While Netflix are busy working on their live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon have announced that they are set to create three new films based in the world of the hugely popular anime series.
According to The Hollywood Reporter Lauren Montgomery is attached to direct the first of the three films in development. A storyboard artist on the original animated series, which ran from 2005-2008, Montgomery has directed episodes of Voltron: Legendary Defender, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, Avatar: The Last Airbender followed Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen), a young boy reawakening in a world of warring nation-states where people, known as ‘benders’, can manipulate the four elements of earth, fire, wind, and water. He is tasked with undertaking a dangerous mystic quest in order to fulfil his destiny as the Avatar, and bring peace to the world. Nickelodeon created a follow-up, The Legend of Korra, which was also critically-acclaimed and aired for four seasons between 2012 and 2014. A big-screen adaptation was released in 2010, and it’s a testament to the strength of the source material that despite it being a notorious dud, the M. Night Shyamalan movie grossed over $300M worldwide.
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While Konietzko and DiMartino aren’t involved in the Netflix version, they’re very much a part of this trilogy of movies, with Ramsey Naito, president of animation at Paramount and Nickelodeon Animation saying “As original creators Mike and Bryan expand the Avatar universe with us, we’re keeping it all in the family with Lauren bringing the same kind of expert, beautiful work she did on the original series to her new directing duties on the forthcoming theatrical”
Are you looking forward to returning to the world of Avatar? Let us know whether this news has fired up your excitement, or if it has given you wind, by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
