Sigourney Weaver‘s Dr. Grace Augustine character from James Cameron‘s Avatar may not have lived to the end credits, but that doesn’t mean she’s gone for good. Something we’ve known for some time is Weaver would be back for Avatar 2, but tonight we learn her character will not return just for one sequel, but for all three.
“Sigourney and I have a long creative history, dating back to 1985 when we made Aliens,” Cameron told Deadline. “We’re good friends who’ve always worked well together, so it just feels right that she’s coming back for the Avatar sequels. Her character of Grace Augustine, as fans know, died in the first movie, so she’s playing a different and in many ways more challenging character in the upcoming films. We’re both looking forward to this new creative challenge, the latest chapter in our long and continuing collaboration.”
Cameron recently revealed at the L.A. Times Hero Complex (via Slashfilm) his approach to the Avatar was to write 1,500 pages of notes and then hired screenwriters Josh Friedman (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”), Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Jurassic World scribes Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and Shane Salerno (Armageddon) to write all four screenplays.
“We tried an experiment,” Cameron said, “We set ourselves a challenge of writing three films at the same time. And I could certainly write any one of them but to write three in some reasonable amount of time – we wanted to shoot them together so we couldn’t start one until all three scripts were done and approved. So I knew I was going to have to ‘parallel process’ which meant I would have to work with other writers. And the best experience I had working with other writers was in television when I did ‘Dark Angel.’ The television room is a highly collaborative, fun experience.”
As for how the screenplays came together Cameron added, “What we did that was unique: we sat in the writing room for five months, eight hours a day, and we worked out every beat of the story across all three films so it all connects as one, sort of, three film saga. And I didn’t tell them which one was going to be there’s individually to write until the last day. So everyone was equally invested, story wise, in all three films.”
All four Avatar sequels will be filmed back-to-back-to-back and are expected to first start hitting theaters December 2016 with an installment hitting theaters the following two years. Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldana and, apparently even Stephen Lang according to Deadline.com.
