Producer Jon Landau has said that the Avatar sequels are taking so long because they developed four scripts instead of one, according to Total Film magazine.
What’s Happening:
- In the 2022 Preview edition of Total Film magazine, Producer Jon Landau talks more about the upcoming sequels to the box office smash, Avatar, that originally premiered back in 2009.
- In a special look at Avatar 2, Landau says the reason that the film took so long was because instead of just one script, the team developed four into one large epic saga with each script individually resolving its own story.
- James Cameron returns to direct Avatar 2, as does Sam Worthington to reprise his role as Jake and Zoe Saldana returns as Neytiri.
- The film specifically picks up with the Sully family, and as much time has elapsed in the story world as in reality. Jake and Neytiri are now parents. The Sullys’ idyllic life is disrupted when the RDA mining operation returns to Pandora, forcing Jake to take the family to "what is perceived as a safe harbor" at the reef.
- Landau says of the plot, “And when you get to the reef, there’s a clan we call the Metkayina. The Sullys are no longer in the environment that they know, the rainforest. They become the fish out of water. They become the fish out of water both culturally and just environmentally."
- Avatar 2 is set to arrive in theaters on December 16th, 2022.
What They’re Saying:
- Producer Jon Landau: “The scripts are the blueprint from which we work, so a large portion of our time was writing… with the challenge that each of those four scripts had to individually resolve itself in a story that concludes with a big emotional resolution – but when you look at them as a whole, the connected story arc of all four movies creates an even larger epic saga…I think the story of Avatar 2, and the strength of the story, is what Jim [Cameron] always does in any of his movies: he writes in universal themes that are bigger than any one genre. And if you think about this, there’s really no more universal theme than family. At the center of each of our sequels is the Sully family. What are the dynamics that parents go through to protect their family?"