James Cameron Making Four Avatar Sequels

Megalith

Megalith

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James Cameron doesn't do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is... James Cameron.

“We’re making four epic [Avatar] films that stand alone but together form a saga. These movies were designed to be seen in theaters first,” said Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron, making a special appearance today at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Originally, Cameron believed that there would be three, but now Avatar 2 will be released at Christmas 2018 with sequels following at Christmastime in 2020 and 2022 and 2023. I’ve been working with the top four screenwriters and designers in the world to design the world of Avatar going forward,” he said. “The environments, new cultures — whatever it takes to bring it to life. From what I’m seeing of the art on the wall … in pure imagination is just beyond the first film. I’m speechless.”
 
i really doubt that they will get close to the box office of original Avatar, but we shall see.

I am honestly doubtful since if Earth really needs/wants those resources, then since the ones telling the story of what happened are all the military then it would be easy to make up a tale of deception and war from the aliens and short after that a full scale invasion with kinetic bombardment and the like would just wipe them out easy.

Yes i know that i have been overthinking this.
 
I personally didn't find the weird Pocahontas that entertaining. 4 sequels is very confident. They save money by shooting at once because you have the same crews, actors, and props so you don't have to double up on things. Plus you get the added benefit of negotiating once with the cast without having them come back after a huge success (whether with the film or other projects where their brand value is now higher) and demand tons of money.
 
Avatar hasn't retained any relevance in pop culture since shortly after the initial release. There are no quotes people use, no toys or video games, it never comes up in water cooler talk, no spin offs, the characters weren't memorable... No one really talks about a sequel because the movie wasn't much more than a CGI "HD" show piece that hit at the right place in time. Hell you don't even see Avatar questions in those quizzes that show before a new movie in the theater.

I think four sequels could be cut down after the first one fails to hit whatever lofty expectations the studio has.
 
Hearing about Avatar 5 is like hearing about Tremors 5 or Lost Boys 3, except those movies actually exist.
 
James Cameron doesn't do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is... James Cameron.
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This is actually one of the greatest compliments that South Park has given to anyone.

Going back to the naysayers of Avatar. You guys need to look at what Avatar was designed to do. James Cameron stated that the 2 goals of this movie were
  1. Get movie goers back into the theater
  2. To create a scene so real that your mind/eye will not be able to distinguish between what what's real and what's not in the scene.

On point #1, he nailed it. Not only was it the top grossing film of all time (which means people when to the theater), it also kick started the 3D era. Regardless of your opinion on the use of 3D, his goal of getting people to go to a theater to experience it worked. Now going back to that, how many high profile directors have you heard say they specifically wanted to get people energized in going to the theater? I can't think of any. They want to make you aware of this that and the other thing about social issues, but to simply get you to enjoy WATCHING a movie....I think that's low on the priority list.

Point #2, he nailed as well. The only reason that you could tell things were CG in that film were because you knew that it wasn't real, and thus it MUST be created. Visually, the movie is flawless. Terminator 2 was near flawless, but this movie was flawless. I was expecting James Cameron to come out several months after the movie was released and say "Hey, there are actually zero live shots in this movie", and I would have believed him. The techniques used in this film are now industry standard practices. I know, I know, he wasn't the first to use motion tracking, but his technique and application is what made it special.

You guys act like making a movie that is all effects is nothing significant. Yet I don't hear anyone saying "The Notebook" was a shit movie because there was no action scenes. Movies are designed for specific reasons. Avatar was designed to showcase cinematography. The story was irrelevant because it only needed to exist enough to allow the movie to happen. Did Terminator 2 have a rock solid story? No. But it was enough to make the movie work. Hell, did Akira have a good story? Not really, but it was enough to let them make one of the greatest animation films of all time....and the reason it is so highly coveted is exactly the same reason that Avatar exists. Let me add this.

It doesn't have any pop culture afterlife, because it wasn't designed to. The movie was developed for a reason, and it exceeded. I think that eventually once enough time fades for people stop with the jokes, the move will be seen as one of the great moments in movie history. I think that the movie was so foreign to most people that they simply do not know how to take it seriously.



