Amph James Cameron's Avatar (The Way of Water + sequels)

Cameron is just being unoriginal and copying Star Wars.

 

Cameron on Avatar sequel story/location changes.

Cameron spoke a bit about the story, saying it will explore different Na'vi cultures as well the cultures of other Pandora creatures. The first film was all about Sam Worthington's Jake Sully character and told the story through his eyes. With the new ones though:

"We spread it around quite a bit more as we go forward. It’s really the story of his family, the family that he creates on Pandora. His extended family. So think of it as a family saga like The Godfather."​

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Plans for the settings of the films have changed. At last report the second film was going to be a mostly underwater-set tale, and subsequent movies would take us off planet. The former idea has been overstated, and the latter now appears to be gone altogether:

"There's a fair bit of underwater stuff. Its been inaccurately said that the second film takes place underwater. That's not true. There are underwater scenes and surface-water scenes having to do with indigenous ocean cultures that are distributed across the three films.​

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It’s going to be a lot of new imagery and a lot of new environments and creatures across Pandora. We’re blowing it out all over the place. At first I thought I was going to take it onto other worlds as well, in the same solar system, but it turned out not to be necessary. I mean the Pandora that we have imagined will be a fantasy land that is going to occupy people for decades to come, the way I see it."​

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Cameron says his core team has been developing new software for the sequels, even while he's been gone on other projects such as last year's ocean descent.

Also, from that NZ filming announcement (where he mentions working with Peter Jackson and WETA on avoiding stretching available production resources amongst the various projects being committed there), we get a budget estimate of at Least $415 Million for the new Avatar trilogy, which is actually a rather conservative figure if one divides it amongst 3 films ($138m per film).

 

But that's not the case- you have tons of micro-history on Earth (and Pandora) spoken of or shown, literal books full of details on the biology and environments of Pandora (and that's just the ones established for the first film and doesn't count what they'll add), not to mention the larger question of "Do humans retaliate? What happens when they return?".

Now whether there's 3 films worth of ideas to explore from whats been established in the first film alone- probably not. But I would assume a lot of world expansion in the first sequel will rectify that. And it'll do so while exploring gorgeous, fantastical environments- which is a key appeal factor of the first film, one would assume.

 

Big surprise, Worthington and Saldana are confirmed to be returning now.

It's interesting that they locked down Lang's participation so much further in advance of the two main characters.

The article mentions that the children of their characters are supposed to play a role in the sequels, which was the first time I've heard of that. And that production starts later this year.

 

Cameron doubling down on 3D for Avatar sequels.

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Appearing at London's 3D Creative Summit in a pre-recorded interview, "Avatar" director James Cameron is doubling down on 3D for the "Avatar" sequels as he thinks he was "probably too conservative" with its use in the first film.

Cameron says: "I'm going to open up my depth more on the Avatar sequels. In my defence, I thought I might be making a three-hour movie and nobody had ever gone more than 90 minutes so we didn't know if people were going to go crosseyed and have their eyeballs melt. Now we know good stereo is good stereo and you can watch it indefinitely."

Cameron urged filmmakers to 'go nuts' with 3D and praised the three other films that are generally seen as the benchmark for quality 3D presentations - "Life of Pi," Hugo" and "Gravity".

Cameron says: "Incorporate it into the storytelling in ways that aren't gimmicky but are fun and seductive to the eye. I want filmmakers to embrace this technology as an art form. People like Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee and Alfonso Cuaron are artistically using that third dimension versus studios forcing filmmakers to do post-conversion where the shots weren;t composed with 3D in mind and it just doesn't feel right."

He also put some of the burden on exhibitors, saying they should: "make sure the quality is there in the theatre. Until we get laser projection, keep those light levels as high as you can. Don't turn them down to save bulb life because you’re just hurting the experience for the audience."

As for the 3D home market, he thinks the medium will come 'roaring back' once 4K glasses-free 3D hits.​

 

On a side note, I cannot wait to attend a Laser Cinema

 

I would assume Dec 2016 would be their target, to line-up with the release date of the original film in the hopes of attaining the same post-holiday success.

 

During an AMA, Cameron says the scripts are aiming to be finished around Memorial Day.

"The second, third and fourth films all go into production simultaneously. They're essentially all in preproduction now, because we are designing creatures, settings, and characters that span all three films. And we should be finished with all three scripts within the next, I would say, six weeks."

"The biggest pressure I feel right now is cutting out things I love to get the film down to a length that is affordable. There hasn't been a problem finding new and wonderful things to include in the movie."​

 

Weaver appearing in all three sequels.

"I can't talk about it, but my part is a little different in each one. I'll transform somewhat"​