James Cameron draws red line over 'Avatar’s future

James Cameron is a mainstay of the Avatar franchise, and as the film series grows, he says he will not let any other director take over.

“Absolutely not!” he tells The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast. “I have choices there. There are levels in which I immerse. I could produce it.”

He continues, “I don’t think there’d ever be a version where there’s another Avatar movie that I didn’t produce closely. But in terms of taking over my life, that’s a threshold issue for me.”

Avatar, meanwhile, requires hefty capital to make; in this light, James shares he is open to quitting the franchise if Disney decides to end it, given that the film series does not make enough revenue to justify new installments. 

“It is one metric f*** ton of money, which means we have to make two metric f*** tons of money to make a profit,” he adds.

“I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?”

The Academy-winning director also notes, "People tend to dismiss sequels unless it’s the third Lord of the Rings film and you want to see what happens to everybody, which in my mind this is — this is the culmination of a story arc, but that may not be how the public sees it.”

Adding insult to injury, James says there’s streaming and COVID, which has taken away a key chunk of people from watching movies in theatres.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will open in theatres on Dec 19.