James Cameron speaks on ‘Avatar’ Sequel

Angelina Irinici — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:41:43 +0000

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“Titanic” didn’t get a sequel, but Canadian writer/director James Cameron talks of a sequel for his monster 3-D box-office hit “Avatar”. MTV News reports that earlier this month News Corp’s bigwig Rupert Murdoach announced that Fox had “very early talks” about a sequel. Avatar became the highest-grossing movie in the U.S. box-office history, beating out “Titanic”, another James Cameron directed film.

Cameron told MTV News that there are still a few kinks that need to be smoothed out before complete commitment to a sequel of the sci-fi love story.

“I’ve got some deal hurdles I got to get over with the studio before I want to emotionally embrace that,” said Cameron.

That being said, fans can still get ready for more of the world of Pandora. Cameron declined to talk about what obstacles stood in the way, not compensation-related, he assured, but said all parties involved in making the film expect a deal to be signed eventually.

“[Sequel details have] never properly been worked out, let me put it that way,” he said. “But everyone’s highly motivated. Rupert Murdoch told us we were doing it, so now they have to make a deal.”

The sequel would pick up after the ending of the film which is set in the year 2154, when humans are mining a precious mineral on Pandora’s land which threatens the local tribe Na’vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. Like most tales, a love story takes place to add more complication and romance to the plot.

“It would be a continuation of their story and I expect that those nasty humans didn’t go away forever: ‘Oh, well that didn’t work!’ ” he said.

The film has been in the works since 1994, when Cameron began writing an 80-page script intended for the box-office hit. If you are wondering what Cameron was up to in between his Titanic days in 1997, to Avatar in 2009, he hadn’t fallen out of the game completely. He spent those years creating documentaries and co-developing the 3-D Fusion Camera System.

Keeping with his secretive nature, Cameron won’t say whether a second Avatar will be his next directing job for a feature film. He is working on many other projects including “Sanctum,” a 3-D underwater cave-diving story shot in Australia.

“I’m sort of reacquainting with a bunch of projects that are non-theatrical film projects, like space stuff and ocean stuff,” Cameron said. “But yeah, I’m thinking about what the next feature will be and another Avatar film is a strong possibility.”

Controversial O.J. Publisher Fired for Anti-Semitism

andPOP Staff — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 02:41:06 +0000

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Judith Regan, the publisher who garnered much criticism for her since-cancelled plans to put out a hypothetical tell-all by O.J. Simpson, has been fired after stirring up more controversy.

A publishing source confirmed Regan’s firing was the result of anti-Semetic comments she made, reports Reuters. The unidentified remarks were reportedly made by Regan during an argument with a lawyer for HarperCollins, publisher of Regan Books.

According to The New York Times, who broke news of Regan’s firing on Friday, Rupert Murdoch (whose News Corp. owns HarperCollins) said he wouldn’t put up with “that kind of behaviour” and permitted Regan’s firing.

Many expected that Regan would be fired after the controversial O.J. Simpson fell through. The ghostwritten book was to have told how Simpson would have murdered ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman had he actually committed the crimes. Simpson had maintained his innocence since being found not guilty on murder charges.

The book and a related television special sparked such a massive public outcry that Murdoch was forced to cancel Regan’s project completely. However, since he had originally approved the project, he didn’t hold Regan to blame and she kept her job until this latest incident.

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James Cameron speaks on ‘Avatar’ Sequel

Controversial O.J. Publisher Fired for Anti-Semitism