Filmmaker James Cameron has confirmed to Variety that the upcoming “Avatar: Fire and Ash” will clock in at around three hours runtime, about on par with 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” which clocked in at 192 minutes.
As for where the film currently sits in post-production, he says: “We’re going through the finish of the VFX now [on Fire and Ash] – we have been, really, for the last two years, but we’re really coming down to the wire now.”
That said, Cameron tells CrewCall podcast that a fourth and fifth film in the franchise is hardly guaranteed at this point:
“Theatrical has kind of taken a nosedive during COVID, and it’s never really rebounded. So the jury’s still out on whether I can continue with the current business model. If I get to make four and five, I know exactly what I’m doing. But the ‘if’ I think is in capital letters and underlined ten times.
These movies cost a metric s— ton. They have to make metric s— tons, right? The simple math of movies never changes. You have to make enough to justify a sequel.”
Going back to the trade, he was asked about how his “Ghosts of Hiroshima” film is progressing. He says he hasn’t “written a script yet,” but he has every intention of directing it. The question will be ‘when?’ and to that, even he’s not clear. He says:
“I am at a bit of a crossroads here, and I’m going to have to see what draws me to what as I go forward. The only thing I can tell you right now, I’m not going to stop being a director and a storyteller. That’s the only thing I can confirm at this stage.”
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” opens in cinemas in December.
