Academy Award winning "Avatar" will follow up with a sequel soon, Director James Cameron, with producer Jon Landau and New Zealand prime minister John Key, announced in Wellington. Notably, they are in the works for not just one, but three more installments for the movie franchise, and all three sequels to the 2009 sci-fi movie will be shot in New Zealand beginning 2015.
Cameron said that he planned to complete shooting over a period of nine months for all three movies, as he is aiming to release the first sequel in time for Christmas 2016, and the next two, late 2017 and 2018.
In a press conference, as reported by The Guardian, Cameron said, "It's quite a thrill to be officially saying that we're bringing the Avatar films to New Zealand. We had such a wonderful experience here making the first film."
The filming is not only good news for the "Avatar" production team, but to the New Zealand economy as well. According to Daily Mail, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said, "The Avatar sequels will provide hundreds of jobs and thousands of hours of work directly in the screen sector as well as jobs right across the economy."
Joyce also said, in a report by Wall Street Journal, "We need a strong flow of international productions to retain critical mass. 'The Hobbit' series created 5,500 jobs, with around 8% of tourists to New Zealand citing Mr. Jackson's movies as one of the main reasons for their visit, according to the government."
Cameron declined to disclose a budget for the following films; however, he did say that he expected the cost of all three movies will be below a billion dollars. The New Zealand government has agreed to pick up a quarter of the tab for the 25% rebate for the films. The agreement between the NZ government and "Avatar" producers also states that the companies, Lightstorm and Twentieth Century Fox, will spend a minimum NZ$500 million on the movies.
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