During 20th Century Fox’s CineEurope presentation, Lightstorm Entertainment’s Jon Landau declared that the four Avatar sequels will finally begin production on September 25.
Directed by James Cameron, the next four Avatar films are said to be stand-alone experiences that will piece together to form an “epic saga.” According to Landau, the production is supposed to begin with performance capture. Despite the extensive time gap between the original film and the upcoming sequels, Landau assured fans that things will turn out okay.
“[James Cameron]has done a couple of sequels before in his career and I would argue that those sequels have lived up to, if not exceeded, the original movies.”
Of course, it all starts with a solid script. “That’s what Jim [James Cameron] has been working on for the last several years… Finally, we have the four scripts for the Avatar films ready,” he said.
For moviegoers, a stellar script should translate into compelling characters – something Landau feels confident the sequels possess.
“At the heart of any movie are the characters. One of the strengths of great scripts are always the universal and relatable themes… There’s no more relatable theme than family. At the center of each of our four movies will be the Sully family. Each sequel will play as a stand-alone movie. Each movie’s story will come to its own conclusion… However, when looked at as a whole, the journey across all four movies will create an even larger connected epic saga for audiences around the world.”
With a theme of “family,” the sequels have quite a few directions they could take, but the real challenge seems like it will be how this theme can carry across four films and not grow stale.
The four Avatar sequels are planned for release in the Decembers of 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025. Avatar 2‘s cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, and newcomers Cliff Curtis and Oona Chaplin.
Source: Deadline
