{Update}

James Cameron has confirmed that not only is Josh Friedman joining to write, but joining him will be Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver and Shane Salerno. Not only that, but there will be 2, 3, and 4 Avatar films. Finally, Avatar 2 has a release date of December 2016.

All three Avatar follow-ups will be filmed simultaneously, with production set to get underway next year.  Cameron had this to say regarding the news:

“Building upon the world we created with Avatar has been a rare and incredibly rewarding experience.  In writing the new films, I’ve come to realize that Avatar’s world, story and characters have become even richer than I anticipated, and it became apparent that two films would not be enough to capture everything I wanted to put on screen. And to help me continue to expand this universe, I’m pleased to bring aboard Amanda, Rick, Shane and Josh — all writers I’ve long admired -­ to join me in completing the films screenplays.”

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard any news from James Cameron on his upcoming Avatar sequels. We know that the second movie will be shot back-to-back with Avatar 3, and that it will use underwater motion-capture technology; but that’s really it.

Today, we have news that writer for The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Josh Friedman, has been hired by Cameron to come in and clean up the screenplay for Avatar 2. Friedman has been working with 20th Century Fox for a long time on projects like War of the Worlds and The Black Dahlia. Obviously, working on a franchise that Cameron created with The Terminator, gave him more of an “in” there.

No news as to if we’ll actually see an Avatar film in 2015, especially if the film is still being scripted. I don’t really care though, Avatar took 12 years to come out and it blew me away. In Cameron I Trust. We’ll keep you posted here at DFAT as more news of it comes in!

~Chaz

avatar-20