James Cameron On The Challenges Of 'Avatar' Sequel's Underwater Scenes

By now, we're already highly aware of the fact that two more trips to Pandora are in our future. Far in our future, unfortunately, as James Cameron's back-to-back sequels to "Avatar" aren't hitting theaters until 2014 and 2015 at earliest. But while that's a bummer in some regards, it's actually a very good thing in other ways: namely, it gives Cameron extra time to work on some new tricks.

Some set up: "Avatar 2," and potentially "Avatar 3," is going to showcase the underwater areas of Pandora. In theory, that's a fantastically exciting prospect. The lush, florescent jungles seen in the first film were some of the most breathtaking locations ever put to film, and the aquatic flora and fauna of Pandora are likely to match that level of visual wonder — but there are some obstacles for Cameron to overcome, such as mastering the art of underwater performance capture.

"'Avatar' does have some underwater stuff, but it will mostly involve characters that are the Na'vi and the Avatars," Cameron Told MTV News at during the press junket for "Sanctum," which is out in theaters today. "So we have to figure out how to do performance capture underwater, which has never been done. That's a whole other problem."

Cameron is optimistic about finding a solution, thankfully, and his experience on "Sanctum" — an underwater thriller based on true events — may have helped him prepare for the water sequences in the "Avatar" sequels.

"Every time you do a project, you learn. You make the cameras better, you learn more about the procedure," he explained. "We like to build race cars and then we like to go race the race car and then we go back and work on the engine some more."

James Cameron May Shoot Avatar 2 At 60 Frames Per Second

When James Cameron sets his mind to something he does it and does it right, damn the torpedoes. Was Avatar a little weak in the story department? Of course. But visually Cameron took things to a whole new level and proved that he can still direct the hell out of some action sequences.

Keeping that in mind helps soften the blow that he may shoot the next Avatar film at 60 frames per second. The director told the Wall Street Journal that there are a couple of things he’s hoping for with his highly anticipated sequel:

For Avatar 2, what I’m most interested in is getting theaters to up their light level. And we want to shoot the movie at 48 or maybe even 60 frames a second, and display it at that speed, which will eliminate a lot of the motion artifacts that I think are causing some people problems.


The 60fps look isn’t inherently bad, it’s just so different from the standard 24fps look we see 99.99% of the time in Hollywood films. It generally creates a “realler” look like what you see when you’re shooting home movies. Or the frame rate is used to create slow motion when the footage is played back at a slower rate.

Your first instinct, like mine, will be to scoff at the idea and write it off as one of Cameron’s crazy schemes, but you’ll soon remember that his crazy schemes usually pan out. Expect this to turn into something interesting rather than something ugly.

James Cameron To Improve 3D For Avatar 2

James Cameron has revealed that he wants to improve 3D for the Avatar sequel.

Avatar set the standard for 3D cinema when it was released in 2009 - going on to become the biggest grossing movie of all time.

And Cameron is planning to set the bar even higher when he begins to work on a much awaited sequel.

Talking to SpeakEasy the filmmaker said: "For Avatar 2, what I'm most interested in is getting theatres to up their light level," Cameron said.

"And we want to shoot the movie at 48 or maybe even 60 frames a second, and display it at that speed, which will eliminate a lot of the motion artifacts that I think are causing some people problems.

"People talk about feeling sick or something like that, and I think it's because the image is strobing," That's a function of the 24-frame frame rate, which has actually got nothing to do with 3D.

"It's just made more apparent because the 3D is otherwise such an enhanced, realistic image, that all of a sudden you're aware of this funky strobing which you weren't aware of."

Cameron is back on the big screen this week; in a producing capacity at least, with the release of new 3D adventure Sanctum.

As well as Avatar 2 and 3 in the pipeline Cameron is also set to direct Battle Angel, which is based on the Yukito Kishiro graphic novels.

James Cameron Still Planning To Direct 'Battle Angel,' Offers Significant Plot Update

There isn't a single person reading this blog right now who doesn't know James Cameron's work. The box office dollars show that most of you know him for "Avatar" and "Titanic," but the master filmmaker is responsible for several other cinematic greats, including my personal favorite film of all time, "Aliens."

Still, while I'm psyched to see what Cameron has in store for us with his planned two-part sequel to "Avatar," is it wrong to say that I'm even more excited for his "Battle Angel" adaptation? Cameron has long planned to tackle a feature film version of the high octane manga series from Yukito Kishiro, and it's still coming — but it's going to take a while to get here.

