James Cameron Talks Tech on Avatar

James Cameron has been talking about the sequels to Avatar for quite some time and finally, they are in production. He is shooting four movies, the first of which is set to arrive in 2020 and has spoken with Collider about the technical challenges involved with the sequels.

Cameron revealed that the first two sequels would be set in and around water. Many of the cast would be playing the Na’vi, the alien inhabitants of Pandora where the movie takes place. The director explained that mo-cap has never been used underwater before and is essential for the visual effects needed to turn the actors into the Na’vi. He has his VFX team to thank for the methods to make it work.

‘The problem with water is not the underwater part, but the interface between the air and the water, which forms a moving mirror. That moving mirror reflects all the dots and markers, and it creates a bunch of false markers.

It’s a little bit like a fighter plane dumping a bunch of chaff to confuse the radar system of a missile. It creates thousands of false targets, so we’ve had to figure out how to get around that problem, which we did. Basically, whenever you add water to any problem, it just gets ten times harder. So, we’ve thrown a lot of horsepower, innovation, imagination, and new technology at the problem, and it’s taken us about a year and a half now to work out how we’re going to do it.’

The first cast image was revealed in September, showing a line-up of ‘youthful’ actors. James Cameron said, ‘They represent the future generation of Pandora and play a very significant role–not just in this movie but throughout all the movies.’

The first sequel will hit cinemas in December 2020, then the same month in 2021, continuing on until December 2025, for the final movie.