The long in the works sequels to James Cameron’s sci-fi epic “Avatar” should finally arrive in the near future as production continues in New Zealand for now. In an interview with The Toronto Sun recently, the filmmaker appeared to have full confidence in the project to date. In fact he says the quality of the output coming out of it is surprising even him:
“I deal with images in that world every single day and there are some days when I look at those images and say, ‘This is really amazing.’ I’m not patting myself on the back with that comment. It’s a distillation of some of the best designers in the world and a great cast. But if you’ve got the script right and the design right and you have a great cast, then it’s just an iterative process to get the whole thing shot and assembled.”
The original “Avatar” was famous for helping really showcase 3D in cinema, helping it go widespread. However that trend has died out in recent years and certainly won’t have the same impact. Cameron though believes the new films will showcase it in ways that no movie has before thanks in part to variable frame rates:
“It will be in 3D and selective high-frame rates in certain sections. We’re picking those as we go along. The whole thing will be projected at high-frame rate, but it won’t necessarily be displayed that way. It’s kind of complicated, but the projectors have to run at 24 or 48 fps – you have to pick – we’re running at 48. But a lot of it will be rendered at 24 fps. I’ve tried to explain this before, and people sort of get it and don’t get it. All I can say is, it will be seamless. But I’m not touting it as some brand-new format.”
Set twelve years after the events of the original film, Jake Sully and Neytiri have formed a family who are forced to leave their home and explore different regions of Pandora when an old threat returns to finish what it started.
The film was slated to open December next year but has now been delayed a year. You can see a post about that below.
