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AVATAR 2 THE WAY OF WATER starring Sam Worthington (2022)
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James Cameron Offers Update on Avatar Sequels' Progress

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Avatar 2 is inching closer to release in 2021 and production recently wrapped for the year. Director James Cameron gave fans an update on where the process for the film is at this point. The film was originally supposed to be released in a little over a year, but now it’s looking like 2021 will be the year. Near the end of November, the official account gave some fans good news in showing off the massive ship at the center of the upcoming film. The Sea Dragon is impressive, and it seems that all that Avengers: Endgame talk brought these movies right back into the conversation. A return trip to Pandora could provide some definite nostalgia for a lot of viewers because it's quietly been a while since fans saw or heard anything from the project. Disney’s acquisition of FOX earlier this year poured some water on some fans' hope of seeing it released. But, that deal isn’t going to stop these from getting made. Also, there’s money to be made, so that should soothe some fears as well.

 

 

“From 2013 until now we’ve mostly designed the whole world across four new movies,” Cameron told Variety. “We’ve written, finished scripts for all four of those films. We’ve cast them, and we’ve [performance] captured movie 2, movie 3, and the first part of movie 4. We’re mostly done with the live action. I’ve got a couple months in New Zealand in spring, so we’re kind of on track with what we set out to do.”

 

“People don’t really understand the scope and complexity of the process,” he continued. “It’s like making two and a half big animated films. A typical big animated film takes about four years, so, if you do the math on that, we’re kind of right on schedule for December 2021.”

 

Edited by Bosco685
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Although AVATAR 2 will return audiences to the world of Pandora, be prepared to witness a portion of the moon heretofore unseen. The new film will have Na'vi Jake Sully and his wife Neytiri and their family traveling to the oceans of Pandora and allying themselves with the free-diving clan the Metkayina. While you may have to wait twenty-three months to view the gorgeous oceans of Pandora first hand, 20th Century Fox has provided some beautiful concept art to whet your whistle. The pictures come courtesy of the official AVATAR Twitter page and feature vast sweeping shores as well as some new whale-like ocean creatures.

 

 

AVATAR 2 starring Kate Winslet, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi, and Edie Falco hits theaters December 17, 2021 followed by sequels on December 22, 2023, December 19, 2025, and December 17, 2027.

 

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All four Avengers movies will play in Chinese theaters alongside Avatar, which means the James Cameron sci-fi epic may surpass Avengers: Endgame’s $2.8 billion worldwide total much sooner than anticipated.

 

The Hollywood Reporter noted last night that all four Avengers movies will return to Chinese cinemas in a bid to get Chinese moviegoers back in the habit as the theaters reopen after months of coronavirus-related closures. Also returning to theaters will be various Chinese blockbusters like Wolf Warrior 2 ($854 million in 2017), The Wandering Earth ($700 million in 2019) and Wolf Totem ($125 million in 2015), and American biggies like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ($974 million in 2001), Interstellar ($677 million in 2014) and Inception ($824 million in 2010). James Cameron’s Avatar ($2.79 billion in 2009) is coming back to China as well. If the reissue of Avatar performs noticeably better than the reissue of Avengers: Endgame ($2.8 billion in 2019), then Avatar may snatch back its global box office crown.

 

Avatar earned a then-obscene $202 million in China back in 2009/2010, while Avengers: Endgame earned a currently absurd $619 million in China last year. That was a 71% bump from Avengers: Infinity War’s $359 million Chinese gross the previous year, compared to a global increase of around 26% everywhere else for the fourth Avengers movie. For reference, Avengers: Infinity War earned $2.048 billion worldwide, including $679 million in North America, while Avengers: Endgame earned $2.8 billion global, including $858 million domestic. The huge upswing in China was why the MCU “Infinity Saga” finale was able to pass Fox’s Pandora travelogue as the world’s biggest-grossing movie. Yes, inflation and exchange rates aside, Avengers: Endgame played in around 10x as many theaters as Avatar, as China’s theatrical market has vastly expanded in the last decade, but money is money.

 

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XCLUSIVE: New Zealand’s health and safety production protocols have been endorsed by the national government, we can reveal, meaning production can restart in the country after it was halted by the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Some film and TV shoots “are already safely underway,” the New Zealand Film Commission has confirmed to us. This paves the way for the country’s highest-profile production, James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, to get back underway.

 

Cameron and producer Jon Landau were filming live-action elements of the big-budget sequels when the pandemic struck. Since then, they have continued to work on the film’s virtual production in California and with Weta Digital on the visual effects.

 

The official Avatar twitter feed yesterday posted an image of Cameron on set directing actors in a water tank. However, the timing and location of the shoot isn’t clear. We have reached out to Disney for further detail.

 

 

 

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James Cameron is taking audiences underwater in Avatar 2 and is using new motion-capture technology to bring the oceans of Pandora to life. There are few things Cameron seems to love more than working in the water and pushing the envelope when it comes to filmmaking tech. Lucky for him, his Avatar sequels will allow to combine those passions in an attempt to match or maybe even exceed his accomplishments (both technical and, hopefully, storytelling) on his original 2009 sci-fi mega-blockbuster.

