Avatar and the Avatar Cadence (James Cameron, 2009-2031)

[Dead or Deader]

One of the biggest box office smash that has faded into mere obscurity. Nothing I know of real people indicates it has real staying power.

[matrixschmatrix]

I mean nobody I know admits to voting for Trump, either

[Brian C]

I sort of want to watch Avatar again right now just out of sheer contrarianism. I might actually do it, too.

[mfunk9786]

Wasn’t Obamacare introduced in Congress in 2009 too? Coincidence? I think not.

[captveg]

American audiences were mostly into the film as a type of fad, but Chinese audiences is where one saw cosplay and real investment in the world and characters. It's currently #15 in China's list of highest grossing films of all-time, but it's also the oldest film among the Top 50. If The Fate of the Furious can earn $400m in China in 2017, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Avatar sequel earn $600-700m from China alone in 2020.

[Big Ben]

Cameron spills the beans on the sequels.

A tidbit:

It's long been confirmed that Stephen Lang's Colonel Quartich would return (despite taking a pair of four-foot arrows in the chest), but talking to Empire in our September issue, Cameron reveals that Quaritch won't be relegated to a supporting role or appear solely in flashbacks. Rather, he will continue to menace Jake, Neytiri and the other Na'vi throughout all five movies as the saga's main antagonist.

I don't have a sufficient memetic device or image to express myself.

[knives]

Don't worry. No one will remember he died in the first when the next gets released in 3019.

[starmanof51]

My decision to skip the first one continues to hold up

[Fiery Angel]

My decision to skip the first one continues to hold up

you're lucky (and I love your avatar)

[Gregory]

One person's cadence is another person's quintrilogy is another person's "Mongoian clusterfuck."

[zedz]

"Did somebody say quintrilogy?"

[domino harvey]

The first time I saw Quintron and Miss Pussycat live was back before the Great White tragedy and there used to be a flume attached to the Drum Buddy that would shoot a huge burst of flames straight up from the organ as Quintron took all his clothes off because, yknow, there's fire pouring out of his instrument and it's hot -- five movies' worth of that excitement would be worth whatever Cameron is pissing away here on tree elves

EDIT: And hey, they can bring along Helen Mirren (WTF)

[domino harvey]

Josh Brolin turned down the Avatar sequels and Cameron called him names in response

[Big Ben]

It's well known that Cameron is a difficult director and has done some crazy shit to actors (Ed Harris vowed to never work with him again.) so this is is just par the course. Plus I think Deadpool 2 is still a better choice. I would much rather see Brolin be Cable in multiple sequels than whatever Cameron cooks (Defecates?) up.

[flyonthewall2983]

I wonder if him and Arnold are on the outs, or at least have agreed not to work with each other as actor and director anymore.

[Big Ben]

I wonder if him and Arnold are on the outs, or at least have agreed not to work with each other as actor and director anymore.

They are not. Arnold will be back to Terminate with Cameron again.

[flyonthewall2983]

It's got an interesting plot. Arnold will play the guy the machines are based on, a concept I can't believe nobody thought of or gave much credence to previously.

[Forrest Taft]

It's got an interesting plot. Arnold will play the guy the machines are based on, a concept I can't believe nobody thought of or gave much credence to previously.

Except in this deleted scene (wise choice) from Terminator 3

[Professor Wagstaff]

Kate Winslet joins the series

[Big Ben]

Cameron gives a surreal update involving children underwater.

“We’ve done a tremendous amount of testing, and we did it successfully, for the first time, just last Tuesday [November 14th]. We actually played an entire scene underwater with our young cast. We’ve got six teenagers and one seven-year-old, and they’re all playing a scene underwater. We’ve been training them for six months now, with how to hold their breath, and they’re all up in the two to four minute range. They’re all perfectly capable of acting underwater, very calmly while holding their breath. We’re not doing any of this on scuba. And we’re getting really good data, beautiful character motion and great facial performance capture. We’ve basically cracked the code.”

Having flashbacks to Ed Harris and The Abyss.

[colinr0380]

Or that scene showing the effects of the breathable fluid on the rat. The film is unedited now but that scene was cut out of the first VHS versions of the film in the UK for animal cruelty.

Though this also makes me think of that Chris Cunningham directed music video for Portishead: Only You

[domino harvey]

Well, now Cameron is threatening us all with a sixth Avatar film

[Big Ben]

“This could be the seeds of utter damnation and doom for the project, or it could be the thing that makes it stand apart and continue to be unique,”

It's interesting to see him acknowledge it could fail miserably but yet still think that people want five more after the first one. I mean as I recall the film wrapped up the story in a fairly complete fashion. I cannot fathom how he plans to expand this out. How many times can Pandora be invaded by humans?

[swo17]

I liked this link in the sidebar to an article just posted yesterday: "James Cameron Hopes for ‘Avengers’ Fatigue: ‘There Are Other Stories To Tell’ In Sci-Fi"

[cantinflas]

“This could be the seeds of utter damnation and doom for the project, or it could be the thing that makes it stand apart and continue to be unique,”

It's interesting to see him acknowledge it could fail miserably but yet still think that people want five more after the first one. I mean as I recall the film wrapped up the story in a fairly complete fashion. I cannot fathom how he plans to expand this out. How many times can Pandora be invaded by humans?

At least one of them was initially announced as a prequel, so he could go in that direction as well. Being multigenerational provides lots of options.

Also, I'm pretty sure he's still only making four more films -- 2 and 3 are currently in production, then once he's finished post on those he'll shoot 4 and 5. "Five-film epic" is referring to the first movie plus the four new ones.