James Cameron Talks ‘Avatar’, Part 2 And 3 Could Shoot Back To Back

‘Avatar’ is set for a re-release sometime soon (no date set for UAE) because of course it didn’t make enough money originally. And with that, James Cameron is out doing press for the release and giving us interesting information about the sequels, the novel and the new footage.

About Avatar 2 and 3, he speaks to MarketSaw :

I have an overall narrative arc for 2 and 3, and there are some modifications to that based on my experiences in the last few months from having gone down to the Amazon and actually hung out with various indigenous groups who are actually living this type of story for real…but it’s not changing the overall pattern. I haven’t gotten the script done yet; that’s going to be a ways out.

But he also says to MTV that shooting both of them back to back is a genuine possibility:

“That is something that makes a lot of sense, given the nature of these productions, because we can bank all the [motion] capture and then go back and do cameras over a period of time.”

After the break, read about his plans for the novel as well as the revelation of the new footage in the re-release.

He tells MTV about the novel:

“I never had a chance to get the novel done while we were making the movie, and I always intended to. I didn’t want to do a cheesy novelization where some hack comes in and makes shit up. I wanted to do something that was kind of a legitimate novel that was inside the characters’ heads. Ideally that becomes a bible for any other writers that want to come along and riff off with other Avatar-based stories. I don’t mind opening up the universe; I just don’t want that to happen until I’ve got more meat on the bones.”

He also explains the new footage:

“It’s actually nine! [Extra minutes.] I added some since that press release. It’s all CG. None of it is kinda boring shots of people sitting around in offices at the base, drinking coffee. It’s all out in the rainforest, some of it is at night. There is a big hunt sequence that’s got a lot of flying, a lot of banshee stuff, riding direhorses, very high-energy, high-impact action. There’s a very powerful emotional scene towards the end that has been added back.

There’s some stuff where the Na’vi sort of counterattack after the bulldozers destroy the willowblade, that’s a night attack scene. And the aftermath of that, how the humans react to that and the steps leading to the war. There’s some stuff with Grace in the school in the jungle, there’s a creature called a stingbat which is brought back in [that one was in the video game] as well as the sternbeast, which is the animal that they hunt. We see hundreds of those…There are some little bits that have been put back into the end battle. Little action beats, and a little bit added to the love scene, and some other night stuff. It’s all top-quality stuff, it’s all on par with the rest of the film.”

Got me excited.