ITEM! The day you never thought would come has arrived! Despite Avatar's crushing box office disappointment, Fox and Cameron are pushing forward with not one but two sequels. Press release!
Moving forward with the most anticipated films of the next decade, Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman announced today that Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Cameron has agreed to make Avatar 2 and 3 as his next films.
Christ. "Agreed." You'd think they'd make it sound like Cameron was just a tiny bit more excited about it, instead of like he only gave in to making them after receiving countless 2 am phone calls from a sobbing Rothman, begging to know if Dr. Ripley was really dead or if she would come back as a benevolent Pandoran planet goddess.
Cameron, who had always viewed Avatar as the creation of a new world and mythology, will begin work on the scripts early next year with an eye towards commencing production later in 2011. Cameron will decide if he will shoot the films back-to-back after he completes the scripts, but the release of the first, as yet untitled sequel, is targeted for December 2014, with the third film contemplated for a December 2015 release.
Fun fact: Mercury office pug Olive, pictured above, is already in line at Lloyd Cinemas. She goes fucking CRAZY for Avatar. This is the best day she's had since she got into Ned's garbage.
Hit the jump for news about The Hobbit and the next Batman flick.