Avatar 2 Will Take Place on Pandora and Earth, James Cameron Confirms

 From comicbook.com

James Cameron has confirmed Avatar 2 will return to Pandora and visit Earth. Cameron has been busy filming the upcoming Avatar sequels and hoping that the first sequel does well enough to guarantee the ones to follow. Cameron is filming Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 simultaneously and is hoping that those two do well enough at the box office for Disney to greenlight Avatar 4 and Avatar 5. Speaking to Dune director Denis Villeneuve for Variety, Cameron revealed a bit about his Avatar 2 plans and what it means to commit to a single series for as long as it takes to film four movies back to back. 

"Well, it was a challenging decision because I either wanted to do it right, or just not even do it," Cameron says. "I just made this – I guess, strange – decision that everything that I needed to say artistically about the things that were important to me, I could say within the framework of the universe that I knew it could be. Just like Dune takes place across worlds, the later Avatar's take place across...certainly across two worlds, because some of it takes place on Earth as the story evolves, and different biomes within."

In the same interview, Cameron confirmed that "2 is fully in the can. We have a working cut that we're filling in the visual effects within. I feel pretty confident with that film. 3 is still a bit shadowy. It's way too long. I haven't really turned my energy into a disciplined cutting process on that yet. But I know I've got the performances. That's the important thing. I've done all the capture. I've done most of the live-action shooting. I still owe a little bit on some of the adult characters. We were more concerned with the kids aging out."

He continued, "We mixed the schedules for 2 and 3 together, based on the types of scenes and the environments. I said, let's just treat it like it's a six-hour miniseries and we're only going to go to Frankfurt once. We're going to shoot all the scenes from 2 and 3 at the same time. That was more or less the motif. Actor availability was an issue as well. Anything that had to be done with a specific actor, we did all the scenes for 2 and 3 together — and a little bit of 4. Because once again, I had to shoot the kids out. They're allowed to age six years in the middle of the story on page 25 of movie 4. So I needed everything before then, and then everything after, we'll do later.'

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/avatar-2-will-take-place-on-pandora-and-earth-james-cameron-confirms/

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Avatar 2: Meet Spider, Jake And Neytiri’s Adopted Human Son

 from Empireonline.com

If there’s something we can all agree on after the past two years on Earth, it’s that it’d be pretty nice to head back to the glowing vistas of Pandora soon. The world that James Cameron cooked up in Avatar should offer some serious cinematic escapism when the sequel finally arrives in 2022 – and plenty has changed in the 13 year gap between movies. For one, Jake and Neytiri have their own family now, including Na’vi kids Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and Tuktirey (Trinity Bliss). But they also have a human child among their clan: Miles Socorro, aka Spider, played by Jack Champion. Born at the military base on Pandora but too small to return to Earth, he’s been raised in the bioluminescent jungle by Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña).

“Jake took him in but Neytiri always saw him as one of the people who destroyed her home and killed her father,” producer Jon Landau tells Empire of Spider, in The Batman issue. “So you have all these dynamics playing out.”

Because while the new adventure promises plenty of deep-dives into Pandora’s oceans and all the epic combat you expect from a James Cameron movie, there’ll be some real family drama in there as well – something recognisably human among all the fantastical worlds. “If you look at what Jim does in his movies, he writes in universal themes that are bigger than the genre of any one movie,” Landau explains. “This time around, we’re taking Jake and Neytiri and building the most universal theme of all around them. Which is family. Jake comes from the human world, Neytiri from the Na’vi world. So, they’re like a modern mixed-race couple, raising kids who perhaps feel they don’t belong to one world or another.”

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/avatar-2-spider-jake-neytiris-adopted-human-son-exclusive-image/

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Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron Review

I have always been an art and science fiction fan, and as soon as I saw designs of the Terminator world for the first time back in the days, it's machines and hardware, James Cameron had became my favorite designer, and to this day his designs and his style remain my absolute favorite. In simple terms, I think his designs are badass. As a lifelong fan of (now vintage) comic books, I always really enjoy his drawing style especially. He would have been a phenomenal comic book artist, in addition to begin a phenomenal designer, painter and sketcher. 

