Cameron confirms 'Avatar' sequels

LOS ANGELES -- Returning to Pandora is now a sure thing, according to James Cameron. The colourful Canadian-born filmmaker plans to direct two Avatar sequels himself, he said this week at his Hollywood studio.

"It's in progress right now," Cameron said. "I mean, there's a lot of writing, a lot of designing, a lot of tech work that we're going to do. What I can tell you is this: Our plan right now is to make II and III together as a single large production, and release them a year apart."

But the process might take five or six years.

"There shouldn't be any surprise there," he said, mocking himself. While perfecting new Avatar technology, he might make another movie first, Cameron explained during presentations to promote the Nov. 16 release of the Extended Collector's Edition of the original Avatar on Blu-ray.

Meanwhile, Cameron is writing an Avatar novel, with 30 years of back story. He also is deeply involved with eco-activist causes that solicited him after the phenomenal success of Avatar, which is driven by an environmental theme. His focus includes fighting the Alberta tar sands development, which Cameron says is "poisoning" First Nations people and creating "cancer clusters" in communities downstream from the massive oil extraction projects.

THE SEQUELS: Cameron says he wants to make sure that breakthrough technology that turned Avatar into a spectacle is now pushed forward. "We need to future-proof ourselves out five, six years to the end of the third film. So we're taking the time now."

His team is "tooling up a new facility" near his current studio just for the sequels. "It's permanent in the sense that it's designed to span two Avatar films. We're laying all the foundation work right now. Nothing is holding us back." But digital technology moves quickly, and Cameron says Avatar convinced him "there are a lot of things we knew we needed to do better." The goal, he says, is to ensure "we're not obsolete when we make the last movie."

THE NOVEL: "The novel is a big project. My idea for the novel is not a novelization -- which I hate -- where you basically just take the script and put it into prose form, and add a few extra adjectives. What I really want to do is say: 'OK, if this movie were based on a book, what would that book have been?' "

Cameron is already deep into it. The novel will end like the first movie. "I don't give you one frame beyond that. But how about the 30 years before Jake gets to Pandora?"

THE ECO-ACTIVISM: Cameron says he remains committed to select causes among hundreds he has been approached about. "We've had to be selective because we can't get involved in every single cause everywhere. Even if I devoted the rest of my life to it, we can't do everything."

He intensely researches each cause he does support, including fighting the Alberta tar sands project. The goal there is to get the Alberta government and the oil companies to mitigate the effects of pollution, Cameron says.

"It's not me," he said of his influence. "A year ago I couldn't have stood up and done all that stuff -- and nobody would have asked me to. It's really that the movie has created this kind of global consciousness around this idea that we have to do something about our relationship with nature. I'm also not, by the way, delusional that a movie can change the world. But I do believe that, if you put a foot in the right direction and then you follow up ... But I can't wait until I make another Avatar movie (to act). There are too many important things that are happening right now."

Avatar Sequel - James Cameron Plans Historical Deep-Sea Dive

The Avatar Sequel - James Cameron's next big production is already in the works in Australia. The Avatar director is planning on traveling 36,000ft to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean to shoot footage for the sequel to his 2009 block-buster.

To reach such depths, the filmmaker has commissioned engineers to build a custom vessel to explore the deep blue.

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According to the Daily Express, the two-seater submersible will come equipped with 3D cameras to record footage underwater.

"We are building a vehicle to do the dive. It's about half-completed in Australia," Cameron said.

If the 56-year-old Oscar-winner makes it to the bottom, he will only the second ever team to do so. A navy lieutenant and a scientist took five hours to descend to the sea floor in 1960.

Will James Cameron Romance Cleopatra Before Avatar 2?

James Cameron is not a man exactly hurting for work: he has the Avatar sequel in active development, has been writing a novel set in the Pandora universe and has at least three other projects bubbling along. So when Deadline reports that Sony is chasing him to direct their epic new take on Cleopatra, starring Angelina Jolie, we raise a quizzical eyebrow and mark it down as a “possible” for now.

But apparently Sony and boss Amy Pascal are of the opinion that he’s the perfect man for the job.

We can see their point – Cameron knows how to do epic and his bigger films (you might have heard of Titanic and Avatar) make big bucks. But while Titanic was a historical drama, Cleopatra would be something else again.

And though the script was the one thing that most people felt was lacking about the ship-set disaster pic, Cleopatra comes with extra assurance – a screenplay by Brian Helgeland that is reportedly "brilliant”, deserving of epic treatment" and all about "what the Romans took from Egypt".

Jolie has been attached for a while, almost since producer Scott Rudin nabbed the rights to the source material, Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life, which de-mystifies the woman and discovers her real strengths. So, again: strong woman lead, real Cameron territory.

