Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Avatar 2 and 3

4/5/12 - James Cameron’s Avatar 2 is going to be delayed until at least 2015, producer Jon Landau said Thursday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  "We're not naming dates, but I think 2014 will be a tough date for us to make,” Landau told Empire. “It's about getting it right … movies make release dates; release dates don't make movies.  The next one will kick off where the last one ended. But just like Avatar resolved itself and doesn't feel like a setup to another movie, you don't want Avatar 2 to feel like a setup for 3."  Meanwhile, Cameron's Manhattan Beach studio is up and running, and Landau indicated that the filmmaker has already begun collaborating with the New Zealand effects company Weta Digital, which is developing an “underwater motion capture system” that will allow him to bring to life the oceans of Pandora.

10/27/10 - James Cameron will start writing the scripts for two Avatar sequels early next year, 20th Century Fox announced.  Cameron has settled on two sequels as his next film projects, with plans to begin production in late 2011.  The studio hopes to have the first of the as-yet-untitled sequels in theaters in December 2014, with the third movie in the franchise following in December 2015. Like the first film, the sequels will be shot in 3-D. "In the second and third films, which will be self-contained stories that also fulfill a greater story arc, we will not back off the throttle of `Avatar's' visual and emotional horsepower, and will continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world," Cameron said.

8/9/10 - Deals for Avatar sequels are being worked on.  Creator James Cameron told MTV that he is focused on finishing his Avatar novel before getting started on a sequels.  Cameron hinted that the final two parts of the planned trilogy could be lumped together into a single production, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  "We're actually talking about that. That's not a decision yet," he said. "That is something that makes a lot of sense, given the nature of these productions, because we can bank all the capture and then go back and do cameras over a period of time."

4/21/10 - Director James Cameron told the LA Times that a planned follow-up to Avatar would head for the fictional planet's oceans.  "Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment - a different setting within Pandora," he said. "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."  He also hinted at space travel - and a potential third film.  "We created a broad canvas for the environment of film. That's not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system," he said. "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.  The challenge will be on the next "Avatar" picture... to do what we did before at half the price and in half the time," he explained. "Again, that's an impossible goal, we won't accomplish that, but if we can reduce by 25 percent in both categories, we'll have really accomplished something."

1/14/10 - James Cameron plans sequels to his now-blockbuster Avatar, Entertainment Weekly reported.  The magazine quotes the director as saying he left scenes in the movie to set up a subsequent movie.  But not only did director James Cameron always believe that the film would be a hit—he was even planning a sequel during production. "I've had a storyline in mind from the start—there are even scenes in Avatar that I kept in because they lead to the sequel," Cameron says. "It just makes sense to think of it as a two or three film arc, in terms of the business plan."  It famously took Cameron 15 or more years to develop the tech and ideas for Avatar, but now that the infrastructure is in place, it won't take that long to mount a second movie, he added. And star Sam Worthington has already signed on for a sequel.  Cameron made clear that the next film won't be a prequel, recounting previous backstory, but will begin after the events of the initial movie. "We'll follow Jake and Neytiri," he confirmed.  In fact, 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.

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