatever project is next.
