Now that his SF visual feast Avatar has been released (you can read our review here), director James Cameron is already discussing how he plans to continue the story (spoilers follow so beware!).
What comes next on the world of Pandora? Will the human race try once more to invade and mine the planet? How will Jake Sully adapt now that his consciousness has been transferred into a native? Can Cameron come up with a story that isn’t a weak cliché like the original?
Recent reports from Variety suggest that Avatar is on track to become a sizable blockbuster, with the film having made $US242 million worldwide already, so I doubt he’ll have trouble financing a sequel.
Cameron spoke to MTV about where he wants to take Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his Na'vi partner Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and the planet Pandora next.
"We'll follow Jake and Neytiri," Cameron said at a pre-release Avatar media even in London. "I have a trilogy-scaled arc of story right now, but I haven't really put any serious work into writing a script”.
He also revealed that because he has already developed the technology the next films are likely to be a lot easier.
"From the time we capture and finish the capture, it's literally nine to 10 months to get the CG characters working, to get their facial musculature working," he said. "So now we have Jake, we have Neytiri. Sam can step right back into it, the characters will fit them like a glove, and we'll just go on. So a lot of the start-up torque that had to be done for one movie really makes more sense if you play it out across several films."
He believes he can produce them at a faster pace too.
"My next goal is to refine the technique, make it easier so it doesn't take as long. We were doing a lot of pioneering work on Avatar. It wouldn't have taken as long if we already knew exactly how to do it.”
Let’s hope he spends the time saved polishing the screenplay. Perhaps hiring a couple of writers would be a good idea too? Don’t get me wrong I love Avatar, the film is captivating and mesmerising, a splendid visual trip. When all is said and done though, the story and characters were lame and forgettable. The fact that I can express both opinions simultaneously demonstrates just how good Avatar's visuals are.
If he starts working on a script now, I'm guessing we'll see an Avatar sequel in 2012.
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