EDIT: To anyone saying Avatar was just a different version of XXXXXX movie. Go watch Days Of Thunder and Top Gun. It is the exact same movie. But no one cared. They were both good, and they were both fun to watch. Who gives shit about story originality? Unless you are going for an original story then I think it's safe to say that most "stories" have been done in a broad sense.
 
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Story will have to be better. Don't think the next movie will have enough wow factor to carry it.
IMO Only thing impressive about the whole movie is it was all filmed inside a studio.
 
The first one was so boring that I fell asleep twice (at the theater and at my home).
 
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I didn't think it was bad... but that was probably because I liked pocahontas.... that Color of the Wind song sang by Judy Kuhn still gets stuck in my head every now and then.
 
The story may have been cliché, but the movie as a whole was extremely well executed IMO, signature James Cameron. As far as sequels go, I'd rather have continuity with them all properly scripted and planned together rather than pieced together years apart by different writers and crews as the studios slowly approve budgets.
 
You know, I avoided Avatar like the plague for years. I thought it was just going to be horrible. Friends/family kept telling me that it was good. I finally broke down and rented it about a year ago, or so. I really enjoyed it. Was it derivative, yes. Was it formulaic, definitely. But I still enjoyed it. I hope the new ones are enjoyable.
 
Krenum said:
Although I enjoyed Avatar. You have to admit , its a direct mashup of Ferngully & Dances with Wolves. Which isn't surprising since he wrote it in the 90's.

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You mean pocahontas?

original.jpg
 
Mut1ny said:
The fuck are you talking about? To even consider this one of the worst films of the past DECADE is ludicrous. Are the only other movies you've seen in 10 years Gigli and Disaster Movie? Give me a break...
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Don't feed the trolls. He's being 2Edgy4U, Hate what is popular. Much edgy. wow.
 
Avatar was amazing visually. It was something we didn't really see before. It was a great movie, great story, great visuals. Just a kick ass movie.

4 sequels? It'll come off like the Matrix sequels. The Matrix was amazing. Something we didn't see before. Then, they tried to overdo it. It didn't work too well.

Cameron is going to be riding a very thin line. It's either going to be good or it's going to be overdone or it's going to be shit. The good part is the thin line. He has to be careful.
 
Ur_Mom said:
Avatar was amazing visually. It was something we didn't really see before. It was a great movie, great story, great visuals. Just a kick ass movie.

4 sequels? It'll come off like the Matrix sequels. The Matrix was amazing. Something we didn't see before. Then, they tried to overdo it. It didn't work too well.

Cameron is going to be riding a very thin line. It's either going to be good or it's going to be overdone or it's going to be shit. The good part is the thin line. He has to be careful.
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Keep in mind that he did Aliens and Terminator 2. So he does have a track record of at least being able to make a sequel that is as good as the 1st.
 
Wyodiver said:
You know, I avoided Avatar like the plague for years. I thought it was just going to be horrible. Friends/family kept telling me that it was good. I finally broke down and rented it about a year ago, or so. I really enjoyed it. Was it derivative, yes. Was it formulaic, definitely. But I still enjoyed it. I hope the new ones are enjoyable.
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Watching Avatar in 3D in the theater will be one of the great movie experiences of my life. He used the theater screen like a window into another reality and it was beautiful.
 
Seriously, 3d and avatar blew my mind when I saw it. Felt like you were there and I thought of all the wonderful movies that'd come afterwards.

Sadly aside from a few movies, like Life of Pi, hardly any "3d" movies actually felt like they were actually MADE for 3d and put you into their worlds. It was so disappointing, and then they wonder why the 3dtv's and movies failed to take off? Well if most of the 3d-movies actually took the time and were made like Avatar it would have, but instead you just had a bunch of post-conversions and cheap "Gimmicky" 3d movies that just threw stufff at you like those horrible 80's era 3d movies.
 
The only reason I watched Avatar a second time was for the extended, 'racier' alien sex sequence on the blu-ray release.

