The Covid-19 pandemic isn’t just putting the world into lockdown right now – it’s also affecting the lush bioluminescent forests and gleaming blue oceans of Pandora. For years now, James Cameron has been hard at work on his slate of upcoming Avatar sequels, the first of which is currently expected to arrive in December 2021 – but, as with the majority of the film industry, its production has been affected by the global health crisis.
“It's putting a major crimp in our stride here,” he said when speaking to Empire for the new Celebration Of Cinema issue. “I want to get back to work on Avatar, which right now we're not allowed to do under state emergency laws or rules. So it's all on hold right now.” Speaking from his Malibu home, the filmmaker explained that he was about to travel halfway across the globe for a phase of the shoot before lockdown put paid to those plans. “We were about to shoot down in New Zealand, so that got pushed. We're trying to get back to it as quick as we can.”
Still, Cameron seemed optimistic that shooting might not be held off for too long – and that it won’t affect the current 17 December 2021 release date. “On the bright side, New Zealand seems to have been very effective in controlling the virus and their goal is not mitigation, but eradication, which they believe that they can do with aggressive contact tracing and testing,” he explained. “So there's a very good chance that our shoot might be delayed a couple of months, but we can still do it. So that's good news.” And with so much of the film’s world being brought to life by VFX artists, digital work on the film is still underway. “We've got everybody – everybody at Weta Digital and Lightstorm – working from home to the extent that that is possible,” says Cameron. “But my work is on the stage doing the virtual cameras and so on, so I can do a bit of editing, but it's not great for me.”
Read more from Empire’s new interview with James Cameron in the Celebration Of Cinema issue, with the legendary filmmaker talking through four of the most awe-inspiring sequences from his iconic movies. On sale from Thursday 14 May.