'Avatar' 2, 3 & 4 Movie News and Updates: James Cameron Says Release Date Delayed to 2017
Director James Cameron recently spoke to the press to announce that he plans to delay the first of the three "Avatar" sequels until 2017 due to the complex process of writing the movies.
The first was previously reported to come out in late 2016, but Cameron stated that it may not be a realistic target, Deadline reports. The three highly anticipated sequels of "Avatar" are now pegged to release subsequently in theaters in 2017 to 2019.
"There's a layer of complexity in getting the story to work as a saga across three films that you don't get when you're making a stand-alone film," Cameron said in an AP interview in Wellington, New Zealand.
Cameron also stated that it's highly important that each movie connects to the next one so that the viewers wouldn't be left hanging when the sequels come to an end, the AP report continued.
The director aims to complete the scripts of the three films finished by the end of this month. He is currently leading a team of screenwriters: Josh Friedman ("War of the Worlds"), Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver ("Rise of the Planets of the Apes"), and Shane Salerno ("Savages," "Salinger"), according to a report by Fox News Latino.
"We're writing three simultaneously. And we've done that so that everything tracks throughout the three films. We're not just going to do one and then make up another one and another one after that," he further explained, as quoted by another report by Fox News Latino. "And parallel with that, we're doing all the design. So we've designed all the creatures and the environments."
In January 2014, it was announced that Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington will be back in the "Avatar" sequels to reprise their roles as Na'vi huntress Neytiri and Marine Jake Sully, respectively. The films, produced by Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox, will be shot in New Zealand just like the first "Avatar" film, the news outlet reports.
Producer Jon Landau, who is working with Cameron in the sequels, said that they are being extra careful due to the recent hack against Sony, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"Avatar" became the highest-grossing film in history, when it was released in 2009, according to Box Office Mojo. It grossed nearly $2.8 billion and received nods from several award giving bodies, including the Academy Awards, where they won in the Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects categories in 2010, The Hollywood Reporter notes.