Avatar 2 has wrapped production and 100% completed filming. Avatar 3 is nearly finished.
In a video conference with former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the 2020 Australian World Summit, Avatar movie director James Cameron says he is getting ready for the movie’s new release dates in the franchise.
“COVID hit us like it hit everybody,” the director said. “We lost about four and a half months of production. As a result of that, we’ve rolled around one more full year for a release in December of 2022. That’s been announced already.”
He continued: “Now that doesn’t mean I have an extra year to finish the film because the day we deliver ‘Avatar 2,’ we’ll just start working on finishing ‘Avatar 3.’ So where we are right now, I’m down in New Zealand shooting, we’re shooting the remainder of the live-action. We’ve got about 10 percent left to go. We’re 100 percent complete on ‘Avatar 2’ and we’re sort of 95 percent complete with ‘Avatar 3.'”
James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger have a very long history. Cameron director the former California Governor in The Terminator. When discussing the upcoming movie, Cameron revealed filming in New Zealand helped out due to the country’s COVID-19 response.
“We’re very lucky in that we chose this as our production site years ago,” he told Schwarzenegger. “We made the first film here in New Zealand and it turns out to be ranking first or second-best country in the world for its COVID response.”
Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 are also in pre-production.
In related news, Matt Damon revealed he had missed out on a $250 million payday after turning down the lead role in James Cameron‘s 2009 sci-fi movie Avatar.
In a recent interview with GQ for a promotional tour for the upcoming “Ford v Ferrari,” which filmed in Savannah, Georgia, Damon says studios approached him with an offer to pay him 10% of what the movie would end up making.
“[Cameron] goes, ‘Now, listen. I don’t need anybody. I don’t need a name for this, a named actor. If you don’t take this, I’m going to find an unknown actor and give it to him, because the movie doesn’t need you. But if you take part, I’ll give you 10 percent of [the profits],’” the actor said.
