Could Pandora 2 Feature Zombies?

Think she will come back from the dead?

Michelle Rodriguez Wants In on ‘Avatar 2'

Michelle Rodriguez  wouldn’t mind a trip back to Pandora except for the fact that her character…well you know…(spoilers: she died!)

In James Cameron’s Avatar, Rodriguez played pilot and all-around bad-ass Trudy Chacon. Would the fiery Latina like to work with James “Thunderballs” Cameron? The answer may surprise you:

“Jim Cameron can kill me anytime,” says Rodriguez to movie blog Total Film. “It’s a pleasure to die for him! But Jim’ll tell you himself… in science fiction films nobody really dies”.

Rodriguez goes on: “I would work with him in a heartbeat. He’s so intelligent. He’s like Yoda, man.”


Avatar 2 is expected in 2014.
Here’s a clip of Michelle talking about her Avatar character:

Bonus Footage Is Key to ‘Avatar’ Sequels: Pregnant Na’vis

“Avatar” 2 and 3 don’t drop in theaters until December 2014 and 2015, but fans of the first James Cameron film looking for hints as to what to expect may find the answer in one of the never-before-seen final scenes.

As Yahoo! Movies points out, James Cameron may have included the beginning of a new storyline in the ending of “Avatar,” even if it did not get played on cinema screens.

This newly released 3 disc set may contain the clues to what is in store for Avatar 2 & 3

The “Extended Collector’s Edition,” out this month, includes a scene that plays right after the theatrical ending – and in which one Na’vi woman is shown with a belly bump, while it is being suggested that Neytiri will soon be a mom too.

After the scene that shows the Na’vis herding the humans towards their ship, seeing them on their way home, the film immediately cuts to a scene that is clearly only in the first production stages.

“Cut to somewhat jerky animation of blue children gamboling in a pond,” Yahoo! Movies writes. Since the narrator is speaking about rebirth and how the forest will heal, it’s no wonder children are shown.

“The forest will heal. And so will the hearts of the people. New life keeps the energy flowing like the birth of the world,” the voice of the narrator says.

Aside from the use of “birth” there, the images too suggest that there are little Na’vi babies on the way – and that Neytiri too will have one.

“As we hear this, Jake rises from the water clutching a fish, sees Neytiri, his bonded brain-braid soul mate, and places a hand on her tummy,” Yahoo! writes.

The conclusion can’t be but one: Neytiri is pregnant, which means the sequel (and probably threequel, too) will also include subplots with the younger generation.

“It sure does look like it. If she is pregnant, does this mean that that Jakesully’s offspring will be the center of the other two movies in the ‘Avatar’ trilogy? Whatever the answers, Cameron is reportedly keeping his mouth shut on the matter,” the same report notes.

Below is the video with the never-before-seen, incomplete alternative ending.

You be the judge. Enjoy.

Could 'Avatar' surpass 'Star Wars' in viewer loyalty?

Bad news for those who rushed out to buy that "Avatar" Blu-ray disk a few months back.

It's already obsolete.

Director James Cameron's box office smash is back on Blu-ray this week as part of a blowout new edition.

Set aside the crass commercialism of releasing a special edition so soon. The new, souped up "Avatar"is an impressive package, what with three disks brimming with extras, several incarnations of the film itself and a feature-length documentary on the saga’s creation.

It may convert some skeptics into die-hard Pandora-ites.

Plus, with news of two “Avatar” sequels heading our way this decade, it means “Avatar” stands the best chance at rivaling “Star Wars’ as a space-based saga with both economic clout and fan loyalty.

Did any Boba Fett fan ever consider suicide when he realized the character’s realm didn’t actually exist?

It’s easy to dismiss such talk, but whoever counts Cameron out does so at his or her own risk. What filmmaker could top “Titanic” at the box office, live up to every scrap of hype regarding 3-D technology and manage to wow a culture bombarded with stunning special effects?

The next two “Avatars” could introduce new, more compelling characters and build on some of the sturdier aspects of the first film.

What the franchise really needs is its own Chewbacca, an otherworldly creature fans can rally behind – and buy the action figures and plush dolls. That seems easy for someone like Cameron, who wields the tech wizardry to bring almost anything to life. But the screenwriter side of Cameron is far less advanced.

Simply put, he doesn’t do warm and fuzzy well, and the “Star Wars” films are chockablock with kind-hearted characters young and old can embrace.

