James Cameron will be returning to New Zealand to film three sequels to "Avatar," his triple Academy Award-winning original movie about the blue inhabitants of Pandora, the Associated Press reported.
The director made the announcement on Monday in the capital Wellington with producer Jon Landau and Prime Minister John Key. The films will be made by Lightstorm Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox.
James Cameron, 59, said his vision for his three "Avatar" sequels is to create a family epic in the mold of "The Godfather" that will introduce viewers to new cultures and go underwater on his fictional moon Pandora, according to the AP.
Released in 2009 and shot in New Zealand, the movie won three Academy Awards and is the highest-grossing film in history, with an international box office take of nearly $2.8 billion.
"It's going to be a lot of new imagery and a lot of new environments and creatures across Pandora," 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. I mean the Pandora that we have imagined will be a fantasy land that is going to occupy people for decades to come, the way I see it."
Complete principal shooting on the three movies will be completed at one time, perhaps over a period of about nine months and beginning in 2015. The first sequel will be slated to release for Christmas 2016 and the following sequels in late 2017 and late 2018, reported the AP.
"It's quite a thrill to be officially saying that we're bringing the Avatar films to New Zealand," he told a news conference. "We had such a wonderful experience here making the first film."
Work has begun on the writing and design of the movies, Cameron said. The intention is to make the movies in 3D and to shoot at least some sequences at 48 frames per second.
New Zealand's government has agreed to a 25 percent rebate for the films, meaning it will pick up one-quarter of the tab. The agreement states that Lightstorm and Twentieth Century Fox will spend at least $413 million in New Zealand on the movies, reported the AP.
Key said the announcement comes with excitement and relief for the New Zealand film industry.
"It's a day of great celebration," Key said. "It's a great Christmas present for those involved in making world-class movies."
