There is a continuously growing number of film and television productions being halted due to the ongoing coronavirus concerns and James Cameron’s Avatar sequels can now be added to that list, with the sequels suspending production in New Zealand.
According to the New Zealand Herald (via The Hollywood Reporter), producer Jon Landau has confirmed that the planned shoot at Stone Street Studios in Wellington next month won’t be taking place as production has been delayed indefinitely. However, VFX studio Weta Digital will continue to work on the visual effects for the films during the down period as the priority of the production right now is to get “as many minutes” to the visual effect artists as possible.
“We’ve delayed it. We had plans to come down Friday night with a group of people and start back up and we made the decision to hold off and continue working here [Los Angeles], and come down there a little bit later than we’d planned,” Landau told the Herald.
Landau continued to state that the studio is currently unsure when production on the Avatar sequels will resume but confirmed the production schedule will be re-assessed “every day, because that’s how quickly things change.”
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“We try and monitor all this and look at things and think about what is in the best interest of our crew. I call it our Avatar family. That is really paramount to us above anything,” Landau said.
Avatar 2 is expected to hit theatres on 17th December 2021. Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Matt Gerald, Dileep Rao, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver all reprise their roles from the first film, while new additions to the cast include Kate Winslet, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Britain Dalton, Filip Geljo, Jamie Flatters, Bailey Bass, Trinity Bliss, Jack Champion, Duane Evans Jr., Edie Falco, Brandan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Keston John and CJ Jones.
