James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Sequels To Become A Trilogy

Seems like James Cameron is following in Peter Jackson’s footsteps getting ready to film a trilogy that will complete his Avatar series.

The Inquisitr reported on Wednesday that Terminator series writer Josh Friedman (War Of The Worlds) had joined the production for Avatar 2. Now more announcements come from Cameron stating that he and Fox have upped the number of sequels from two to three.

Cameron is also setting three high-level screenwriters, one of which is a team, to get the movies ready to be shot simultaneously.This type of production has not been seen since Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy which he filmed with New Line.

But back then Jackson’s credentials were not as solid as Cameron’s. Fox realizes that his last two films (Avatar and Titanic) are the biggest-grossing pictures in movie history, with Avatar on top by a wide margin.

James Cameron’s original Avatar grossed almost $2.8 billion and it is not out of the question to think that the next two could have a budget of $1 billion if one considers the special effects present in the first movie.

The director has hired Friedman to write one film; Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes) to write another; and the third to be written by Shane Salerno,(Salinger) who previously worked with Cameron on a remake of Fantastic Voyage for Fox. The writers will collaborate with Cameron separately and co-write three separate movies with him.

Cameron and Landau spent weeks considering A-listers in the screenwriting world before coming to their final choices. Cameron commented,

Building upon the world we created with Avatar has been a rare and incredibly rewarding experience. In writing the new films, I’ve come to realize that Avatar‘s world, story and characters have become even richer than I anticipated, and it became apparent that two films would not be enough to capture everything I wanted to put on screen. And to help me continue to expand this universe, I’m pleased to bring aboard Amanda, Rick, Shane and Josh — all writers I’ve long admired –­ to join me in completing the films screenplays.

Production will begin next year, with the first sequel scheduled to be released on December 2016, the second December 2017, and the third a year later.

Avatar 2, 3, and 4 will be produced by Cameron and Jon Landau with Lightstorm Entertainment. They will work once again with Joe Letteri and his team at WETA Digital on the three films.

Twentieth Century Fox chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos, kept Cameron at Fox and away from Sony’s project of Cleopatra with Angelina Jolie. He stated,

We at the studio have no higher priority, and can feel no greater joy, than enabling Jim to continue and expand his vision of the world of Avatar. The growing breadth and scale of Jim Cameron’s plans for his magnificent fantasy worlds continue to amaze us all.

James Cameron wrote Avatar from an idea he developed over a decade, including the technology required to make it happen in 3D, which he accomplished working with WETA Digital, also used by Peter Jackson.

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