A few days ago a rumour surfaced that James Cameron was flirting with the idea of directing Cleopatra, which is in development over at Sony, with Angelina Jolie attached to star. At the time, many were sceptical, partly because Cameron already has a lot on his plate, and partly because he doesn’t normally attach himself to projects he hasn’t developed from the very beginning.
However the director has confirmed his interest to the NY Times, saying, ‘Theres a Cleopatra project in work, meaning that its been in development at Sony. And its a subject thats always fascinated me. So yeah, Ive been talking to them about it but no decisions have been made. But it sounds hot, doesnt it? I mean, Angelina Jolie and Cleopatra? To me, thats like a slam dunk. Whether I wind up doing it or not, I think its going to be a great project.’
When asked whether he was worried about it turning into a debacle like the making of the Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra movies, he commented, ‘Yeah, but you know, there were a lot of people betting against us on Titanic as well. That kind of stuff isnt particularly daunting to me. The idea of 10-foot-tall blue people that were 100 percent CG, it was Smurf Planet, plenty of reasons why Avatar wasnt going to work either.’
However he hasn’t given up on the idea of sequels to Avatar, but at the moment, it appears things are less certain than they may have previously appeared, with the director saying, ‘I wouldnt say its inevitable [that an Avatar sequel will be his next movie] because we still havent worked out our deal with 20th Century Fox. So were still in an ongoing negotiation on that. Because its a big piece of business, and Im trying to map it out as a game plan that stretches forward 10 years. And they dont like to think that long term. Well get it worked out, probably. I would assign a high probability to that. Whether thats my next film or not remains to be seen.’
Cameron also gave a few more Avatar seuqel details to ComingSoon, saying, “Our plan right now is to do two and three as a single large production and release them a year apart. In order to do that, we have to refine our technical processes beyond the end of where we were finishing ‘Avatar’ one a year ago. We need to future-proof ourselves out five or six years to the end of the third film.” And as for rumours that Sigourney Weaver may return, despite her characters apparent death in Avatar, the director says, “Who said she died? Nobody dies in a science fiction movie. Whether Grace lives or dies depends more on Sigourney’s agent than anything.”