FOX CONFIRMS THAT AVATAR 2 & 3 ARE CAMERON’S NEXT PROJECTS

Despite some heavy offers from other studios (the biggest of which was a Sony-financed Angelina Jolie version of CLEOPATRA), James Cameron has officially decided that AVATAR 2 & 3 will be his next two projects. This bit of info comes directly from the Fox Twitter page, but don’t get too excited just yet.

For one thing, the source article simply mentions that Cameron has made the sequels his next films and that he’ll start writing them early 2011 (with a late 2011 start date for shooting). The key phrase that seems to be missing from the announcement is whether or not he’ll be directing both films. Previous reports seemed to indicate that he would be writing and producing them, but not directing. I’m apt to believe that this is still the case.

What this announcement really means is that Cameron is going to actually devote some time to getting the sequels together before passing them off to another director. Think what George Lucas did with THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI and you’ll see what I mean. Both of those flicks were conceived, produced and co-written by Lucas, yet they were directed by Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand respectively. I’ve got a feeling that the same thing is going to happen here.

Either way, with Cameron devoting his 2011 to cobbling together two very unnecessary Na’vi-equels, things aren’t looking too bright for BATTLE ANGEL. Expect that one to hit the backburner and possibly stay there.

[via Twitter]