Is it true James Cameron is already hiring crew-members for Avatar 2? We're not sure, but there are definitely discussions, says one insider. And one thing's for sure: the next movie will have to do something to top the first.
We were talking to Robert Stromberg, production designer on Avatar, for our third giant feature about the movie's design, which is coming soon. Stromberg couldn't say much about the movie's sequel, except to say there have definitely been "rumblings" about the second movie. "We've chatted about certain things," says Stromberg. "I'm going to see Jim [Cameron] next Tuesday. I'm sure we're going to talk about it." And he echoes what others have said: the hard part was designing the technology in the first place to make Pandora and the motion-capture characters real. Now that those elements are in place, a sequel will go much faster.
Adds Stromberg:
Jim and I, we've talked about the design of new areas and so on, but I think trying to... I think we did a pretty good job of coming up with something new, so now we have to think about topping that, and that's going to take some head scratching.