There’s a huge question mark as to what 71-year-old director James Cameron will do after the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film of a planned five in his Avatar franchise. While the first two films have been mega blockbusters, his age, differences in audience expectations, along with the extensive time needed to make one of his visual effects intensive film (the latest one took over four years, on top of the decades spent developing the technology needed to transport audiences onto an alien world), have left him undecided on if a fourth film is in the cards.
But it doesn’t mean he’s letting the world of Pandora go. At the New Zealand Red Carpet Premiere of Avatar: Fire and Ash in Wellington, Cameron shared with us that he’s considering an ongoing Avatar animated or anthology series as a potential spin-off.
“It has to be something that doesn’t require photo reality, because it’s that last bit of the long curve of difficulty that gets you to the photo-realism of one of these movies and that adds an enormous amount of expense,” he told us at the red carpet, which he attended with his wife, Suzy Amis.
“The actual work with the actors is relatively inexpensive. In fact it’s so inexpensive compared to live action, and we get to spend months getting the scenes exactly right and acting it all out. I really enjoy that part of the process”, shares Cameron.
Catch the full exchange below, along Sam Worthington and Cliff Curtis describing the new movie.
In July, Cameron first spoke to Empire about the potential of an animated anthology for Avatar, and this is the first that he has indicated the potential of an ongoing animated series. Back then, he mentioned that while he has spoken to Disney about the project, he had not worked on the story, nor approach any directors or animators about the project.
With Avatar: Fire and Ash set to hit cinemas on 18 December, which fans are expecting to see final closure to the Sully family’s saga. Our bets are on an animated series before Avatar 4 comes out, if ever.
Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home’s centre-piece.
Kevin Low
