Exclusive Update: AVATAR 2 & 3 And THE HOBBIT

Hey guys - its time to check in with one of my best sources and he had some interesting news on the production side of AVATAR 2 & 3:

"Avatar 2 & 3 are looking more likely to have the live action element shot in New Zealand, with the mocap performances done in Lightstorms new facility (see link below) in Calif."

This underscores what James Cameron has been talking about lately:

Said Cameron: "We're shooting two films back-to-back, so I'm writing two scripts, not one, which will complete a [three]-film story arc – not really a trilogy, but just an overall character arc so I'm pretty excited about that. We're doing a lot of preliminary work right now on new software and new animation techniques and so on. We're creating a new facility in Manhattan Beach so everybody that's not already dead is coming back."

Further: “Another thing the Manhattan Beach studio affords us is the ability to expand. Should we need to pick up and do a live-action shoot, should we need more space, they have it,” he said.

So it sounds as if the plan is to use the California studios for performance capture and in the likely event of pickups taking place, they will be also shot in Manhattan Beach. New Zealand gets the live action shots as well as the bulk of the special effects / rendering.

I will let you know if that should change at any point.

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Also the only news on THE HOBBIT productions are that they are on holidays until August! That is actually good to know so we are not getting up tight waiting for more updates that just aren't going to happen.

More when I get it! Obviously these productions are near and dear to my heart (and yours more than likely!) so I am all over them.