So now we know that the next three Avatar films are going to be shot in New Zealand, and principal photography will probably begin some time late next year. This is definitely going to be an epic of science fiction, but Godfather epic?
Avatar mastermind James Cameron recently told Collider and the Associated Press that the next Avatar flicks will indeed be epics on the level of the classic gangster flicks, which definitely took a lot from Shakespeare in the drama department. (Coppola looked at The Godfather as the rise and fall of a king, and all the drama that surrounds his kingdom.)
In a press conference, Cameron said “think of it as a family saga like The Godfather.” Where the first movie was “very Jake-centric,” told through his eyes, “We spread it around quite a bit more as we go forward. It’s really the story of his family, the family that he created on Pandora. His extended family.”
He also debunked the rumor that the whole movie takes place underwater. “There are underwater scenes and surface-water scenes having to do with indigenous ocean cultures that are distributed across the three films.” But totally underwater? “That’s not true,” Cameron said.
“We’re blowing it out all over the place. At first I thought I was going to take it onto other worlds as well, in the same solar system, but it turned out not to be necessary. The Pandora that we have imagined will be a fantasy land that is going to occupy people for decades to come.”
