James Cameron is looking to the Terminator franchise yet, with a sliver of doubt over Avatar 4 and Avatar 5. More here.
Playing in cinemas around the globe, there’s a huge weight of financial expectation on Avatar: Fire & Ash. Reportedly costing some $400m to make, and requiring a box office return past $1bn just to break even, it’s the sixth time now that writer/director James Cameron has stepped up to the metaphorical roulette table with such a high stakes gamble.
On the current path, James Cameron has mapped out at least two more Avatar films, but the tone of his press interviews ahead of Fire & Ash suggest that his own attention is beginning to switch elsewhere. Now, there’s just a little less certainty over Avatar 4, although should Avatar: Fire & Ash deliver for Disney, the greenlight will surely be given.
But will Cameron be making it? In a new piece at The Hollywood Reporter, he’s admitted his focus has now shifted to a new Terminator film, which he’s planning to write and – who knows? – may even direct. He’s planning a film that extends the franchise, but without Arnold Schwarzenegger involved, noting that “there needs to be a broader interpretation of Terminator and the idea of a time war and super intelligence. I want to do new stuff that people aren’t imagining.”
Tellingly, Cameron doesn’t appear to be drawn on just what his next narrative feature film is going to be, and that includes whether it’ll involve the Avatar saga. He briefly talked up Ghosts Of Hiroshima, but appears to have tempered on that since. Yet he freely admits that he’s 71, and “I have ideas more than I could ever act on in a lifetime. I got shit to do.”
Given each Avatar movie is at least a two to three year commitment, and that’s notwithstanding the idea that the next two are made back to back, there’s a very slight change in how Cameron is seeing his upcoming future. But should we reunite in a month, and Avatar: Fire & Ash be swimming in $2bn or so, don’t be surprised if that goes up the priority list again…
