Corona | Coming Attractions

It might be a little while longer before seeing that first sequel to Avatar. In a recent interview with James Cameron, The New York Times mentions that Avatar 2 "will not be ready until 2015 or later, at least a year past the 2014 date Fox executives once had in mind."

It took James Cameron nearly a full two decades from when he wrote the synopsis of Avatar down to opening day of the movie. Maybe the wait was worth it since the movie went on to gross over one billion dollars at the box office and become the highest grossing film of all-time (to date.) But will seven years have to go by between the opening of the first Avatar and the release of the sequel?

The answer is, quite possibly, yes.

Avatar and Titanic producer Jon Landau attended a press event in London today where several scenes of Titanic 3D were shown off to the assembled journalists. In attendance was one member from the Bleeding Cool website, and they heard something that didn't line up with what we had been told about the forecasted release of Avatar 2. The first mentions of when we could expect to see Cameron's return to the moon of Pandora would be in 2013, but that was later amended to a more relaxed schedule of holiday 2014.

Today, in conversation with the Titanic 3D press, Landau said that we were four years away from being able to watch Avatar 2. If taken literally, and from a starting point of 2012, that would place the first sequel's release in 2016.

Since the new year has just begun, perhaps Landau was drawing a bead on a targeted release of Avatar 2 around the Christmas season of 2015. Still, that would be one year later than what we had all believed was the holiday '14 schedule.

Bleeding Cool's reporter wasn't able to follow up and ask Landau to confirm the four-year out remark as the new ETA for Avatar 2 or if it was a slip of the tongue. As far as anyone knows Cameron and Landau's plan is to film Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 back-to-back.

We don't have to speculate any more if Signourney Weaver will be back in Avatar 2 and 3 because she's now confirmed it. The question now becomes, how will her character of Dr. Grace Augustine come back from the dead?

"Don't worry, I will be back," the actress told Coming Soon. "Jim [Cameron] says no one ever dies in science fiction. He's told me the stories for the next two movies and I have to say that they're absolutely wonderful and there's a real treat in store. Now we just have to make them."

It's nothing new, but at least the ETA for when we are going to see Avatar 2 hasn't changed in the mind of James Cameron. "I am in the process of writing the next two Avatar films now. We are planning to shoot them together and post them together, and we will probably release them not quite back to back, but about a year apart. Christmas ’14 and ’15 is the current plan," the filmmaker told Entertainment Weekly while attending the Producers Guild Awards this past weekend.

And he did give this little spoiler about who's going to be in the first sequel. "Basically, if you survived the first film, you get to be in the second film, at least in some form."

Cameron also said that 20th Century Fox has agreed to give some of the earnings from the Avatar sequels to environmental causes.

Today 20th Century Fox announced that it has greenlighted both Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 to be made with director James Cameron. Cameron will write the screenplays for both movies first and then ascertain if he will shoot the third movie back-to-back with the second.

The current plan is to have Avatar 2 go into production in late 2011 and then come out in theaters in December 2014.

"It is a rare and remarkable opportunity when a filmmaker gets to build a fantasy world, and watch it grow, with the resources and partnership of a global media company," commented James Cameron on the announcement. "Avatar was conceived as an epic work of fantasy – a world that audiences could visit, across all media platforms, and this moment marks the launch of the next phase of that world. With two new films on the drawing boards, my company and I are embarking on an epic journey with our partners at Twentieth Century Fox. Our goal is to meet and exceed the global audience's expectations for the richness of Avatar's visual world and the power of the storytelling. In the second and third films, which will be self contained stories that also fulfill a greater story arc, we will not back off the throttle of Avatar's visual and emotional horsepower, and will continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world. I'm looking forward to returning to Pandora, a world where our imaginations can run wild."

"It is very exciting to be teaming again with our partners at Fox to give audiences the opportunity to return to Pandora," said producer Jon Landau. "With the first movie, Jim only scratched the surface of the stories he wants to tell and the creatures and world he wants to create. Now we will continue his vision."

Said Fox chairmen Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos, "Avatar is not only the highest grossing movie of all time, it is a created universe based on the singular imagination and daring of James Cameron, who also raised the consciousness of people worldwide to some of the greatest issues facing our planet. We had no higher priority, and can feel no greater joy, than enabling Jim to continue and expand his vision of the world of Avatar. This is a great day in the history of our company, and we thank Jim, Jon Landau, Rae Sanchini and all of their team and all of our Fox colleagues throughout the world, who have made this possible."

James Cameron revealed to The Los Angeles Times a new setting that will be in the Avatar sequel: Pandora's oceans.

"I've already announced this, so I might as well say it: Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment – a different setting within Pandora," said Cameron. "And I'm going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest. I'm not saying we won’t see what we've already seen; we'll see more of that as well."

While it doesn't come as a surprise to anyone, 20th Century Fox has confirmed that negotiations are underway with James Cameron to be involved in Avatar 2. Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch told investors during his company's quarterly conference call that his movie studio was in "very early talks about [the movie]" with Cameron. Murdoch also said that the filmmaker has "ideas" for a sequel but that nobody should expect to see Avatar 2 soon.

Now Avatar producer Jon Landau has been asked to weigh in on whether he sees a sequel on the horizon. "We will see what the public wants," said Cameron's right-hand man. "All I can say is that we've created the world, and there are other stories Jim wants to tell in this world. How we realize those stories, whether it's the big screen, or publishing, or some other venue, remains to be seen."

With work on his Avatar epic now finished and less than a week to go from the movie's release, the question has arisen whether James Cameron has other ideas for returning to the alien jungles of Pandora.

"We're going to be spending a lot money and time developing the not only the process but the assets and all the models of every rock and tree and plant and creature and the muscle rigs for all the creatures and the facial rigging for the main characters…this is millions of dollars," Cameron was quoted as saying by Collider. "So it really makes sense to think of it as the potential start of a franchise or a saga that plays out over several acts with each movie being an act of that saga.  And I have it mapped out but I haven't written the scripts yet.  It all depends whether we do well with the first film.  But that was certainly the intention from the beginning, was to create the foundation for a persistent world."

So he has ideas for sequel stories but no official go-ahead to begin work on fleshing the ideas out...sounds like we're in the pitch stage of development.