Another day, another AVATAR sequel update! This time around, it looks like James Cameron and Co. might actually be done with the writing phase! Not just for AVATAR 2, mind you, but for the entirety of the 4 sequels. In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Cameron had as much to say, as well as how to make a relevant Terminator film. Take a look!
James Cameron on the state of AVATAR 2:
The thing is, my focus isn’t on AVATAR 2. My focus is on AVATAR 2, 3, 4 and 5 equally. That’s exactly how I’m approaching it. They’ve all been developed equally. I’ve just finished the script to AVATAR 5. I’m now starting the process of active prep. I’ll be working with the actors in the capture volume in August, so I’m booked in production every day between now and then. Our volume is up and running, and everything is designed, and so we’re going full-guns right now. I feel like I’ve been let out of jail, because I’ve been in the writing cave for the last two years. I’m actually enjoying life. I don’t enjoy writing. I wouldn’t wish writing on a dog.
Regarding the TERMINATOR franchise:
It’s really just stumbled along, trying to find its voice again. There’s probably some degree to where it’s lost relevance, you know? Maybe the things that made it good back then are kind of a yawn now. It’s easy to remember fondly the things that kick off a franchise. It’s hard to keep a franchise vigorous, and relevant. I haven’t had my hand on the tiller since TERMINATOR 2, and that was 1991. So what’s that? Twenty-six years? But look, I think it’s possible to tell a great TERMINATOR story now, and it’s relevant. We live in a digital age, and TERMINATOR ultimately, if you can slow it down, is about our relationship with our own technology, and how our technology can reflect back to us—and in the movie, literally, in a human form that is a nemesis and a threat. But also in those movies, in the two that I did, it’s about how we dehumanize ourselves. In a time when people are being absorbed by their virtual-social world, I mean, just look around. I always say: if TERMINATOR was about the war between the humans and the machines, look around any restaurant or airport lounge and tell me the machines haven’t won when every human you see is enslaved to their device. So could you make a relevant TERMINATOR film now? Absolutely.
Granted, Cameron did only say that the script for AVATAR 5 is done, but I assume that you'd want to finish 2, 3 and 4 before completing the fifth. Then again, James Cameron does what we wants. As always, I'll believe it when I see it! Given his words on Terminator, I have some hope that Cameron has a few ideas for that "Tim Miller reboot" that's currently being planned. TERMINATOR/TERMINATOR 2 had a great concept that's never really been capitalized on in the sequels. We'll see if Cameron and Miller can change that!
AVATAR 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on December 21, 2018.