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Big shock: James Cameron might NOT direct Avatar 2
As James Cameron heads into the home stretch of making sure every human being who hasn't seen his film Avatar gets to the theater, talk is naturally turning to exactly what the King of the World will be working on next. And he revealed that he might NOT direct a sequel.
We caught up with Cameron at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where he received the fest's Modern Master award, and he said that he hasn't completely settled on his next project, but added that he certainly won't be taking another 12-year sabbatical before getting behind the camera again, as he did between Titanic and Avatar.
Battle Angel—a big-screen adaptation of Battle Angel Alita, the Japanese manga-series-turned-anime-franchise—has long been rumored to be on deck as Cameron's next film. But the writer-director revealed that while the project's still high on his priority list, it may be sidetracked in favor of a sequel (or series of sequels) to Avatar. Or possibly yet another film.
"We're still figuring that out," Cameron said. "I love Battle Angel. I've always loved Battle Angel, but a second Avatar film is a possibility, and I've got a couple of other films that I've developed over the last few years as well. So it's all still up in the air."
Cameron also explained that continuing Avatar as a franchise has been part of his game plan from the beginning. "It was embedded in my original pitch to the studio that part of the kind of business model for this is that we create all these digital assets. We essentially create a world. It exists in hard drives when you're done with the movie. And you can re-create it very quickly. When physical sets get struck, their value plummets from a $2 million set to zero in one day. But our equivalent $2 million of development for a digital set, it's still there. So the idea was maybe we don't make so much money on the first film, but we make more on the second film."
Now that Cameron HAS made so much money on the first film, what he's not sure of yet is whether he'll personally be at the helm of any Avatar sequels or overseeing the franchise as executive producer. "[It's] unknown right now," he said. "Have to look at that, and have to get a script pulled together—all that sort of thing."
At the film festival's "Directors on Directing" panel, Cameron also addressed Fox Corp. head Rupert Murdoch's recent announcement that 20th Century Fox was in "early talks" with him about Avatar sequels. "Well, there are still some deals to be made," he said with a smile. "Which will be easier now that Rupert's announced it."
Moviegoers can count on the filmmaker to continue to push the boundaries of technological advances. "I think that we spent a lot of energy on Avatar building a technology and a system for doing 3-D, for doing performance capture, for doing CG," Cameron said. "The next threshold for me is to do it all faster and cheaper and more efficiently. Do the same thing, hit the same kind of quality level, but just with a better process, a more robust process, because it was very experimental on this film. You make a lot of mistakes, and you learn from those mistakes, but we didn't always have time to implement [the lessons]."
What do you think Cameron should do next? And should he direct Avatar 2 himself?
By Bluesman at 1:05 PM ON 02/09/10
Retire.
By Kermonk at 1:28 PM ON 02/09/10
I'm more interested to learn if they plan to have a script next time.
By jcarver at 1:36 PM ON 02/09/10
yeah i think he should direct it but if not at least oversee it it wouldnt be the same if he didnt
By Vadra at 1:44 PM ON 02/09/10
Its really a way of acknowledging that Avatar's success was based purely on spectacle and the 3D gimmick, and now that people have seen it, a second film would not be as popular as the first so another director can take the blame.
And yes, I wish he would retire as well because this man has not made a decent film since Aliens (and even that was a sequel to somebody else's work and ideas).
By Ken at 1:54 PM ON 02/09/10
I think Cameron will be a wise man to let somebody else direct. First of all, he doesn't have the entire script for another film. Second, he has so many other projects backed up, like rush-hour traffic.
By Cheapshot at 1:57 PM ON 02/09/10
Bring it on Cam... the more the better.
Push the Horror film genre out of the box office and get people clamoring for sci fi / fantasy.
Cam has yet to produce junk... IMHO... so a sequel by him would be better than say... Michael Bay or Stephen Hopkins.
By Bluesman at 2:02 PM ON 02/09/10
@ Vadra, Google images of "Judgement on Janus". Excellent book by Andre Norton. Read it if you can find it.
By xdeathknightx at 2:13 PM ON 02/09/10
I can imagine why he won't do it. Avatar was awesome in the cinema with it's 3D effects, but I have been telling everyone to go for the special effects and not the story. Next time they won't be able to do with a paper thin story.
