Given that it took the visionary a decade and a half to pluck the idea from his brain and present it in glorious 3D, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that James Cameron is only halfway through production on the Avatar sequels. As such, it’ll still be a while before we get any concrete updates, but we do have the next best thing.
During the Fox presentation at CineEurope tonight, Jon Landau (Titanic) of Lightstorm Entertainment, Cameron’s production company, took the stage and provided a brief status report on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3, before moving to a video of Cameron who said they’re on day 130 of performance capture. Standing in front of a massive water tank, the three-time Academy Award winner also stated that H2O will “play a huge part” in the follow-ups, which will travel to “never before seen parts of Pandora.”
Additionally, Cameron added that Gamora herself, Zoe Saldana, wrapped her portion last Friday, and Oscar winner Kate Winslet can now hold her breath for seven minutes. Most notably, however, the Canadian-born filmmaker remarked that early results “are beyond even our expectations.”
Unfortunately, while Avatar 2 (2020) and Avatar 3 (2021) won’t be with us for some time – and a fourth and fifth sequel possibly on the way, should the original trilogy conclude on a high note – it’s safe to assume that we won’t be seeing a wholly original idea from Cameron for quite a while.
Unarguably, though, what with his adoration of film and pursuit of enhancing the experience and technology, there isn’t a harder working man in cinema right now and I think it’s fair to say that everyone’s beyond excited to venture back to Pandora to discover what else James Cameron has planned for us.
