James Cameron says he will spend more time in post on Avatar 3 than most directors spend on an entire film.
Speaking at a recent breakfast for public broadcaster TV New Zealand, the Oscar-winning Wellington resident said said of the sequel, “We’re into a very hectic two years of post production right now, so it’ll be Christmas of ’25.”
Cameron, who has done post for years at Peter Jackson’s Wellington-based WETA Digital, says he wants to make all his films in New Zealand going forward and expects to become a citizen of the southern isles next year. The hefty tax breaks don’t hurt, either.
Writer-director Cameron told Entertainment Weekly in late 2022 that he shot scenes from a proposed Avatar 3 and Avatar 4 concurrently with the first sequel, which grossed over $2 billion. He did so to avoid having the younger cast members age-out, bringing up Netflix’s Stranger Things as an example of the problem of time marching on. It also turned out to be prudent given this year’s SAG-AFTRA strike.
While attending the Critics Choice Awards earlier this year, Cameron dropped some nuggets about what fans could expect from Avatar 3 revealing the element of fire and two new cultures would be introduced.
“Fire has a symbolic purpose in the film and there’s a culture that is specifically around that concept. That’s probably saying too much as we speak,” he told Deadline.
You can watch more of the conversation below.
