Film news: James Cameron teases exciting update on Avatar: Fire and Ash
Fans eager for the return to Pandora, rejoice!
Director James Cameron is reportedly ahead of schedule with post-production on the third Avatar film.
Film News Blitz’s Ellie Jackson reports on Cameron’s promising update for Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Why did Avatar: The Way of Water take so long to produce?
Avatar has caused a lot of stress for its fans in the past because of how long it takes to make the science fiction blockbusters.
Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to the 2009 original was released an agonising 13 years later.
Covid contributed to the prolonged follow-up to cinema's highest-grossing film of all time but so did Cameron’s process.
The wheels started turning in 2012 as Cameron set his Avatar sequel plan in motion and a year later a writers' room was pulled together to pen four screenplays, a process that took three years.
Shooting began on Avatar 2 and 3 in 2017, with Cameron elected to film both sequels simultaneously across three years.
Avatar: The Way of Water demanded new underwater camera technology and updated post-production techniques, the latter contributing massively to the sequel’s delayed release.
Avatar: Fire and Ash ahead of schedule
While the process to get Avatar: The Way of Water was arduous, Cameron has sharpened things up for the franchise’s third film, slated for release on December 19, 2025.
“It’s in strong shape, I think,” Cameron told Empire Magazine.
“We’ve doubled the number of shots finished at this stage of the game than we had on movie two [and] the films are about equal length.
“So that puts us well ahead of the curve, which is something I’ve never, frankly, experienced before.”
“[The post-production process is] a little bit less nightmarish. We’re getting to the point where we’re actually getting good at this.”
Cameron seems confident regarding post-production on the third Avatar film, but will we see another huge wait for a fourth instalment?
Snippets of filming for the fourth Avatar film began alongside The Way of Water and will resume after the release of Fire and Ash, with a slated release for December 2029.
What can we expect from Avatar: Fire and Ash?
So, what can fans expect from the upcoming third Avatar movie?
Sam Worthington returns as human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully alongside Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri.
More franchise stars are returning, including Kate Winslet and Sigourney Weaver as Worthinton’s Sully reacts to the loss of his son Neteyam in The Way of Water.
Sully and Neytiri are introduced to the Ash Tribe, led by Varang, played by Oona Chaplin.
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Cameron has teased that this upcoming instalment will help break the Avatar mould.
“Yeah, we’ve got some really clever action set-pieces,” he said.
“You can get your blood up in this movie. But what excites me as an artist who recently turned 70 and has kind of done all that stuff is not only the opportunity to get to do it again, but to get to a level of character and intrigue you haven’t seen before in an Avatar movie.
“We’re just starting to riff on it and twist it and turn it.
“It’s a tricky thing. We could be getting high on our own supply here, and everybody who looks at it goes, ‘Fuck, that’s not what I signed up for.’
“But if you’re not making brave choices, you’re wasting everybody’s time and money.
“That alone is not sufficient to create success, but it’s necessary. You’ve got to break the mould every fricking time.”
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