Sequels!

[Is.]

I just saw that Avatar has, just 10 days after the premiere, brought in a staggering 615,168,000$! (And the movie hasn't even opened in countries such China and Argentina yet.) A Fox spokesperson recently said that the true cost for the movie was $237 million for production, with $150 million for promotion, which equals a $387 total.

You all know what this means, right?  

Here's from an MTV interview with Cameron:

"Aliens." "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." James Cameron knows how to make a sequel, revisiting fully created fictional worlds, taking what's already established and trying to outflank what came before. That's been the director's plan since embarking on his technology-revolutionizing quest to being "Avatar" to the big screen, and with the film's mammoth first weekend behind it, an alien love story sequel we almost certainly shall get. (If you haven't seen the film already, now would be a good time to stop reading, as spoilers abound below).

In a pre-opening discussion with MTV News, Cameron spoke at length about his plans for his burgeoning sci-fi franchise and where the story will pick up following the first film's game-changer of an ending: Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) successfully and permanently transfers his consciousness to his big blue Na'vi avatar after falling in love with Princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldana).

Cameron made clear that the next film won't be a prequel, recounting previous backstory, but will begin after the events of the initial movie. "We'll follow Jake and Neytiri," he confirmed.

In fact, Cameron intends to follow the couple for another two films. "I have a trilogy-scaled arc of story right now, but I haven't really put any serious work into writing a script," he said.

The next two films, however, won't necessitate the four years of production time that "Avatar" took to perfect its motion-capture technology and computer-generated environments and beings. "Part of what we set out to do is create a world and create these characters," Cameron said. "From the time we capture and finish the capture, it's literally nine to 10 months to get the CG characters working, to get their facial musculature working. ... So now we have Jake, we have Neytiri. Sam can step right back into it, the characters will fit them like a glove, and we'll just go on. So a lot of the start-up torque that had to be done for one movie really makes more sense if you play it out across several films."

So where will the challenge be for a director who so famously craves one, from the intensity of shooting underwater for months for 1989's "The Abyss" to the mega-budgeted, initially ridiculed "Titanic" in 1997?

"My next goal is to refine the technique, make it easier so it doesn't take as long," Cameron said. "We were doing a lot of pioneering work on 'Avatar.' It wouldn't have taken as long if we already knew exactly how to do it."

Now, not only does this mean sequels will start flying. For us Na'vi language fans it will entail that Fox will most certainly continue to hire Frommer to keep expanding the language for sequels, games, books, merchendise, etc. I eagerly await the first offical Na'vi language textbook!

Fìtrr sìltsan leiu!

[tute nuereime]

with the amount of money the movie made so far it would be idiotic not to supply all the merchandise and by the way how did you form Trrìri?

[Is.]

Day+topic.

But thinking about it, it's probably better to just write Fìtrr: This day.

[tute nuereime]

thats what i thought it was but you had Trrìri while day topic would trr-ri which wouldn't make sense with the 3 r's. so yea Fìtrr would be better

[tsko]

i really hope there will be a sequel, it would be amazing.
hasn't the physical script been done for like 15 years?  within those 15 years i wounder how many sequels hes attempted or anything else with the series...
i'm so excited to see what comes out of it.

[tute nuereime]

i forget where he said it but Cameron said that he first went to his special effect friends in 1995 to see if it can be done.

[Roiki]

The original "script" for Avatar was made before he began to film Titanic, it was supposed to be his next film after Titanic, to be released on 1999. The effects weren't up to it so it sat on the drawer for almost 10 years and after The Two Towers came out he digged it up and thought it could be made this time.

Here's some more

[Ki_Lin_7]

(fan girl scream) That'd be fantastic!! A trilogy is more then I could have hoped for!! Seriously excited!!

And... more vocabulary on Na'vi would be... words can't describe. Gomen, gomen! I'm just so happy 

[Is.]

(fan girl scream) That'd be fantastic!! A trilogy is more then I could have hoped for!! Seriously excited!!

And... more vocabulary on Na'vi would be... words can't describe. Gomen, gomen! I'm just so happy 

<Ki_Lin_7hu sreu> 

[omängum fra'uti]

Even if he hadn't planned a sequel, after the success Avatar has been meeting, I'd imagine that Fox would be pressuring him to start thinking about making one.

[omängum fra'uti]

thats what i thought it was but you had Trrìri while day topic would trr-ri which wouldn't make sense with the 3 r's. so yea Fìtrr would be better

The suffixes have several allomorphs, and following what we have seen with -ti/-it/-ìti, for -ri it would probably be -ìri or -ir.  So trrìri may very well be correct.

[Motxokxen]

but i wonder whether he will release his other planned movies first or just continue work on avatar 2.

(he already said that it's going to be a trilogy)

[Is.]

