MUMBAI: Oscar winning director James Cameron, who introduced audiences the world over to the enchanting world of Pandora, has announced that his next projects will be Avatar 2 and Avatar 3.
The director will follow his history-making and revolutionary motion picture event with two films that will continue the mythology of the world he created. He is likely to begin work on the scripts early next year with an eye towards commencing production later in 2011.
Cameron will decide if he will shoot the films back to back only after completing the scripts. The release of the yet untitled sequels is targeted towards December 2014 and December 2015 respectively.
Cameron said, "It is a rare and remarkable opportunity when a filmmaker gets to build a fantasy world, and watch it grow, with the resources and partnership of a global media company. Avatar was conceived as an epic work of fantasy – a world that audiences could visit, across all media platforms, and this moment marks the launch of the next phase of that world. With two new films on the drawing boards, my company and I are embarking on an epic journey with our partners at Twentieth Century Fox. Our goal is to meet and exceed the global audience’s expectations for the richness of Avatar’s visual world and the power of the storytelling. In the second and third films, which will be self contained stories that also fulfill a greater story arc, we will not back off the throttle of Avatar’s visual and emotional horsepower, and will continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world. I’m looking forward to returning to Pandora, a world where our imaginations can run wild."
Fox Filmed Entertainment chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman added, “Avatar is not only the highest grossing movie of all time, it is a created universe based on the singular imagination and daring of James Cameron, who also raised the consciousness of people worldwide to some of the greatest issues facing our planet. We had no higher priority, and can feel no greater joy, than enabling Jim to continue and expand his vision of the world of Avatar.”