Plus he has been around long enough to know that everyone will want their mits on the sequel and it will blow hard. Most of the decent to good sequels had the same director with a big influence, a lot of the crappy ones had a lot of interference from the studio and producers.
So yeah pretty smart of him to get out, Avatar sequels will come, but will most likely be crap. So best not be associated with it.
By BlakOpal at 2:16 PM ON 02/09/10
I think he should do what Lucas did with the original Star Wars Trilogy. Write the story, but have bother directors direct it.
Bring in other visions to tell the story, cuz this movie was so epic, I think other directors visions would only enhance it more.
By rdslame at 3:49 PM ON 02/09/10
Sure hope it won't be in "4-D".
By jayeffaar at 4:44 PM ON 02/09/10
What's with the inflated headlines all of a sudden? "Huge Superman news", "Big Shock:"...
Why don't you stick to reporting what's going on, and leave it up to us to decide if it's big, huge or shocking...
By AvatarFan at 7:08 PM ON 02/09/10
Here's a concept... Maybe Cam should reboot the Star Wars Saga! =)
By ks47 at 8:14 PM ON 02/09/10
The script was total derivative stupidly constructed (if it was actually constructed) cr*p. Nice eyecandy Cam but, please, stop it already.
By enkrptic at 8:53 PM ON 02/09/10
There sure are a lot of haters on here tonight. However, I suspect James will do the sequel maybe both, if he likes what he sees in them. As you have all so regularly stated in other threads, the movie made all the money in the world. So money will obviously not be a big factor in James doing the sequels. Which I personally hope he decides to direct them both, since a story is best told by one storyteller, not a committee of them. With that said, some of the criticism I see here looks more like envy than serious opinion. Just my opinion, and you know we all have them. Cheers.
By StelArian at 10:01 PM ON 02/09/10
There is a better idea... Let's put Ridley Scott to make AVATARS!
By ncc1701dee at 10:54 PM ON 02/09/10
I cant believe what i reading here ?! Avatar was magical, and i must agree with enkrptic that envy may be a factor.
Personally, i think james definitely should direct, and looking back over his "resume" of sequels, suck as Aliens and T2, I couldnt think of a better director to handle a sequel other then cameron. This man can handle a sequel !
What's unknown i think, is whether he could do a third film, and hit it out of the park so to speak, as he generally opts out after one or two films, i would imagine after investing so much mental energies into one project, he would prefer think of doing something else.
By jOhN at 11:56 PM ON 02/09/10
He should direct Avatar 2 himself!!!
By xle at 2:20 AM ON 02/10/10
Aquaman!
By mix at 3:24 AM ON 02/10/10
whenever there is a good movie, they destroy it by making franchises.
enough is enough!
why not make a prequel/sequel to Titanic then? or make a Movie with Titanic singing in Pandora?
make new movies!!
By Dunno at 1:55 PM ON 02/10/10
Probably finally go in for that "ego reduction" surgery he's been putting off.
By Spacecatx at 7:47 PM ON 02/10/10
There shouldn't be an Avatar 2. The ending of the film wrapped up any need for a sequel. Tacking on a sequel is just another excuse to milk a blockbuster for all its worth. You might as well make sequel to Titanic.
By Sniper-Viper at 10:26 PM ON 02/10/10
Lucas directed just the first Star Wars (Episode IV) so no biggy here.
By Inz at 12:25 PM ON 02/11/10
How about we wait until there is a sequel before we go and judge whether or not there should be one, and whether or not Cameron should direct it. Since the sequel hasn't come out yet, all speculations are biased. Nobody has any idea what it will be like even if Cameron does direct it.
So instead of flaming Cameron/eachother, how about everybody just read the news and wait to see what happens? ;)
By Stellmarine at 10:25 PM ON 02/11/10
Battle Angel. I've been waiting for it for years now...
By Casbah at 7:24 AM ON 02/16/10
Forget Avatar 2 to 12. He should definitely take on some big and new project. Why not Dan Simmon's Hyperion? That'll keep him busy till his retirement...
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Casbah:
Forget Avatar 2 to 12. He should definitely take on some big and new project. Why not Dan Simmon's Hyperion? That'l...More »