AVATAR UNIVERSE EXPANDS TO THREE SEQUELS
James Cameron Hires Writers to Collaborate with
Him on the Films
Marking a significant expansion of his already ambitious plans for the
much-anticipated AVATAR sequels, Academy Award®-winning filmmaker James Cameron
announced that the films have grown in number from two to three.
Additionally, to help bring his growing AVATAR universe to life and to expedite
the process, Cameron has hired screenwriters Josh Friedman (War of the
Worlds), Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planets of the Apes),
and Shane Salerno (Savages, Salinger) to collaborate with him on the
screenplays for the three films.
The three pictures will be filmed simultaneously with production beginning next
year. The release of the first sequel will be in December 2016, with
the second to follow in December 2017, and the third a year later. AVATAR 2, 3,
and 4 will be produced by Cameron and Jon Landau through their Lightstorm
Entertainment banner. Like the original film, Lightstorm will work with Joe
Letteri and his team at WETA Digital to realize the worlds of the sequels.
Commented Cameron: “Building upon the world we created with AVATAR
has been a rare and incredibly rewarding experience. In writing the
new films, I’ve come to realize that AVATAR’s world, story and characters have
become even richer than I anticipated, and it became apparent that two films
would not be enough to capture everything I wanted to put on screen. And to
help me continue to expand this universe, I’m pleased to bring aboard Amanda,
Rick, Shane and Josh -- all writers I’ve long admired - to join me in
completing the films screenplays.”
Commented 20th Century Fox chairman and CEO, Jim Gianopulos: “We at the studio
have no higher priority, and can feel no greater joy, than enabling Jim to
continue and expand his vision of the world of AVATAR. The growing breadth and
scale of Jim Cameron’s plans for his magnificent fantasy worlds continue to
amaze us all.”
AVATAR is the highest grossing film of all time, and is also the top-selling
Blu-ray disc of all time. The film won Golden Globe® awards for Best Motion
Picture and Best Director; and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including
Best Picture and Best Director, and won Oscars for art direction, visual
effects and cinematography.
AVATAR was written by Cameron from an idea he nurtured for over a decade, while
working on the technology necessary to realize its wholly imagined world.
Working with WETA Digital, Cameron created a fully immersive 3D cinematic experience
of a new kind, where revolutionary technology that was invented to make the
film disappeared into the emotion of the characters and the epic nature of the
story.
The three AVATAR sequels will mark Cameron’s latest collaborations with 20th Century
Fox, a relationship that spans nearly 30 years and marks one of the most
successful filmmaker-studio alliances in motion picture history. Cameron and
Fox first joined forces in 1985 for Aliens, which became a sci-fi
classic. Next came The Abyss, which revolutionized visual effects
technology; then came the blockbuster, True Lies. In 1996, Fox
greenlighted Cameron’s Titanic, which became the most successful film in
history, and won a record-breaking eleven Academy Awards, including Best
Picture.
About 20th Century Fox
One of the world’s largest
producers and distributors of motion pictures, 20th Century Fox produces,
acquires and distributes motion pictures throughout the world. These motion
pictures are produced or acquired by the following units: Twentieth Century
Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox International Productions
and Twentieth Century Fox Animation.
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