Avatar to have three sequels

[Troy]

James Cameron and 20th Century Fox have upped the number of Avatar sequels they’ll make from two to three, and they’ve set three high-level screenwriters (one is a team) to get the movies in shape to be shot simultaneously. That is easily a recipe for the most expensive set of pictures ever made, and an ambitious production plan not seen since New Line and Peter Jackson made three The Lord Of The Rings films back to back. Back then, Jackson was coming off The Frighteners. Fox at least has the confidence of knowing Cameron’s last two films are the biggest-grossing pictures in movie history, with Avatar at the top by a wide margin. It’s still a gutsy play; it is not unimaginable that three Avatar installments could cost close to $1 billion. The original grossed $2.8 billion.
Cameron has set War Of The Worlds scribe Josh Friedman to write one film; Rise Of Planet Of The Apes‘ Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver to write another; with the third to be written by Shane Salerno, who wrote and directed the upcoming documentary Salinger and who previously worked with Cameron on a remake of Fantastic Voyage at Fox. The writers will collaborate with Cameron separately and co-write three separate movies with him.

The three pictures will be filmed simultaneously with production beginning next year. The release of the first sequel will be in December 2016, with the second to follow in December 2017, and the third a year later. Avatar 2, 3, and 4 will be produced by Cameron and Jon Landau through their Lightstorm Entertainment banner. Lightstorm will work once again with Joe Letteri and his team at WETA Digital on the three films.

Bold plan to work on three massive sequels all at once and then film them back to back. The original Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time by a huge margin so no surprise that they want more sequels the only odd decision was to leave it so long before releasing the first sequel.

I saw the first Avatar after everyone kept raving about it and I was disappointed. It is a very basic story and the 3D doesn't improve the film that much either. Not interested in another three of these.

 

[Chris]

I know a lot of people didn't, but I liked the original Avatar a good bit, don't really see these sequels being very enjoyable, but as far as the original goes, I enjoyed it.

 

[Deezy]

Avatar was hugely successful, hard to say most didn't enjoy it. But again I didn't either, after you get past the pretty colours it wasn't much of a plot or subtext involved, it kind of hit you over the head about how colonialism is bad, technology and resource hoarding is bad.

But the 3D effects were the first of it's kind, Cameron raised the bar of movie making and invented new cameras and greenscreen usage. Can't say the movie wasn't a technical marvel by any means because thats what sold the movie, a basic plot is going to enure you turn your brain off and enjoy the pretty colours.

Sequels are probably going to be in the same vein. Maybe take a bit more advantage at social commentary, kind of like how District 9 did or Elysium seems to be doing. If the first Avatar made people wonder why our forests don't look like that anymore, maybe thats not a bad thing.

 

[Slim]

Yeah I saw the first one and other than how nice the movie looked... cause it looked really really nice... the movie itself was boring. And not sure why they would make all of those sequels. I know I won't be looking forward to them. But hey some folks out there like it. I just saw it as plain, simple, and meh at best.

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

Must be a joke right? Surely people aren't distracted by pretty colours long enough to endure 4 movies. That's all Avatar was; a giant "look what I can do" by James Cameron, no storyline, no plot, just a big special effects showcase.

Pocahontas did the Avatar storyline better and John Carter of Mars did it better as well, with a semblance of a storyline and without the need for so much special effects to hide it.

 

[Deezy]

Nobody watched John Carter.

Pretty colours man.....the colous I tell ya.

 

[Tapout]

I know I won't be watching them. Was stoked for the first one and it just about topped my list of Worst Movie Ever. I actually regret watching it.

I have no doubt that the sequels will be huge success' though.

 

[Mick Donalds]

John Carter of Mars was so bad I could only watch 15 minutes.

As for Avatar, I'm a Cameron fanboy. I'm excited to see the sequels. I think John Landis mentioned that Cameron wanted to focus on the oceans of Pandora in a sequel. He'll be competing against the new Star Wars trilogy, so it will be an exciting few years for Star Wars and Avatar.

 

[John McHenry]

Three sequels too many. Cameron has his career more to luck than skill

 

[Weez]

I liked Avatar quite a bit. I didn't go in expecting some sort of Life-changing storyline. Movies don't generally do that. It was a decent story with pretty good acting on a VERY pretty picture. Also the 1st movie I saw in Bluray on my then-brand new HDTv. 3 Sequels good? Naaah, but maybe they can up the bar.

 

[Keith]

I give Cameron credit for his promotion of the first film because it was mostly his passion for getting the idea that 3D really was special out to the masses which made it the highest grossing film of all time, but like many others I found it to be a bit dull and not having much going for it beyond looking pretty. And because many people who saw the film seem to think the same thing I suspect they may struggle repeat that level of success. Here is a chance for people who complain about bad movies getting made, to do something about, if they don't they only have themselves to blame.

 

[Kairi]

i watched the first and i thought it was ok, but imo three sequels is a bit too much, guess we will see how it turns out

 

[Deezy]

Three sequels too many. Cameron has his career more to luck than skill

waitwut? Terminator 1 and 2, Aliens, True Lies, two of the biggest grossing movies of all time isn't luck.

He really doesn't make movies unless he thinks of doing something that is going to raise the bar cimenatically. Which I'm for, and if he is going to take the Pandora prettiness and takes us into the oceans something he knows alot about, than I'm going to check it out.

 

[Rated R Superstar]

He's been in his little submarine for years, studying the oceans. I think the ocean sequel will be incredible.

 

[John McHenry]

waitwut? Terminator 1 and 2, Aliens, True Lies, two of the biggest grossing movies of all time isn't luck.

He really doesn't make movies unless he thinks of doing something that is going to raise the bar cimenatically. Which I'm for, and if he is going to take the Pandora prettiness and takes us into the oceans something he knows alot about, than I'm going to check it out.

But he doesn't raise the bar as a director the only movie that raised any bar cinematically was Titanic the rest were great scripts that he lent very little too (except CGI I give him credit in that department) But as far as movies he's done maybe 15. One was a sequel that everyone knew would do well. T1 and T2 were great. So he had three movies that most would agree was great well he got to do T1 out of negotiating well on doing aliens. Got T2 from the success of one and the rest of his film career is meh. He's lucky it's not about the script it's bout CGI in his movies and he does it well but a gift to directors he isn't. He's like Micheal Bay but instead of explosions it's CGI