James Cameron Says Tech Improvements Should Speed Production Of 'Avatar' Sequels

As has been the case almost every day for the past few years, the Avatar sequels are slowly moving ahead. Writer/director/mastermind James Cameron continues to plug away on the three films, making sure everything is lined up to go into production later this year. The first movie took four years to make, though, so with a December 2016 release date planned for part two, one might think there'll be a rush to make not just one, but three movies, simultaneously. Not the case, says Cameron.

In a new interview, Cameron said technology has advanced so much since the original film was released, production will run much faster. He also talked about shooting in 4K resolution, potentially releasing in High Frame Rate, and where the story could go.

Listen to the director speak below.

Cameron talked to RTL (via MarketSaw and Coming Soon) about the sequels. First up, you can listen here.

Suites d'"Avatar" : "Je crois que ça va être... by rtl-fr

And here are the pertinent quotes starting with a general update:

We're still in the early stages. Right now we're developing the software. I'm writing the scripts. We're designing all the creatures and characters and the settings, and so on. So, I'm not actually directing yet, but I'm doing all the other creative processes that lead up to that. It's going very well. I think it's going to be spectacular. You'll see new worlds, new habitats, new cultures. The primary conflict between the human view kind of dominating nature and the Na'vi view of being integrated into nature is the same, but it manifests itself in very different ways.

On the speed of production:

The first film... took almost four years to make. We expect to be able to accelerate the process quite a bit, because we've improved a lot of the software and the computer graphics tools, and we've been working very closely with Weta Digital down here in New Zealand developing a whole new suite of tools to speed up the process.

On digital cameras:

I'm studying [high frame rate]. I haven't made a final decision yet, whether the entire film will be made at high frame rate or parts of it. You know, we'll be shooting at a native resolution of probably 4K and so then there should be a lot of true 4K theaters by then as well.

Any hints on the story:

The thing that's great about 'Avatar,' it's such a rich world, I can explore any theme or any idea that I want. Once you've got the characters that an audience loves, it's great to surprise them and make changes and turns that they don't expect. And you don't have to spend so much time of the movie setting up all that stuff, because the audience will remember from the previous film.

Avatar 2 hits December 2016, followed by 3 and 4 in 2017 and 2018.