James Cameron’s AVATAR was certainly pretty to look at. But aside from grand visuals and my strange attraction to Blue Cat Saldana, there wasn’t much meat on them bones. The film has its fair share of detractors and defenders, but at the end of the day it’s the money that talks. So too does Sigourney Weaver, who confirms three more films to Showbiz411, all with the intention of shooting back-to-back-to-back apparently:
Sigourney Weaver confirmed tonight that James Cameron is shooting “Avatar” 2, 3, and 4 all at the same time, all with her, and starting this fall.
When “Political Animals” finishes shooting, see if you can follow Weaver’s schedule: she goes right into a new Christopher Durang play for a short run at Lincoln Center. Then she films “Avatar” 2, 3, and 4 with James Cameron. That’s right: they’re making three sequels to the blue 3D phenom all at the same time. Weaver says she has no idea how long it will take, or how it’s going to work. “I just show up,” she said.
Cameron seems keen to make these, so I don’t doubt Ms. Weaver for a second. Still, three films is a daunting commitment for all involved. I’m highly suspicious that we’ll ever see a fourth AVATAR film in theatres, if for nothing else the zeitgeist that was the original hasn’t endured. There’ll be asses in seats no doubt, but assuming that an audience will stay with you for not one, not two, but three more films is ballsy. Not that there isn’t precedent, but for every Harry Potter there are roughly two Percy Jacksons. Not only are theatergoers asked to endure approximately 10 more hours of AVATAR, they’re also prompted to pay the ever-increasing ticket premium to do so. For anyone watching the current 3D trend slowly falter, this news flies in the face of that.
If anyone can pull it off, it’s James Cameron. And it’s hard to argue that AVATAR didn’t capture the popular consciousness like few films before. It just didn’t capture it for very long.