Movie News

Exclusive: James Cameron on Avatar Sequels

Source:Heather Newgen

February 8, 2010

At the 25th anniversary of the Santa Barbara Film Festival, James Cameron was given the Lucky Brand Modern Master Award, which was established in 1995 to honor an individual who has enhanced our culture through cinema.

It is considered to be the highest award presented at the festival and past recipients include Clint Eastwood, Peter Jackson, George Clooney and Will Smith.

ComingSoon.net was at the event and talked briefly to Cameron on the red carpet about sequels to Avatar, which has now earned $2.210 billion worldwide. While he wouldn't give up much, he did allude to the fact there could be a third film, if not more.

ComingSoon.net: When you started writing the script for "Avatar" 15 years ago, did you have a vision for where the sequels would go?

James Cameron: No, but a lot of ideas for the sequels kind of evolved out of writing the story for "Avatar." Anything that we designed, ideas that we had, if we couldn't figure out how to put them in the movie we said "We'll stick it in the sequel," so we have a big backlog of ideas.

CS: How many sequels will there be?

Cameron: I don't know.

CS: Do you know where the story is going for the next film?

Cameron: Yeah, I definitely have a story arc in mind for the second film and even on a very vague base for a third film. That doesn't mean we'll do a third film - it doesn't mean we'll stop at a third film. We'll just have to see where it goes.

CS: Will the sequel be the next movie you do or will it be another project?

Cameron: That hasn't been decided yet.

COMMENTS (60)

Posted by:

Justin

February 8, 2010

Could he be any more vague? lol. Sounds like he has no clue what he is going to do next, although I am very excited to see what he may have in store.

Posted by:

Murdernexxus

February 8, 2010

Avatar was fern gully with aliens in 3d.... i loved it...the 3d that is

Posted by:

Ian T. Campbell

February 8, 2010

I say bring on Battle Angel, let Avatar stew for a bit.

Posted by:

February 8, 2010

Here's hoping he won't completely rip off the plots of previous films for the sequel - like how he ripped off Pocahontas, Ferngully, and Dances With Wolves for the first one - and instead will come up with an original plot. And actually flesh out the characters this time. That would be nice.

Posted by:

Gary

February 8, 2010

I'll watch the 2nd just because i saw the first, its something with me where even if the first sucks i want to see the second just so i know what the hell im talking about.

Avatar was okay, but really was over-rated and over-hyped

Posted by:

Kurt

February 8, 2010

Re: ripping off plots of previous films. I get really tired of hearing this. There are VERY few movies each year that are NOT formulaic and stories that have been told before. Please. Almost every movie is a new take on something done before. The issue isn't whether it follows a formula. It's how well they do the formula and do they give it new twists. Avatar did that to my satisfaction. The positive spin is that the story is iconic, and even archetypal.

Posted by:

Kid Pistol

February 8, 2010

When you're a producer, you have to really be careful what you say when giving interviews so people don't take it out of context. That's why he's so "vague"

Posted by:

MarkFaust

February 8, 2010

Bring on Titanic 2 ALREADY! They could call it, "Titanic 2: Revenge Of Zombie Jack".

Posted by:

yep

February 8, 2010

I too have an epic story I've been working on for that last dozen years (yeah, I know a dozen isn't fifteen) And I have written 10 chapters in this epic saga.. After such time how can you not have sequels in mind? Cameron is clearly holding back the full truth.

Posted by:

M4tt

February 8, 2010

Your very very very very naive if you think there is an original story left. A great story teller weaves elements from all places while mixing in their own material. So please stop talking about stuff you obviously know nothing about, you didn't have to love the movie, but seriously, you can come up with a better reason. If you can't, then you just don't like it to be cool.