This really is bittersweet for any Avatar fans out there.
While it seems to be an easy cinematic bandwagon to hop on and hate - "It's just Pocahontas in Space!" "Ferngully did it better!" "Can white men stop saving the day now please?!" - the film is the biggest grossing movie of all time and won a shed-load of Oscars. When (or should that be "if"?) the sequel does come out, you all know you'll go see it, so let that be the end of it.
For anyone attempting to keep up with the news of the sequels, this has been the timeline so far, according to writer/producer/director James Cameron:
Dec 2009: Avatar hits cinemas
Oct 2010: Avatar 2 will open Dec 2014
Jan 2012: Avatar 2 will open Dec 2015
Aug 2013: Avatar 2 will open Dec 2016, with 3/4/5 due for release in Dec 2017/2018/2019
Jan 2015: Avatar 2 will open Dec 2017, with 3/4/5 pushed back a year each accordingly
Jan 2016: Avatar 2/3/4/5 release dates all cancelled, with no new dates pencilled in
May 2016: Avatar 2 will open Dec 2018, with 3/4/5 out every TWO years after that
At this point, James Cameron's sci-fi sequels is beginning to have a whiff of Terry Gilliam's eternally delayed The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (which has
just begun filming, by the way, but we'll believe that when we see it...), and actually getting to see the movies would be, well, almost science fiction.
Speaking to
The Toronto Star this week, Cameron confirmed the news (to the surprise of absolutely nobody): “Well, 2018 is not happening. We haven’t announced a firm release date. What people have to understand is that this is a cadence of releases. So we’re not making Avatar 2. We’re making Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5.”
Yes, James, we know that. We've known that for five years now.
Anyway, all of this leads up to a little bit of good Avatar-releated news, as we get our first proper look inside the Pandora Theme Park, with Cameron himself giving the guided tour to none other than ... Whoopi Goldberg?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJIhg2YOfDA
Clip via The View
Visitors to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida can visit Pandora: The World Of Avatar from 27 May this year - look at that James, a proper actual release date!.
Not only can you walk around the very-well-realised planet, but there's also the immersive ride that involves you flying around the skies on the back of your very own Banshee (that weird lizard bat thing you hooked up to with your USB-hair).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBjHJ14d8ko
Clip via Good Morning America
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