 

Part of the reason Avatar 2 is taking so long to make is because Cameron kept expanding his plans. He originally intended to make back-to-back sequels in the early 2010s, but is now in the midst of crafting a whopping four Avatar followups at once. The other big hurdle has been getting the motion-capture tech to where he needs it to be for his purposes. Because he's such a stickler when it comes to portraying the ocean realistically in his films (as evidenced by his work on The Abyss and Titanic), Cameron isn't pretending to film underwater the way James Wan did on Aquaman a couple years ago - he's doing it for real on Avatar 2.

 

Avatar-2-concept-art.jpg.6b2033070106f5bf63357f0162558cc5.jpg

 

Story details for Avatar 2 are currently under lock and key, but Cameron has confirmed a good chunk of the movie will take place in the depth of Pandora's oceans. It's the same reason why the majority of set photos released online so far have featured the sequel's cast (including, Avatar stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, along with franchise newcomers like Kate Winslet and Cliff Curtis) decked out in mo-cap gear and working in water tanks on the movie's New Zealand studio lot.

 

Those same photos have also offered some insight into how Cameron's underwater mo-cap tech works. To prevent the studio lights from messing with Avatar 2's underwater sequences during filming, the surface of the water tanks are covered in floating balls (like the ones pictured above). The actors' actual mo-cap suits aren't that different from the ones they would wear under regular circumstances either, and come complete with smaller cameras attached to their heads to capture their facial reactions and mannerisms. At the same time, one of the sets photos shows actor Britain Dalton (who's confirmed to be playing a member of the Na'vi) shooting an underwater scene while riding a motorized vehicle. Both he and the vehicle have yellow-and-black lining on them, with the implication being this could be how Avatar 2 will make the Na'vi actors appear to move very quickly and swiftly underwater (like the Atlanteans and other undersea beings do in Aquaman).

 

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6 minutes ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

"The only good thing" was the VFX at the time.

You missed the other positive points of the film. To include sacrificing someone's place in their own society to follow the honorable path.

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3 minutes ago, Bosco685 said:

Your coil will unwind over time.

windup.gif.2926363434ff2e05452366f76aec14ae.gif

:baiting:

Why would I re-watch a movie that I didn't even like any part of?

I'm a fairly consistent person. The VFX are only going to look worse and worse as time goes on. I will never appreciate the boring story.

They need to step-up their game over the next 12 films if they want any of my $$$$$.

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8 minutes ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

Why would I re-watch a movie that I didn't even like any part of?

I'm a fairly consistent person. The VFX are only going to look worse and worse as time goes on. I will never appreciate the boring story.

They need to step-up their game over the next 12 films if they want any of my $$$$$.

I think that was clear the eight time you noted you didn't like the film, Wind-Up Willy.

:kidaround:

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Avatar 2 is on its way to theaters after an eleven-year wait, but what is known about the sequel’s ambitious underwater scenes? Released in 2009, Avatar may not have won any awards for originality when it came to plot, but the sci-fi adventure movie did wow audiences worldwide and break all manner of box-office records thanks to its stunning visuals. From the behind-the-scenes set photos that have been released here and there, the sequel looks to be even more visually ambitious than the original.

 

Like any groundbreaking achievement in CGI, it’s difficult to encapsulate what made James Cameron’s alien planet eco-adventure so impressive upon release. Avatar featured more immersive and realistic settings than any earlier movie had achieved through the use of CGI, and its seamless integration of human and computer-generated characters was considered incredible at the time. The techniques used in the production of Avatar have since become commonplace in blockbuster cinema, but Cameron has a slew of new tricks and tech to utilize in Avatar 2.

 

The sequel will see much of the original cast return to the verdant world of Pandora to pick up where Avatar’s happy ending left off, and the long wait between installments is mostly down to Cameron and company experimenting with new technology and methods of filming, which weren't available until the last few years. The ambitious underwater sequences of Avatar 2 proved particularly problematic for actors and crew alike, as Cameron made the unusual decision to film these sequences entirely underwater instead of adding water digitally in post-production as is often the norm.

 

Avatar 2'S New Underwater Mo-Cap Technology Explained
 

Aware of how water affects weight, and heavily invested in realism, Cameron is instead insisting on shooting sequences underwater and using new cameras developed specifically for this purpose in the production of the Avatar sequels. To avoid the water’s surface reflecting uneven light, the creators of Avatar 2 covered the surface of the water in the production's many tanks with floating balls. Cameron's underwater mocap suit technology is not unlike standard mocap attire, but features an added face-mounted camera to ensure the actors' subtle facial expressions aren’t missed. It’s an ambitious new way of shooting underwater, and one which asks a lot of both previously unseen technology and the movie’s large, all-star cast.

 

Kate Winslet Broke Tom Cruise's Underwater Record Filming Avatar 2

 

One new addition to the cast of Avatar 2 is Cameron’s Titanic star Kate Winslet, and the newcomer had something of a baptism of fire during filming for the big-budget sequel. Winslet held her breath for a staggering seven minutes while filming an underwater scene for Avatar 2, comfortably beating an already-incredible record set by Tom Cruise during the filming of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. As Avatar 2’s story remains shrouded in secrecy, there’s precious little known about the character Winslet will be playing, with many fans suggesting that the length of this feat suggests she’ll be taking on the role of an underwater-dwelling Pandora native. However, until more is revealed about the story of Avatar 2 there’s no way to know for certain who (or what) Winslet is playing, although the news that the screen veteran managed to outdo Cruise’s lung-popping record is already a promising development.

 

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