It's official, "Avatar" co-stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana will reprise their roles as Neytiri and Jake Sully in three sequels to the 2009 blockbuster film, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Director James Cameron will reprise his role as director for the trio of science-fiction pictures, set to film consecutively, similar to filmmaker Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" series. Details of the new film have not been released.
"Jake Sully is a rare combination of passion, strength, street smarts and soul, which requires a lot from an actor. Sam brought to the role a combination of sensitivity, vulnerability and strength," Cameron said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "Zoë captured every aspect of the character I envisioned, bringing to Neytiri a mix of delicacy, fierceness and incredible physicality. I am beyond pleased they'll be returning with us to Pandora."
Cameron will direct and produce the Avatar films alongside his partner Jon Landau. The "Titanic" director will also bring in a group of screenwriters, including Josh Friedman ("War of the Worlds"), Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver ("Rise of the Planets of the Apes"), and Shane Salerno ("Savages"), to help produce a script.
Avatar is the highest-grossing film at the box office of all time, collecting $2.8 billion worldwide. The 2009 film was praised for its visual effects and received nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. "Avatar" won for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.
E! News reported that actor Stephen Lang, who played Marine Colonel Quaritch, was the first actor to sign on to Cameron's project. It's unclear how his character will make a a return, given his death in the first installment of the movie.
Cameron recently told The Associated Press that a team of software developers are working to add more "impressive visual feats" than the first film.
"It's going to be a lot of new imagery and a lot of new environments and creatures across Pandora," Cameron told The AP last month. "We're blowing it out all over the place. At first I thought I was going to take it onto other worlds as well, in the same solar system, but it turned out not to be necessary. I mean, the Pandora that we have imagined will be a fantasy land that is going to occupy people for decades to come, the way I see it."
Filming is set to begin later this year in New Zealand, with the second movie set to hit theaters in December 2016. The third to follow in December 2017 and the fourth in December 2018.
