James Cameron and 20th Century Fox definitely have big plans for Avatar… current king of the box office. It was recently announced that he would be not filming 2 or 3 sequels, but four and he plans to do them concurrently and not back to back. In an interview with Famous Monster of Filmland he had the following to say:
It’s not back-to-back. It’s really all one big production. It’s more the way you would shoot a miniseries. So we’ll be shooting across all [AVATAR scripts] simultaneously. So Monday I might be doing a scene from Movie Four, and Tuesday I’m doing a scene from Movie One. … We’re working across, essentially, eight hours of story. It’s going to be a big challenge to keep it all fixed in our minds, exactly where we are, across that story arc at any given point. It’s going to be probably the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. I’m sure the actors will be challenged by that as well. It’s like, ‘No, no, no, no, this person hasn’t died yet, so you’re still in this phase of your life.’ It’s a saga. It’s like doing all three GODFATHER films at the same time.
We will see the first sequel around Christmas in 2018 followed by another every two years until 2022. With the success of Star Wars during that block the inevitable question came up about going head to head. Here’s what he had to say regarding that:
My original plan was to release them a year apart, but we’re opening that up. If for no other reason than that I don’t want to land on the same date as one of the STAR WARS sequels. That wouldn’t be fair to them. [Laughs] No, that’s just good business. I don’t want to go head-to-head with STAR WARS. That would be stupid. And hopefully they won’t want to go head to head with us.
I don’t think Star Wars is afraid of a box office battle after the beating it dished last Christmas.
