James Cameron was a surprise guest at The Hobbit World Premiere in New Zealand (although perhaps not too much of a surprise, as he advised Peter Jackson on the use of 3D). He may have been there for Middle Earth but what people really wanted to know about is Avatar 2 and Avatar 3. While he was at the premiere he revealed that he hopes to finish the screenplays by February and start production by the end of 2013.
“I want to get these scripts nailed down, I don’t want to be writing the movie in post production. We kind of did that on the first picture, I ended up cutting out a lot of scenes and so on and I don’t want to do that again.”
Last April, Cameron’s producing partner Jon Landau said that Avatar 2 might not make its proposed December 2014 release date. If shooting doesn’t begin until the late 2013, it seems almost certain we won’t get Avatar 2 until 2015 at the earliest, considering how much post-production work the movies require.
Cameron also believes that Peter Jackson’s use of the 48 frames per second frame rate will lead the way for his Pandora-set sequels, “If there is acceptance of 48, then that will pave the way for Avatar (sequels) to take advantage of it. We charged out ahead on 3D with Avatar, now Peter’s doing it with The Hobbit. It takes that kind of bold move to make change.” (Source: The West Australian)