Avatar 2 needs to make money amid COVID and OTT, says James Cameron

James Cameron

Filmmaker James Cameron has opened up on the highly anticipated follow-up to his 2009 blockbuster Avatar, which is set to hit cinemas in 2022, and said there is a lot of pressure on big-budget movies following the impact of the pandemic and streaming.

He said, "The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money? Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money. We're in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It's all a big roll of the dice."

A still from Avatar

Cameron noted how the upcoming film which stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, Edie Falco and more will allow him to bring together his "two greatest loves", including directing and "ocean exploration". "It sounds kind of nuts, the process I mean. If Avatar hadn't made so much damn money, we'd never do this because it's crazy... I do the ocean thing when I'm not making movies. So, if I could combine my two greatest loves - ocean exploration and feature filmmaking - why wouldn't I?"

For Avatar 2, the film will mostly take place underwater, which saw the cast and crew taking extensive diving lessons while there was new technology developed to improve underwater motion capture. After using a 17 million-gallon tank for 1997 classic Titanic, Cameron went with a 900,000-gallon tank specifically built for the upcoming film and subsequent sequels planned for 2024, 2026 and 2028.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever