Besides the fact that it will star more blue things and earn Fox another $2 billion, not much was known about James Cameron’s inevitable Avatar sequel — until yesterday. To promote the original movie’s Earth Day DVD release tomorrow, the HMFIC spilled details on Avatar 2 (and 3!) in a charming interview with the L.A. Times. We hope Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana don’t mind peeing in their wetsuits.
Avatar 2 is going underwater, says Cameron (who’s been there before with The Abyss and his doc Aliens of the Deep):
We created a broad canvas for the environment of film. That’s not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system. And we expand out across that system and incorporate more into the story — not necessarily in the second film, but more toward a third film. 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. 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.
If your return visit to Pandora can’t wait until Cameron completes Avatar 2 (2014, optimistically?), he reconfirmed that the original will be rereleased on IMAX screens this August (with six minutes of new footage) after Hollywood is finished stinking up 3-D theaters with less game-changing blockbusters.
James Cameron: The ‘Avatar’ sequel will dive into the oceans of Pandora [Hero Complex/LAT]