"I’m obviously going to be pretty busy for the next five years [with Avatar 2 and 3]," he tells Collider. "And so I had to consider, do I hand this project off to another director? And then I thought, ‘No, I love it too much.’”

There are nine different volumes in the "Battle Angel Alita" series, so there's a lot of content to cover in the story of the amnesiac cybernetic fighter. But rather than adapting a specific volume, Cameron says he's going to cherry pick some of his favorite elements from the first four books in the series.

"It’s such a rich world," he explained. "What I’m going to do is take the spine story and use elements from the first four books. So, the Motorball from books three and four, and parts of the story of one and two will all be in the movie."

The Motorball news is particularly awesome. In the world of "Battle Angel," Motorball is a hyperviolent sport where competitors have to transport a heavy motorball across the finish line or get eliminated in the process. Knowing what Cameron is capable of in both the action and 3-D arenas, to say that the Motorball scenes in "Battle Angel" will be breathtaking is one huge understatement. It's just too bad it's going to take years and years for us to see it!

'Sanctum' movie premiere: James Cameron in the role of - God?

James Cameron amped up the star power at the "Sanctum" movie premiere on Monday night, much like his presence as exec producer has amped up buzz on on the 3-D underwater cave-diving adventure.

The $30-million "Sanctum" budget would hardly count as a decent tip on the bill of something like "Avatar," the effects-laden 2009 smash, but no matter the price, the movie's final cut had to have Cameron's seal of approval.

Director Alister Griersen was a bit overwhelmed when he screened his second movie ever at Cameron's Malibu home: "It was like sitting with God at the pearly gates watching your entire life," he told The Times.

Yes, well, Malibu can have that effect on people.

Cast members Rhys Wakefield, Christopher Baker, Richard Roxburgh, Alice Parkinson Dan Wyllie, Allison Cratchley and Ioan Gruffudd, with actress wife Alice Evans, joined Cameron and Australian Grierson on the red carpet Monday in Hollywood and afterward for a party at the Highlands.

James Cameron To Receive Inaugural 3D Filmmaking Award

James Cameron's next acceptance speech may go from "I'm the king of the world!" to "I see you" as the "Avatar" director is set to receive the International 3-D Society's inaugural Harold Lloyd Award.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar-winner will be the first-ever honoree, for his "outstanding achievement in 3-D filmmaking and advocacy." Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of 3-D photography visionary Harold Lloyd and chairman of Harold Llyod Entertainment, stated that James Cameron was the obvious choice because he "has embodied Harold Lloyd's vision and passion for dazzling audiences across the globe."

"With 'Avatar' and his commitment to 3-D storytelling, it is appropriate that he is the first recipient of this most prestigious annual award," she added.

Cameron will be presented with the award on February 9 at the International 3-D Society's 2nd Annual Creative Arts Awards at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The ceremony itself will be recorded and telecast in 3-D (of course) for a 2-hour special on 3net.

This news comes just days before the release of 3-D underwater cave diving saga "Sanctum" (which Cameron produced) and right on the heels of Cameron's announcement about details on, as well as the anticipated release dates for "Avatar 2" and "Avatar 3," the follow-ups to his groundbreaking digital 3-D 2009 film.

James Cameron To Improve 3D For Avatar 2

James Cameron has revealed that he wants to improve 3D for the Avatar sequel.

Avatar set the standard for 3D cinema when it was released in 2009 - going on to become the biggest grossing movie of all time.

And Cameron is planning to set the bar even higher when he begins to work on a much awaited sequel.

Talking to SpeakEasy the filmmaker said: "For Avatar 2, what I'm most interested in is getting theatres to up their light level," Cameron said.

"And we want to shoot the movie at 48 or maybe even 60 frames a second, and display it at that speed, which will eliminate a lot of the motion artifacts that I think are causing some people problems.

"People talk about feeling sick or something like that, and I think it's because the image is strobing," That's a function of the 24-frame frame rate, which has actually got nothing to do with 3D.

"It's just made more apparent because the 3D is otherwise such an enhanced, realistic image, that all of a sudden you're aware of this funky strobing which you weren't aware of."

Cameron is back on the big screen this week; in a producing capacity at least, with the release of new 3D adventure Sanctum.

As well as Avatar 2 and 3 in the pipeline Cameron is also set to direct Battle Angel, which is based on the Yukito Kishiro graphic novels.