Digital Spy, December 29 2009:

James Cameron has revealed that his planned Avatar sequels could take place away from the first film's Pandora setting.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Cameron said that further films will move the action off Pandora and explore other moons orbiting around the planet Polyphemus.

"The planet in Pandora's sky is called Polyphemus and it's the primary for a system of moons, just like in our solar system, Jupiter has fifty some moons and they're discovering smaller ones all of the time," he said.

"We have some story ideas for how to branch out into other moons of Polyphemus and the Alpha Centauri A solar system, but we've got to make some money with this movie first before we think about the sequel."

Avatar topped the US box office over the Christmas weekend and has taken over $600 million in ticket sales worldwide since opening on December 17.

I don't want to leave Pandora just yet! Hell, we just arrived. What do you think? 

[Zalorticus]

I don't want to leave Pandora just yet! Hell, we just arrived. What do you think? 

I love Pandora alot too, but the idea of new places is intriguing.

[Txur’Itan]

Digital Spy, December 29 2009:

James Cameron has revealed that his planned Avatar sequels could take place away from the first film's Pandora setting.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Cameron said that further films will move the action off Pandora and explore other moons orbiting around the planet Polyphemus.

"The planet in Pandora's sky is called Polyphemus and it's the primary for a system of moons, just like in our solar system, Jupiter has fifty some moons and they're discovering smaller ones all of the time," he said.

"We have some story ideas for how to branch out into other moons of Polyphemus and the Alpha Centauri A solar system, but we've got to make some money with this movie first before we think about the sequel."

Avatar topped the US box office over the Christmas weekend and has taken over $600 million in ticket sales worldwide since opening on December 17.

I don't want to leave Pandora just yet! Hell, we just arrived. What do you think? 

Opinions change.  FOX may say, stick with the formula and make it work.  Sequels without the primary protagonists tend to flop a bit. 

There was so much extra back story stuff in the original scriptment, there is likely going to be some encapsulation of the first story within an expanded arc.

One interview had Cameron stating that he would continue with the adventures of Jake and Neytiri.  Their adventures could be non "Human vs Na'vi" related and still be fairly interesting.

[Is.]

vidvamp01: "Sequels without the primary protagonists tend to flop a bit."

I seriously doubt I would even see an Avatar sequel if Neytiri and Jake weren't in it. It'd be like eating strawberry cake without the strawberries.

Anyway, what I would love to happen in the new movie is that we get to see more of our own planet; contrasting the bio-paradise of Pandora with our own dystopical, Bladerunner-esque world would be very interesting, in addition to stressing the enviromental message even further. Maybe if they force capture Jake and bring him back or something... One thing is certain though, the humans will be back on Pandora. Where there is money to be made, the boney hands of greed will inexhaustibly emerge.

Here's a picture of Earth from the field-guide. From HarperCollins book preview:

[Hawnuyu]

<ponders>

Maybe the rest of the arc will show some more of the humans (since we only saw the greedy corporation and mercenary side really) and we will see more of the redemptive side of humanity that we saw in Jake. I don't think I would like to see the humans relocating to a new world without knowing whether they have changed their ways.

I seriously doubt I would even see an Avatar sequel if Neytiri and Jake weren't in it. It'd be like eating strawberry cake without the strawberries.

<nods in agreement>

[Zalorticus]

Are they wearing Exo-Packs? If they are, that is quite sad.

[Daniel]

Hmmm.
A sequel to Avatar.
When I have to write a sequel, what would I write???
Answer: I don't know, because Na'vi against human, that's gonna be complicated...
The humans need 4 or 5 years from Pandora to good old Earth. When they want to come back, they will need about 10 years, just for the flight.
So, the next film has to play on Pandora and Cameron can't show a two hours hunting session of Jake and Neytiri.
In short form: A sequel would be a good idea, but I don't know what he wants to show us in this sequel.

So and now I want to excuse me for the probably badest english, you've ever had to read...
(I hope my english is not too bad)

[Ftiafpi]

Hmmm.
A sequel to Avatar.
When I have to write a sequel, what would I write???
Answer: I don't know, because Na'vi against human, that's gonna be complicated...
The humans need 4 or 5 years from Pandora to good old Earth. When they want to come back, they will need about 10 years, just for the flight.
So, the next film has to play on Pandora and Cameron can't show a two hours hunting session of Jake and Neytiri.
In short form: A sequel would be a good idea, but I don't know what he wants to show us in this sequel.

So and now I want to excuse me for the probably badest english, you've ever had to read...
(I hope my english is not too bad)

Your english is fine.

I was thinking that an interesting arc would be something along the lines of X needs the help of Y. Like the Na'vi need the help of humans or (more interestingly) the Humans need the help of the Na'vi.