Cameron Has Shown Off “Avatar 3” To Some

Filmmaker James Cameron says the upcoming “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is ‘virtually finished’ and he describes it as “maybe the best of the three so far”.

Speaking in a sit-down interview with New Zealand outlet Stuff, Cameron says the third “Avatar” movie was now in the midst of finishing touches in post-production – and an early version has already screened for a few people:

“I’ve shown it to a few selected people and the feedback has been it’s definitely the most emotional and maybe the best of the three so far. We’ll find out, you know, but I feel pretty good about it. And the work is exceptional from the actors. It’s pretty heart-wrenching in a good way.”

The comments come amid a longer interview in which Cameron has urged the New Zealand Government to retain financial aid for the film industry. Cameron says he aims to finish his five-film “Avatar” series entirely in New Zealand/Aotearoa which he has called home for years now.

He adds that he’s written and “roughly designed” the fourth and fifth films and says overall it will take another five or six years to see all of them to completion:

“We’re in very good shape on it. I think we’ve got about 1000 people employed, mostly here in Wellington right now, and hopefully we’ll roll right over into [movies] four and five from that. Look, I love to make jobs here. We’re actually moving some of our people over from the US, and we’ll be hiring as well. We’re focusing more of the production here than we have.”

Financial aid for the film sector has included a variety of tax breaks and grants and Cameron says this yields strong returns:

“There’s sometimes a big media backlash against what’s perceived as a subsidy of an industry, but it’s not a subsidy, it’s an investment with a very good return on investment… For $1 in you’ll get $7 out, or you’ll get $10 out, something like that. So the incentives make sense, training programs, apprenticeships, mentoring, the universities, the trade schools.”

His comments come as tax grants in the local film industry are being subjected to criticism while the industry itself is in a bit of a slump after a successful long run. Cameron, meanwhile, is waiting on the paperwork to confirm his New Zealand citizenship and reportedly calls himself a Wellingtonian.

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