Sir Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital is expecting that film director James Cameron will make Avatar 2 and 3 in Wellington, film industry sources say. It is a job that could be worth hundreds of millions and employ hundreds of people for several years but it is not yet a done deal. Confidence that Cameron would choose Weta and Wellington again to make Avatar 2 and 3 rose when the director recently bought two farms in the Wairarapa. Cameron having a base here is seen as a “positive” sign that his decision will favour Weta. He has expressed a desire to shoot the sequels here but a decision is yet to be announced by his company Lightstorm Entertainment.
About $362 million was spent in New Zealand making the first Avatar 3-D film, employing hundreds of digital animators in Wellington for years on the complex computer-generated images. Avatar employed more than 1500 people in New Zealand and injected about $100m into the Wellington economy alone. As well as the digital animation, Weta did the conceptual design, specialty costumes, props and weapons for the film. Two Weta sources said they hoped Wellington would be picked. “Fingers crossed,” one highly placed source said.
The other said Cameron’s move to the farm, which is about 15 to 20 minutes by helicopter from Weta’s base near Wellington airport, gave greater confidence. Film Wellington manager Delia Shanly said they had heard the rumours of Avatar sequels being made in Wellington, but there was nothing concrete. “It would be absolutely amazing to have them back here,” she said. “It put so many millions into the Wellington and New Zealand economy. It would just be amazing (to get parts 2 and 3).” While Cameron’s decision to buy a farm here did not make the decision a certainty, “it is not unpromising – it is a very good sign”. In another good sign for Weta, US director Steven Spielberg this week confirmed that Peter Jackson would direct the second Tintin movie in a planned trilogy. Spielberg said Jackson would go into production on the Tintin sequel as soon as he finishes work on The Hobbit films.
