It looks as though James Cameron has revealed that the Avatar sequels have been pushed back a whole year… with the to be released in 2017.
According to the Associated Press, the legendary sci-fi filmmaker explained that the upcoming ‘Avatar’ sequels won’t meet their original deadlines… and that means much later release dates.
“Director James Cameron said Wednesday that writing three Avatar sequels is such a complex job he’s delaying the first new film a year,” they revealed. “It will now be released in late 2017.”
Apparently, Cameron himself explained that the writing process proved to be “very involved” and that his initial target release date was perhaps a tad ambitious.
Of course, we’ve heard rumours about these Avatar delays for some months… and this seems to confirm that James Cameron is yet to submit a shooting script to 20th Century Fox.
But perhaps the biggest issue of all is their ambitious plan – to shoot all three sequel movies at the same time.
“We’re not just going to do one and then make up another one and another one after that,” said Cameron. “And parallel with that, we’re doing all the design. So we’ve designed all the creatures and the environments.”
Of course, it’s quite the grand plan, given that it’s taken this long to even get close to finishing pre-production on the first film. But with three blockbusters going into production at the same time, I can’t help thinking it’s a colossal task.
“We know it’s going to be a long journey,” said Twentieth Century Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos in an interview last year. “We know it’s not going to be cheap. We know it’s not going to be without new discoveries and new challenges in the process of producing something that is so beyond the normal form of filmmaking and technology, but what could be more exciting than that.”
Exciting, certainly… but also one of the biggest undertakings a filmmaker could possibly imagine. After all, the project is already proving to be too much to handle. And with work on the production thought to be delayed, it’s just one setback after another.
But will it all be worth it in the end? For now, we’ll have to wait and see.
Avatar 2 heads to cinemas some time in 2017.
What do you think of James Cameron’s comments? Do you think he can make three Avatar sequels simultaneously? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