Cameron’s biggest obstacle in competing with “Star Wars” style fame might be his own ideology. He turned the corner from action auteur to activist extraordinaire with “Avatar,” and there’s little reason to see him pulling back now.

“Star Wars” maestro George Lucas probably pulls the same levers on Election Day as Cameron, but Lucas doesn’t let ideology overwhelm his storytelling. That happens often in “Avatar,” and if it continues through the sequels Cameron risks alienating those who would otherwise swoon for the chance to spend more time on the fictional Pandora.

Rumor Update: Avatar 2 Won't Take Place in Pandora's Oceans?

It was recently announced (though thoroughly anticipated) that director James Cameron's next project would be the sequel Avatar 2, which won't see theaters until December 2014. That gives Cameron plenty of time to work on the script. What the sequel will be about is unknown, though several rumors have spread around the internet. Avatar producer Jon Landau sought to dispel those rumors while talking to Empire, particularly the rumors that set Avatar 2 in the oceans of Pandora.

Water will be a part of the movie, but it won’t be all of the movie. There’s been a lot of rumors that it’s an underwater movie — it’s not. Just like the Floating Mountains, and the Na’vi's interaction with the mountains, were a part of Avatar, it’ll be the same type of thing.

So who started these false, water-laden rumors? How about Cameron himself, who admitted in April that for Avatar 2's script he was "going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora." Landau, however, isn't buying it.

I think the next movie will stay on Pandora. That’d be my guess. Not all the answers are there yet, but I think we’re happy with Pandora.

After Avatar 2, Cameron will immediately start on Avatar 3, which is set to follow in December of 2015. Landau revealed that Avatar 2 will tell a stand-alone story and won't simply service to set-up Avatar 3.

The next [film] will kick off where the next last one ended, but, just like Avatar resolved itself and doesn’t feel like a set-up to another movie, you don’t want Avatar 2 to feel like a set up for 3.

Avatar Three-Disc Extended Collector's Edition is now available!

How the Amazon Rainforest Made Avatar 2 a Priority

Avatar's Pandora Becomes a Reality

One of the things that didn't get as much attention as it probably should have about the announcement that James Cameron has agreed to make Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 his next projects was that, in order to convince him, 20th Century Fox made a "huge donation" to his environmental green fund. If that doesn't underline Cameron's dedication to the cause, then perhaps A Message To Pandora will. (See all of Techland's Avatar coverage)

Pandora, a 20 minute documentary that appears on the special edition Blu-Ray of Avatar released next Tuesday, is the result of two trips Cameron made to the Amazon rainforest at the invitation of the organization Amazon Watch and documents Cameron's experience meeting the indigenous and riverbank communities whose way of life is threatened by Brazil's $17 million Belo Monte Dam project - A project that would divert the flow of the Xingu River and, in the process, displace more than 20,000 people. Sound eerily familiar?


A Message from Pandora from Amazon Watch on Vimeo.

It wasn't just the parallels between the battle over the Belo Monte Dam and Avatar that moved Cameron to action - he's been an environmental activist for years ("Really since my teenage years," he said in an interview earlier this year) - but the success of Avatar has led him to be more active on the topic. In addition to using the popularity of the movie to bring attention to the plight of the people living along the Xingu, he's also spoken out about the extraction of the Alberta Tar Sands, been part of the think tank to deal with the BP oil spill and gave $1 million to the campaign against California's Prop 23 to suspend the state's global warming law (The proposition was defeated last week).

Unlike many celebrities, he's realistic about his activism; at the recent press launch of the Avatar special edition Blu-Ray, he said that it wasn't enough to simply lend his name to a cause:

The first question I ask is, what can [I] really do? You have to make a commitment to follow-up, it can't just be a drive-by. I'm not delusional enough to think a movie can change the world. I have to follow it up with direct action.

Of course, that direct action can take many forms, whether it's traveling to the Amazon to see what's going on first hand, making a documentary about that trip to show others, or getting a multinational corporation to give a lot of money to environmental causes as a way of convincing you to make a movie that will inspire even more people to activism through heavily environmental themes. Maybe a movie really can change the world, after all.

Want a Hollywood deal with James Cameron? Make a donation to his Avatar Foundation

Hollywood insiders have been buzzing since reading the news Wednesday morning that James Cameron only committed to making his "Avatar" sequels after News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox subsidiary agreed to make what the Deadline website called a "huge donation" to Cameron's environmental fund. To say that the news made studio bosses uneasy would be an understatement. Movie studios have made donations to star's pet causes in the past, but as a perk, not as a prerequisite for a gigantic movie deal.

