Legendary director James Cameron recently explained in an interview with RTL (via slashfilm.com) that he aims to finish the sequels quicker to meet stiff deadlines set for the production team. The first film took approximately 12 years to make and it’s a safe bet that we will not be expected to wait another decade for the sequels to arrive.

Looking at the current slate for the three sequels, Cameron will have his work cut-out for him:

  • “Avatar 2” – December 2016
  • “Avatar 3” – December 2017
  • “Avatar 4” – Somewhere in 2018
James Cameron

James Cameron (image courtesy of slashfilm.com)

The good news is that technology has advanced since the original film was released, and will be a huge factor in cutting down production time to produce the sequels. Cameron is forever pushing technological limits as he always does, he also mentions shooting in 4K resolution, potentially releasing in High Frame Rate.

The helmer explains:

“Because we’ve improved a lot of the software and the computer graphics tools, and we’ve been working very closely with Weta Digital down here in New Zealand developing a whole new suite of tools to speed up the process.”

“We’re still in the early stages. Right now we’re developing the software. I’m writing the scripts. We’re designing all the creatures and characters and the settings, and so on. So, I’m not actually directing yet, but I’m doing all the other creative processes that lead up to that… It’s going very well.”

“I think it’s going to be spectacular. You’ll see new worlds, new habitats, new cultures. The primary conflict between the human view kind of dominating nature and the Na’vi view of being integrated into nature is the same, but it manifests itself in very different ways.”

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana as Jake Sully and Princess Neytiri

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana as Jake Sully and Princess Neytiri

The director remained tight-lipped about the storylines of the upcoming instalments:

“That’s the great thing about Avatar, it’s such a rich world, I can explore any theme or any idea that I want.”

“Once you’ve got the characters that an audience loves, it’s great to surprise them and make changes and turns that they don’t expect. And you don’t have to spend so much time of the movie setting up all that stuff, because the audience will remember from the previous film.”

Regarding the 4k tech and cameras, Cameron says he is:

“looking at high frame rate. I’m studying that. I haven’t made a final decision yet, whether the entire film will be made at high frame rate or parts of it. You know, we’ll be shooting at a native resolution of probably 4K and so then there should be a lot of true 4K theaters by then as well.”

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana will reprise their respective roles as Jake Sully and Princess Neytiri. Stephen Lang’s villainous Marine Colonel Quaritch will also be in the sequels due to popular demand.