In between his busy schedule of discussing with his team of engineers (in a language he invented) how to make swimming in a pool of gold coins physically possible, James Cameron sat down to talk Avatar sequels with Entertainment Weekly.
Cameron tells EW, “I am in the process of writing the next two Avatar films now. We are planning to shoot them together and post them together, and we will probably release them not quite back to back, but about a year apart. Christmas ’14 and ’15 is the current plan.” Of course, it’s probably best to take those release dates with a grain of salt, since the first Avatar had several release dates before its December 2009 release. Still, now fans know that they’ll have to wait at least three more years for a return to Pandora.
Cameron also notes that we’ll see some familiar faces return. “Basically, if you survived the first film, you get to be in the second film, at least in some form,” say the director. One thing’s for sure: some percentage of the presumably-massive Avatar sequel gross will go to charity. “Fox has partnered with me to donate a chunk of the profits to environmental causes that are at the heart of the Avatar world,” says the director. “I didn’t want to make more Avatar movies without a grander plan in place.”
Cameron continued, “That grander plan? Steal Christmas. Now hear me out. I think the Grinch had some great ideas, but ultimately lacked the technological know-how to follow through. What I’m working on is a laser that runs on contrived, easily-predictable plotlines — a limitless resource in my production studios — that will chemically extract the Christmas spirit from innocent children and replace it with an undying desire to watch True Lies on loop ad infinitum. I will then use the profits from the royalties to purchase a mid-sized chunk of land, I’m thinking Manhattan, level it, and open a theme park based on Titanic. Everyday, I will fly in a new iceberg from the Artic, fill a 150%, historically accurate scale model of the ship with underprivileged children, and sink it for my enjoyment in a custom made tank. It’s been a dream of mine since childhood.”