As we learned yesterday, James Cameron is gearing up to continue filming on his Avatar sequels now that New Zealand is lifting restrictions. But will it happen fast enough? And has the delay caused by the outbreak been too much for his ambitious four-film slate to hit their target release dates? The first sequel is still scheduled to hit theaters on December 2021, and Cameron tells Empire the delay has definitely had an impact…
“It’s putting a major crimp in our stride here. I want to get back to work on Avatar, which right now we’re not allowed to do under state emergency laws or rules. So it’s all on hold right now.”
Cameron has basically been working on these sequels since the first film crushed box office records in 2009. Since the delay, he’s been working on visual effects and virtual production, but the resumption of live-action shooting has him optimistic about staying on track…
“On the bright side, New Zealand seems to have been very effective in controlling the virus and their goal is not mitigation, but eradication, which they believe that they can do with aggressive contact tracing and testing,” he explained. “So there’s a very good chance that our shoot might be delayed a couple of months, but we can still do it. So that’s good news.” And with so much of the film’s world being brought to life by VFX artists, digital work on the film is still underway. “We’ve got everybody – everybody at Weta Digital and Lightstorm – working from home to the extent that that is possible. But my work is on the stage doing the virtual cameras and so on, so I can do a bit of editing, but it’s not great for me.”
Avatar 2 opens December 27th 2021 with sequels planned for 2023, 2025, and 2027.
