World renowned producer and director James Cameron and Kate Winslet are set to reunite for the first after two decades since box office hit Titanic.
The Oscar-winning actress has signed on to play a leading role in Cameron’s Sci-Fi Film Avatar sequels.
Cameron revealed that Winslet will play a character named Ronal–but he didn’t share much else.
“Kate and I have been looking for something to do together for 20 years, since our collaboration on Titanic, which was one of the most rewarding of my career,” Cameron said. “I can’t wait to see her bring the character of Ronal to life.”
It is noteworthy that Cameron’s Titanic was the highest grossing movie of all time ($ 2.18 billion) until it was beaten by Avatar ($ 2.78 billion).
The four Avatar movies are currently in production, and all four are being shot at the same time. The first sequel is set to hit theaters on December 18, 2020, with the next ones arriving on December 17, 2021, December 20, 2024, and December 19, 2025.
Analysts have estimated a total production cost of around $1 billion for the four films; for comparison, The Hobbit trilogy cost $675 million to make.
Already a formidable number, but 21st Century Fox head Lachlan Murdoch has now stated that the Avatar sequels “will be the most expensive movies of all time”.
By how much will be the question. If the $1 billion number is correct, divided between the four films at $250 million each, then it’s not an entirely inconceivable number, since Star Wars: The Force Awakens landed itself a $245 million budget.
However, the question remains whether huge budgets always deliver in return, since box office headlines have become rampantly dominated by the successes of moderately budgeted outings for instance (‘It’ only cost $35 million and has already raked in $553 million worldwide), with a few major blockbusters flopping hard.
But James Cameron’s gamble isn’t that much of a gamble at all if you take into account the reliability of international audiences, which have helped VFX-heavy films blossom where their US runs have slumped.
