Avatar Writers Assigned Scripts By James Cameron
-
- June 17, 2014
By Mark Hodge (doddleNEWS)
Making three Avatar films back-to-back-to-back was never going to happen quickly. But while it’s been 5 years since the original broke box office records, the sequels are now moving ahead at pace.
After director James Cameron sat in a room with four writers for five long months and hashed out three blockbuster stories, the NYT has now reported exactly which screenwriter (or screenwriting duo, in the case of duo Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver) will be penning each movie.
- Avatar 2 will be written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, along with James Cameron
- Avatar 3 will be written by Josh Friedman, along with James Cameron
- Avatar 4 will be written by Shane Salerno, along with James Cameron.
Interestingly, when the groups of writers, headed by legendary filmmaker Cameron, were developing the stories, they were not told which team would be tasked with what script. So every writer was equally invested in all three stories.
That’s pretty clever, but we wouldn’t expect anything else from the self-styled ‘King of the World.’
What that means is that all three writing teams will have an intimate knowledge of the other instalments, giving the world of Pandora extra narrative depth.
Of course, the films – production should start later this year – will again involve ground breaking special effects, courtesy of Peter Jackson’s New Zealand based WETA digital.
Despite the first installment grossing nearly $3 billion worldwide, studio Fox has a lot riding on the sequels.
Quite simply Cameron does not do things cheaply, with the Terminator director’s last two films, Avatar (2009) and Titanic (1997), having a combined budget of around $450 million. In fact, many of his films were budget-busters in their day, including True Lies, T2, and The Abyss. Of course Avatar and Titanic just so happen to be the two highest grossing movies ever, with a combined gross of nearly $5 billion.
However, what that means it that all three Avatar sequels -- which will of course be filmed together, and many of the original actors are returning, including Sigourney Weaver in a new role -- could cost collectively close to, or above, $1-billion.
Each sequel will be released a year apart, mirroring Jackson’s LOTR and Hobbit trilogies. Avatar 2 will hit screens in December 2016, with the follow-ups arriving in December 2017 and December 2018.
Stay tuned for more Avatar news.
The post Avatar Writers Assigned Scripts By James Cameron appeared first on Doddle.
