James Cameron’s ‘Avatar 2’ release unaffected by Covid-19 crisis

Coronavirus pandemic has led to a massive reshuffle in Hollywood release dates but filmmaker James Cameron is still confident that his much-awaited “Avatar 2” will release as planned. “Avatar 2” is currently slated for a release on December 17, 2021.

“I want to get back to work on ‘Avatar’, which right now we’re not allowed to do under state emergency laws or rules. So it’s all on hold right now,” Cameron said, speaking to Empire for the new Celebration Of Cinema issue. The filmmaker shared that he was scheduled to take the filming to New Zealand before the lockdown.

“We were about to shoot down in New Zealand, so that got pushed. We’re trying to get back to it as quickly as we can,” he said. However, the filmmaker hopes to keep up with the pace of shooting and finish the movie as planned.

“On the bright side, New Zealand seems to have been very effective in controlling the virus and their goal is not mitigation, but eradication, which they believe that they can do with aggressive contact tracing and testing,” he said, adding: “So there’s a very good chance that our shoot might be delayed a couple of months, but we can still do it. So that’s good news.”

During the lockdown as well, the work on the film is on — thanks to advanced technology.

“We’ve got everybody — everybody at Weta Digital and Lightstorm — working from home to the extent that is possible. But my work is on the stage doing the virtual cameras and so on, so I can do a bit of editing, but it’s not great for me,” he said.

It is being believed that “Avatar 2” takes place 12 years after the events of the first movie. It follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he roams the planet of Pandora with the new family he has with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana).

The first part was a huge success, becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time when it released in 2009. Its worldwide record was broken last year by “Avengers: Endgame”.