“It’s going to be probably the most challenging thing I’ve ever done.” – James Cameron
[dropcap size=small]G[/dropcap]et ready for not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Avatar films that will be released in theaters over the course of nine years. If that news wasn’t surprising enough, it appears that James Cameron aims to film all four Avatar simultaneously instead of over time or back to back.
“It’s not back-to-back. It’s really all one big production. It’s more the way you would shoot a miniseries. So we’ll be shooting across all [Avatar scripts] simultaneously. So Monday I might be doing a scene from Movie Four, and Tuesday I’m doing a scene from Movie One. … We’re working across, essentially, eight hours of story. It’s going to be a big challenge to keep it all fixed in our minds, exactly where we are, across that story arc at any given point. It’s going to be probably the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. I’m sure the actors will be challenged by that as well. It’s like, ‘No, no, no, no, this person hasn’t died yet, so you’re still in this phase of your life.’ It’s a saga. It’s like doing all three Godfather films at the same time.”
If you’re expecting the upcoming Avatar sequels to be primarily CGI like the first film was you’re in for a surprise, James Cameron plans on shooting “more real-world stuff” than he did in the previous film. With Avatar being released back in 2009 and technological advancements in cinematography and photography evident James Cameron will have plenty of tools at his disposal to make the next Avatar films as breathtakingly beautiful as the first one was. Let’s just hope that the storyline for the next Avatar films will be as good as the CGI will be.
The first sequel Avatar is expected to hit theaters around Christmas time in 2018, with the following sequels believed to be released in 2020, 2022, and 2023.
