By We all know that James Cameron doesn’t do small, and that Avatar was always going to be huge, but three whole sequels is really huge. The director and 20th Century Fox (the people who will no doubt be shelling out a crap ton of cash for this) announced yesterday that we’ll be seeing the big blue aliens three more times with the first sequel landing some time in 2016, the second in December of 2017 and the third in December of 2018. That’s a bit of time from even the last rumored delay.
Production on the first film will kick of next year, and with that aggressive release schedule we’re guessing they’ll be working on all three back to back. It won’t just be Cameron this time around. Variety reports that a whole truck load of screenwriters are helping him piece it all together, including Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds), Shane Salerno (The Savages) and Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes).
I wasn’t one of the people who fell in love with Avatar, but clearly the studio fell in love with all the money they’re making if they’re willing to let Cameron bump the planned sequels out into what is sure to be another film that costs more than $100 million to make. Looks like Cameron truly will be buried in nothing but Avatar for a good long time.
[Variety, via Rolling Stone]