[thefilmstage.com, by Jordan Raup]
With the news that James Cameron will be shooting Avatar 2 and 3 back-to-back for 2014/15 releases, we have yet to get any concrete story details. Last April, he told Hero Complex that he is going to “focus on the oceans of Pandora” but not much else. We now get a small update from the original’s Michelle Rodriguez.
Although she (*spoiler*) dies in the 2009 mega-blockbuster, she thinks there is a chance to return but Cameron hasn’t offered her anything. If Sigourney Weaver thinks she is returning, I suppose any character can. In the interview with AP, Rodriguez also confirmed and expanded Cameron’s “ocean” comment, saying the sequel “will take viewers underwater and will be extraordinarily beautiful.”
Knowing the director’s fascination with the sea, it will be interesting to see if the majority of the film will take place underwater a la The Abyss or if he will explore something entirely different. Massive floating water bubbles anyone? Some of the most impressive visuals from the the first were the water effects (see Jake’s waterfall jumping exploits), so I think it would be a fascintating area to explore.
In other news, we all know the most powerful directors in Hollywood love to hang out and comment on each other’s work. Empire recently sat down withTransformers: Dark of the Moon director Michael Bay to talk his career. Aside from saying the mystical elements in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were “crap” and that “it was just terrible to do a movie where you’ve got to have a story in three weeks,” he had some words about 3D.
Although he was apprehensive about the format at first, James Cameron said to him: “Mike, directors like you have to do 3D or it is going to die.” It’s unclear whether Cameron meant that in a sense of the biggest budget films of the year should have 3D so audiences have no choice but to see it, or if he actually believes in Bay’s artistic approach to the format. Spoken like a true artist, Bay did say “the size, the girth, and the weight” of 3D “works really well with the robots…it’s spectacular.” All of you morons on the internet better get ready.
Avatar 2 hits theaters late 2014 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon comes out July 1st, 2011.
See the original post here: http://thefilmstage.com/2011/03/06/avatar-2-diving-underwater-james-cameron-instructs-michael-bay-to-save-3d/