It did not deliver.
 
Megalith said:
“We’re making four epic [Avatar] films that stand alone but together form a saga.
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Translation: I've run out of ideas for new movies, so I'm going to milk this previous movie all I can.
 
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nutzo said:
Translation: I've run out of ideas for new movies, so I'm going to milk this previous movie all I can.
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Like all the Batman and DC comics and transformers movies that in no way demonstrated lack of ideas?
 
Ur_Mom said:
Avatar was amazing visually. It was something we didn't really see before. It was a great movie, great story, great visuals. Just a kick ass movie.

4 sequels? It'll come off like the Matrix sequels. The Matrix was amazing. Something we didn't see before. Then, they tried to overdo it. It didn't work too well.

Cameron is going to be riding a very thin line. It's either going to be good or it's going to be overdone or it's going to be shit. The good part is the thin line. He has to be careful.
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This isn't the Wachoswkis. This is Cameron, who's made very few (if any) bad movies. Let's also keep in mind that he's just spent 7 years (give or take) on these sequels. This is hardly a rush to the screen. You can bet against Cameron, but the only time I feel he came up short was on The Abyss, and that was because the original cut was too short and the SFX technology wasn't quite there. The DVD version is a great as is Terminator 2, Aliens 2 (better than Scott's original), True Lies and yes even Titanic (which I went to see way after its release with quite a bit of skepticism)

It may be his undoing, but until Cameron blows it, I'm going to assume he'll pull it off
 
Stiler said:
Seriously, 3d and avatar blew my mind when I saw it. Felt like you were there and I thought of all the wonderful movies that'd come afterwards.

Sadly aside from a few movies, like Life of Pi, hardly any "3d" movies actually felt like they were actually MADE for 3d and put you into their worlds. It was so disappointing, and then they wonder why the 3dtv's and movies failed to take off? Well if most of the 3d-movies actually took the time and were made like Avatar it would have, but instead you just had a bunch of post-conversions and cheap "Gimmicky" 3d movies that just threw stufff at you like those horrible 80's era 3d movies.
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I kinda wonder if The Jungle Book was made for 3D. I saw it in 2D, but it seemed really bright at times and since it's virtually 100% CGI, I can imagine them getting it right.
 
While I did enjoy watching the first one, sequels are probably not going to do nearly as well as first one.
 
Rev Lemmon said:
While I did enjoy watching the first one, sequels are probably not going to do nearly as well as first one.
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Oh, I don't know. I kind-of PREFER Cameron's sequels. However, I can't think of a single three-quel done by Cameron...
 
Stiler said:
Seriously, 3d and avatar blew my mind when I saw it. Felt like you were there and I thought of all the wonderful movies that'd come afterwards.

Sadly aside from a few movies, like Life of Pi, hardly any "3d" movies actually felt like they were actually MADE for 3d and put you into their worlds.
Click to expand...

Gravity was a fantastic experience. The believability of the movie is below questionable, but the experience was excellent. I watched it again after it came out on disc and it just didn't have any of the same appeal. Much like Avatar, I feel sorry for anyone who didn't get to experience Gravity in theater.
 
nilepez said:
I kinda wonder if The Jungle Book was made for 3D. I saw it in 2D, but it seemed really bright at times and since it's virtually 100% CGI, I can imagine them getting it right.
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It probably was. I splurged $18 per 3D imax ticket and the experience was phenomenal.
 
4 sequels? GTFOH

it would be one thing if there was a pre-existing book series or something like that (similar to the LOTR series) that they were trying to follow and make a movie for each chapter, but it's more of "hey! let's do 4 more movies just because we can!".

james cameron or not, i forsee this becoming like most of the other multi-sequels that have come before it.....Saw.....Fast & Furious....etc., etc. it's just going to be a cash cow that they milk for all it's worth.
 
Please, PLEASE, PLEASE NO!!
Avatar was probably the most hyped movie that I can remember. I never saw it in the theater but likely I would have walked out on it.
I watched it on DVD when it released and couldn't not believe how bad it was.
 
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