21 Dec - James Cameron recently revealed that while "Avatar 2" is fully "in the can", he has actually been shooting the third instalment at the same time. The filmmaker, who is working on the second and third instalment of the hit 2009 movie back-to-back, stated that he actually has mixed schedules for 2 and 3 together to ensure actors' availability as well as ensuring the child actors will not grow up too much in between the two movies.
"I said, let's just treat it like it's a six-hour miniseries and we're only going to go to Frankfurt once," he said, in an interview alongside "Dune" director Denis Villeneuve. "Anything that had to be done with a specific actor, we did all the scenes for 2 and 3 together - and a little bit of 4. Because once again, I had to shoot the kids out. They're allowed to age six years in the middle of the story on page 25 of movie 4. So, I needed everything before then, and then everything after, we'll do later."
Yes, that is right. He is also planning for the fourth and fifth instalments, hoping that movie 2 and 3 will get enough box office numbers to warrant Disney to greenlight the two other films. "It's way too long," he said about the third film. "I haven't really turned my energy into a disciplined cutting process on that yet. But I know I've got the performances. That's the important thing. I've done all the capture. I've done most of the live-action shooting. I still owe a little bit on some of the adult characters. We were more concerned with the kids aging out." "Avatar 2" will be released in theatres on 16 December 2022, with movie number 3 tentatively scheduled for 2024.