If studios had to make donations to make deals, it would open up a very messy Pandora's box of obligations. Just imagine: If Amy Pascal still wants Angelina Jolie to make "Cleopatra" at Sony, would this mean she'd have to start a string of orphanages around the globe as part of the deal?

Fox is now telling me that the report isn't especially accurate. As it turns out, the studio hasn't earmarked or contributed any money at all yet. Nor has the fund, known as the Avatar Foundation, been formally established. Fox has simply agreed that down the line it will help establish a nonprofit organization (co-funded with Cameron) dedicated to environmental issues, which will allow the "Avatar" sequels to be viewed not just as Hollywood commerce but as good works toward the future of the planet.

James Cameron says: Stop with the bad 3D conversions

Do you hate Hollywood’s newest fad: the quick and sloppy conversion of films that were shot in 2D to badly wrought 3D, just to squeeze some more dollars out of the film at the box office? So does James Cameron, the film-maker who brought 3D back from the dead with his blockbuster, Avatar. He wishes Hollywood studios would cut out the conversions and either shoot films with 3D cameras, or try retro-fitting classic movies instead.

“I maintain you can’t do a good conversion of a two-hour movie with high quality in a few weeks like they tried to do with Clash of the Titans. I don’t mean to throw that movie under the bus because my buddy Sam [Worthington, star of Avatar] is in it, but I think everybody realised that this was a point at which people had gone too far.”

Instead, James Cameron thinks that producers should try turning classic movies like Jaws, Star Wars and Indiana Jones into 3D titles instead. He doesn’t want the studios to half-ass it though: instead, Cameron wants them to grab the original directors and work with them to bring an extra dimension to some of the films we love so much.

Cameron knows more about 3D than anyone, so I think it’s safe to call him an authority on the matter. Let’s hope the studios listen up.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Glasses-free 3D? It’s “eight to ten years away” before its in everyone’s living rooms, Cameron says. If even then.

More than a movie, it's a way of life

You get the feeling that some people will end up staying on Pandora forever, or at least a padded-cell version of the fictional jungle planet.

After director-writer James Cameron's Avatar had some viewers wishing they could live on the planet of giant blue underwear models, and the movie became the new millennium's biggest hit, a sequel was inevitable.

Now comes word from 20th Century Fox that Cameron will write and direct two sequels, with the first heading our way in December 2014 and the second a year later.

But the way these people talk about their popcorn flicks gets you wondering: are they studio heads or Gods."

“Avatar is not only the highest grossing movie of all time, it is a created universe based on the singular imagination and daring of James Cameron, who also raised the consciousness of people worldwide to some of the greatest issues facing our planet,” said a couple of Fox studio suits in a release announcing the sequels.

Kind of like Jane Goodall and the apostle Paul all rolled up into one toned blue package.

A totally fake yet super funny Avatar 2 trailer

I think the Free Willy part was the best!

James Cameron needs to future proof before doing Avatar 2 & 3

There’s something mysteriously positive about the idea of shooting sequels back-to-back. It makes it seem as though the filmmakers have a definitive plan that will come together as a singular vision instead of a third film slammed into production by the machine despite almost no resemblance to the characters we fell in love with in prior installments.

It seems that way, but it doesn’t always work that way.

Breaking News: Cameron to take on 2 new Avatar movies/td>

For each Lord of the Rings there’s a Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, James Cameron is tossing his ship out into the ocean to join those crews that went before him – promising that Avatar 2: Organically Electric Boogaloo and Avatar 3 will be shot together and released one year apart.

However, the most interesting part of the Q&A that Cameron did last night was about the idea of “future-proofing” his films.

The money quote here:

    “In order to [film the movies together for separate release], we have to refine our technical processes beyond the end of where we were finishing [Avatar] a year ago. We need to future-proof ourselves out five or six years to the end of the third film.”

This is a clear sign of what a visionary filmmaker should be thinking and saying. Many filmmakers gets dubbed “visionary” in our quote-happy times, but Cameron proves it with careful innovation and foresight like this to plan for a movie shot in 2011 (let’s say) being released in 2013 (perhaps) to look like  it’s from 2015.

It doesn’t get more visionary than that.

What do you think?