James Cameron talks writing 3 avatar sequels together

With the first sequel to James Cameron’s 2009 Avatar due to hit in December 2016, with another in 2017 then 2018, work is well underway. 

Writer and director James Cameron talked at the LA Times’ Hero Complex Film Festival at the weekend about the job of getting not just one sequel made, but three. Firstly he wrote out 1,500 pages of notes (!) and then he hired Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver and Shane Salerno to put these notes into one cohesive story.

“We tried an experiment. We set ourselves a challenge of writing three films at the same time. And I could certainly write any one of them but to write three in some reasonable amount of time – we wanted to shoot them together so we couldn’t start one until all three scripts were done and approved. So I knew I was going to have to parallel process which meant I would have to work with other writers. And the best experience I had working with other writers was in television when I did Dark Angel. The television room is a highly collaborative, fun experience. 

“We put together three teams, one for each script. The teams consist of me and another writer… so I’m across all the films and then each one of them would have their own individual script they were responsible for. But what we did that was unique was we sat in the writing room for five months, eight hours a day, and we worked out every beat of the story across all three films so it all connects as one, sort of, three film saga. And I didn’t tell them which one was going to be there’s individually to write until the last day. So everyone was equally invested, story wise, in all three films.”

Are you excited for Avatar 2, 3 & 4? let us know…

Source: Slashfilm