FEELING BLUE

This past year, Jon Landau hasn’t just been in Iron City. He’s been back on Pandora, as James Cameron doubled down, shooting back-to-back Avatar sequels. “People would kid me and go, ‘Jon, how do you split your time?’” chuckles the producer. “I honestly have to give 70 per cent of my time to Avatar. That’s what it requires. And then I gave the other 70 per cent of my time to Alita!”

While it’s been a decade since Avatar became the highest-grossing movie of all time, Landau was convinced Cameron would get round to making the sequels. “I knew they were going to happen,” he says. He points to a literary analogy made by Cameron. “The first Avatar movie was [like Tolkien’s]

The Hobbit. The small book. Now we’re doing Lord Of The Rings, the bigger book!”

With two further films also planned, Landau explains they will all be based around the lush planet setting and its blue-skinned Na’vi population. “Jim made the decision to keep the stories of four movies set on Pandora,” says the producer, who promises we’ll meet “new cultural clans” who live differently to the Omaticaya from the first film. “We’re going to see different environments that are as diverse as anything you’ll see on Earth. From the oceans to the plains to the mountains.”

Re-assembling the original cast – Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver – the sequels also boast Kate Winslet. Her first movie with Cameron since 1997’s

Titanic, she plays Ronal, “part of the sea people”, according to Cameron. “We need her to be able to perform underwater,” says Landau. “She came in, trained for it and was able to do a static breath hold of close to seven minutes.” Performing in the Na’vi language, Winslet “hit it out of the ball park” he adds. Roll on December 2020… JM