So I always thought, and have been vocal on forums throughout the year about how cool it would be if there was someday a collection of Jim Cameron's artwork. I though of hanging some of his work in home but could never find a good enough resolution. And now, here we are, and Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron has become a reality thanks to the Insight Editions (who also released the great Exploring The Deep book), and as soon as I opened it I was blown away by it. 

There is sooo much art, and better yet, every single piece and even doodle or quick sketch is described and has a story about itself from Cameron. This book not only collects designs and art from his now iconic classics, but is full of his early, and some modern paintings, drawings and sketches. If youre a fan of science fiction, and especially vintage scifi, this is bullseye. 

And if you're simply a fan of classics such as The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic and Avatar, this book is also a bullseye. Trust me, as a fan of Jim since 1991, I've read and seen everything available to the public on his movies, their designs and production. I even have a large collection of vintage magazines. Having said that, there's so much stuff there has never been seen before. And it's not just the art, but stories you haven't heard before, ideas for the movies we've never heard before or ideas that went past some of us. For example, I did not realize the Alien Queen has a, to quote Jim, a "vagina-esque" design on her neck, framed with mechanical tubes, to represent Giger's sexual/mechanical style. Now when it's been pointed out I see it so clearly, I can't believe I haven't seen a giant vagina on the Queen's neck all along!

Cameron also designed weapons, grenades, environments (I was surprised at how much of the colony is actually Cameron's design, with Ron Cobb adding to it, rather than coming up with it mostly by himself as I have heard before), there's costume designs for The Terminator and Aliens, original photo used for the Rose sketch in Titanic, I mean this book has it all and more. For example, Jim also did designs for the movie Alien Nation, which weren't used, but it's all here - character designs, ship designs, creature design, environments and more

And I was always right about Cameron being potentially a great comic book artists, because you can see his comic books in the book. He's also a terrific inker

Obviously I'm not going to reveal all the stuff in the book, especially the unseen one, but from those pics you can kind of get a taste of what's there. I devoured this book in a day, and already starting to read it over again, taking time to admire the art. One of, if not the best book on Jim Cameron so far

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James Cameron Shares Set Photos from Avatar II

From IGN

After a decade of production, delays, and headlines, the Avatar sequels are starting to feel much more real, as director James Cameron has shared new photos from the set of the highly-anticipated Avatar 2.

One picture shows a look a Cameron standing alongside Edie Falco's General Ardmore standing in the flight deck of a dragon gunship from the first movie. The photos also showcase a look at the sequel's ambitious underwater performance capture scenes. Take a look at the photos below.

The photos were revealed by EW, who also spoke to Cameron about the journey to make the Avatar sequels. Cameron called the process, "kind of crazy," which makes sense, given that the sequel entered the planning phases way back in 2012. This franchise's situation is also unique because we already know that Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all on the way. We also know the Avatar sequels cost $1 billion to produce, coming out to $250 million per movie.

The EW feature reveals that Avatar 2 and 3 will be a love letter to the sea, which Cameron explored in his 1997 hit, Titanic.

"I do the ocean thing when I'm not making movies," Cameron said. "So if I could combine my two greatest loves, one of which is ocean exploration; the other, feature filmmaking, why wouldn't I?"

This fits with the plot details that have started trickling out about the sequel. We previously learned Avatar 2 will focus on Jake Sully and his new family exploring new areas of Pandora, including spending lots of time in and around the water. We've also seen concept art for The Crabsuit, which is a large, crablike submarine coming to the Avatar sequels.

As of September last year, Avatar 2 had wrapped filming, with shooting on Avatar 3 also coming to a close. At one point, Avatar 2 was supposed to come out this Friday, but its current release date stands as December 16, 2022. Avatar 3 is slated for December 20, 2024, with Avatar 4 coming in December of 2026, and Avatar 5 in December 2028.

The movies aren't the only Avatar projects in the works, either. Ubisoft is making Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, a video game that will focus on "world discovery and nature", according to the developers.

More (including concept art) HERE

James Cameron on His New Art Book ‘Tech Noir,’ The Future of the ‘Avatar’ Franchise

 Jim Cameron spoke to Rolling Stone about the upcoming Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron book, Avatar sequels and more HERE