James Cameron is gearing up to deliver more Avatar sequels than you ever asked for. After deciding that three wasn’t enough, the Titanic director recently announced a fourth would be on the way. With such a heavy load to tackle, he’s taking after Lord of the Rings' Peter Jackson and plans to shoot all of them at once.
"It’s not back-to-back. It’s really all one big production. It’s more the way you would shoot a miniseries. So we’ll be shooting across all simultaneously," he told Famous Monsters of Filmland. "We’re working across, essentially, eight hours of story. It’s going to be a big challenge to keep it all fixed in our minds, exactly where we are, across that story arc at any given point. It’s going to be probably the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. It’s a saga. It’s like doing all three Godfather films at the same time." Godfather? Right.
If you’re expecting to see your favorite blue people running around a sea of colors any time soon, you’re out of luck. Cameron is breaking up the release dates for a very good reason. "My original plan was to release them a year apart, but we’re opening that up. If for no other reason than that I don’t want to land on the same date as one of the Star Wars sequels," he added. "I don’t want to go head-to-head with Star Wars. That would be stupid. And hopefully they won’t want to go head-to-head with us."
Smart move. Look for the sequels to land in theaters in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023.