It’s likely to be expensive and Sony really wants it shooting next year, aiming to capitalise on its new, The Tourist-driven relationship with Jolie. The schedule might be the biggest sticking point, as Cameron would likely put his own films first. But a huge, 3D epic history with a fresh take on Cleopatra, starring Jolie, brought to cinemas by James Cameron? Surely that’d be a thing to see…

James White

Avatar's James Cameron kicks in $1 million

James Cameron, the director of Avatar, the environmental fable masquerading as a 3-D blockbuster, popped a million dollars Friday into the campaign to defeat Proposition 23, a California ballot initiative to suspend the state's global warming law.

Cameron, who has previously embraced such environmental causes as saving the Amazon and battling Canadian tar sands development, is the first entertainment industry figure to make a major donation in the initiative fight. However, another player with deep Hollywood ties, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, held a fundraiser at his home in Brentwood last month to raise money to fight the measure, which he sees as a threat to his legacy of promoting clean energy.

"Mr. Cameron is not only a filmmaker with a conscience," said No on Prop. 23 spokesman Steve Maviglio, "he is willing to put his money where his mouth is when it comes to a fight for California jobs and our clean energy future."

California’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, known as AB 32, is the most aggressive law in the country aimed at controlling pollution from fossil fuel burning that scientists say is disrupting Earth’s climate. It would slash greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 through regulations that would force utilities to get a third of their electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind plants, improve the fuel efficiency of automobiles and cap emissions from industrial plants.

Prop. 23 is mainly funded by oil refiners whose costs would rise under the global warming law. It would suspend the law until unemployment in California drops to 5.5% for a year — a level that historically has rarely been achieved. Current joblessness is over 12%.

Cameron's donation comes as contributions from clean-tech executives, environmental groups and wealthy conservationists opposing Prop. 23 have surged to more than $20 million in the last month, outpacing the $9 million raised so far by the initiative's backers.

Maviglio said opponents of the measure fear that oil companies and other industries affected by the global warming law could pour money into the fight at the last minute. “We are girding for what the oil companies traditionally have done on California ballot measures, when they've dumped millions of dollars into the campaign in the final stretch," he said.

Bill Day, a spokesman for Valero Energy Corp., a Texas-based oil refiner who is the largest contributor to the initiative, said the company "has not made any decisions at this point about additional financial support to the Prop. 23 campaign.”

--Margot Roosevelt

EXCLUSIVE! Will James Cameron Be The One To Direct Angelina Jolie In ‘Cleopatra?’

Everything James Cameron touches becomes virtual movie magic. From Titanic to Avatar he’s got what it takes to win Oscar gold and is hoping to make Cleopatra his next blockbuster hit!

When you hear the name James Cameron, 56, you think A-list movie director. He has worked with the best in the business and has a knack for picking projects that rake in the big bucks. Next on his wish list? According to our sister side Deadline: Hollywood, it’s an adaptation of Cleopatra: The Life by Stacy Schiff. At the helm to play the Queen of the Nile is none other than Hollywood bombshell, humanitarian and mother of six, 35-year-old Angelina Jolie.

It’s the perfect role for Angelina who has expressed a deep interest in portraying one of the most famous women in all of history. This wouldn’t be the first time Angelina played a Queen. She took on the role of Queen Olympias in Alexander.

“I would be honored” to play Cleopatra in an upcoming new biopic,” she told reporters at the Salt premiere. “I haven’t done a historical epic of that nature and she’s always been fascinating to me because I feel like, as much of her story has been done big, it’s never been done accurately. But there’s a lot that would have to come together for that to work.”

With Angelina and James attached to the project, it is almost certain to do well in theaters. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we have a feeling it’ll will be a project we’ll continue to follow.

Sigourney Weaver Hints At Return In ‘Avatar’ Sequel

Even though her scientist character in James Cameron’s “Avatar” didn’t quite make it to the end credits, Sigourney Weaver is nonetheless hinting that she may yet return in the sequel.

Asked about “Avatar 2″, she told Contact News: “Well, I’m not at liberty to talk about it, but anything can happen in science fiction.”

In an interview with Collider.com, she all but confirmed it when asked whether she would return to the “Aliens” franchise currently going through a reboot.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said. “I think my “Alien” days are over. My “Avatar” days are beginning.”

Extended Avatar Reissue ‘Ultimate Box Set,’ Says Cameron

Director James Cameron calls the upcoming Avatar: Extended Collector’s Edition “the ultimate box set of Avatar, with everything in it the fans could possibly want.”

In a press release detailing the bonus-packed reissue, which hits stores Nov. 16, Cameron said the set would include an extended cut that’s 16 minutes longer than the original version of the world’s highest-grossing movie, plus documentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, extra artwork and more than 45 minutes of deleted scenes — “everything worth putting into a special edition.”

The three-disc pile-up ($55 Blu-ray, $35 DVD) is perfectly built for Earth’s exhaustive scholars of all things Pandora, at least until a more-extensive edition comes out before Cameron’s planned Avatar sequels premiere.

Avatar: Extended Collector’s Edition even features a family-friendly audio track that strips out the bad words that sci-fi supersoldiers regularly abuse in the movie. The rest of us should be sated by the alternate openings, extra screen time and feature-length documentary “Capturing Avatar.“ I see you, James Cameron. I see you.