The 20th Century Fox‘We’re in the midst of a global crisis and this is not about the film industry,’ explains producer Jon Landau when confirming the postponement amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
- Mar 18, 2020
AceShowbiz – The “Avatar” sequels have halted production in New Zealand amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
The executive team for the movies had been due to fly from Los Angeles to New Zealand on Friday (March 13), but decided against making the journey as the instances of the Covid-19 virus continued to increase around the world.
“We’ve delayed it. We had plans to come down Friday night with a group of people and start back up and we made the decision to hold off and continue working here (in Los Angeles), and come down there a little bit later than we’d planned,” producer Jon Landau told the New Zealand Herald newspaper.
“We’re in the midst of a global crisis and this is not about the film industry. I think everybody needs to do now whatever we can do, as we say here, to flatten the (coronavirus) curve.”
Sources at the New Zealand Film Commission consequently reported that production had been postponed “until further notice”.
Work on the sequels has been underway at Stone Street Studios in Wellington and another studio facility at Kumeu near Auckland, in order to allow filming on one movie to take place while the set is built at the other studio.
Landau previously told Variety that the production schedule currently spans two and a half movies.
The first sequel, “Avatar 2“, is due for release on 17 December, 2021, followed by “Avatar 3” in December 2023, “Avatar 4” in December 2025 and “Avatar 5” in December 2027.
Source: Movies - aceshowbiz.com
