Avatar director James Cameron has announced that actress Signourney Weaver is returning for the series’ sequels even though her character died in the original.
Cameron suggests that his friendship with Weaver is what drove him to bring her back. “Sigourney and I have a long creative history, dating back to 1985 when we made Aliens,” he said in a statement. “We’re good friends who’ve always worked well together, so it just feels right that she’s coming back for the Avatar sequels.”
“Her character of Grace Augustine, as fans know, died in the first movie, so she’s playing a different and in many ways more challenging character in the upcoming films. We’re both looking forward to this new creative challenge, the latest chapter in our long and continuing collaboration.”
Other Avatar cast members Stephan Lang, Sam Worthington, and Zoë Saldana will also be returning for Avatar 2, Avatar 3, and Avatar 4.
The first sequel will open December 2016, with the following two opening in December 2017 and December 2018. All three movies will be shot back-to-back. To ensure a smooth production process, Cameron has hired a different screenwriter for each movie. Avatar 2 is being penned by Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds), Avatar 3 is being written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of Planet of The Apes), and Avatar 4 is under the pen of Shane Salerno (Armageddon).
The ambitious plan is fully supported by 20th Century Fox. “We at the studio have no higher priority, and can feel no greater joy, than enabling Jim to continue and expand his vision of the world of Avatar. The growing breadth and scale of Jim Cameron’s plans for his magnificent fantasy worlds continue to amaze us all,” the studio said in a statement last August.
Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all time.
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